Eastern Tailed-Blue butterfly spotted for first time on P.E.I. in 2015

A butterfly never seen on Prince Edward Island until last year has been included in the Maritime Butterfly Atlas.

The EasternTailed-Blue butterfly was found on the Island in 2015.

John Klymko, a zoologist from Sackville, N.B., has been working for the past six years cataloguing butterfly species in all three Maritime provinces.

Klymko said when he began the project, recordedsightings of the EasternTailed-Blue had only been in southwestern N.B.

"Starting in 2012, we noticed a fairly big pulse into New Brunswick. In 2013, we got the first ever Nova Scotia record. Since that time, we've had even more Nova Scotia records and just last year in 2015, one of the last specimens collected from P.E.I. for the project, was the first-ever record of EasternTailed-Blue from the province."

Klymko says there are 91 butterfly species in the Maritimes including 63 on P.E.I.

The information Klymko has collected will be used as a baseline to see how populations fluctuate over time, because of things such as climate change or habitat changes.

Klymko will be speaking and showing some of the butterflies species at a Nature PEI event.

The free event is being held April 5 at Carriage House at Beaconsfield in Charlottetown.