Point Pelee butterfly vies for Ontario spring sighting record

Record-breaking warm weather from the weekend may playa role in another potential record for the province. On Sunday, an eastern comma butterfly was seen fluttering around Point Pelee National Park.

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The insect's pumpkin-orange wings were spotted near the boardwalk marsh and might mark a new record for the earliest documented sighting of a butterfly in eastern Canada.

"The exciting part was there were maybe 200 people in the parking lot enjoying the warm temperature,"said naturalist Steve Pike, who snapped some pictures of the insect in action. "A few of them got to take a look too."

The species, whose outer wings are covered in a bark-like camouflage, is able to survive cooler temperatures thanks to a unique attribute.

"They actually have anti-freeze in their blood," Pike explained. "Scientists have discovered these butterflies are able to survive over winter and potentially come back to life out of dormancy."

When butterflies take to the skies before flowers have had a chance to bloom they often drink sap to build up energy, he added.

Jeff Skevington, a research scientist with agriculture Canada, was with Pike when they saw the butterfly. He said eastern commas find shelter when it's cold, but can come out as soon as it warms up.

"Adults crawl underneath logs and into cavities, places where it doesn't get so cold," he explained.

With warm-weather records for Windsor being broken on Saturday and Sunday, many creatures were stirring, including bats and other insects.

After Pike posted about the sighting online, he said other would-be record claimers started coming out of the woodwork.

There are claims one was spotted on Jan. 8 in Pembroke, Ont. in 2001 and another at Point Pelee on Jan. 14 the same year.

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Regardless of whether or not the record holds, Pike said Point Pelee already has a butterfly claim to fame as the location where the most species, 89, were seen in one area of Canada.