Pollinators in My Back Yard

Victor DeMasi lepidopterist will take you on a sunny day walk through his pollinator meadow in Redding  Connecticut. Along the way we will view some of the rare and common species he has seen there in 40 years of stewardship. Victor will explain life histories of some of our species and how a butterfly garden promotes a diversity of pollinators. Comments will include a discussion the importance of insects to our well being and butterflies in our changing environment with issues such as climate change and invasive plant species. The complex demise of the Monarch Butterfly will receive particular emphasis.

Victor DeMasi is an extremely active member of The Pollinator Pathway. He was a wetland conservation officer in his hometown of Redding for 20 years and is presently a curatorial affiliate at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven. He busies himself with preserving open space in town and preserving butterflies in the museum. His field work with butterflies contributed almost a thousand citations to the recently published Connecticut Butterfly Atlas. He has contributed articles to scientific publications and his mark-recapture studies with Swallowtail butterflies was recently cited in the book Swallowtails of the Americas. During the Pandemic he is doing a pollinator survey of two meadows in Redding CT.