Art Shapiro's Butterfly Site - Chlosyne

Chlosyne hoffmanni

admin — Sun, 28 May 2006 18:09:32 +0000

This is one of the very few butterflies adapted to climax Red Fir forest. It can be abundant at Donner and Castle Peak (below tree-line only), where males pack onto mud puddles along trails early in the season. Adults visit Aster, Pink Pussy-Paws, Coyotemint, etc. and remain in the sun, although surrounded by the fir canopy. There is considerable minor pattern variation.

The host plant was confirmed on Castle Peak in 2011 as Golden-Aster, Eucephalus (formerly Chrysopsis) breweri. A variety of Composites have been identified elsewhere, and woodland species of Aster are suspected.

Chlosyne lacinia

admin — Sun, 28 May 2006 18:09:31 +0000

A common species of the Southwest deserts which somehow became briefly established in North Sacramento in the early 1970s (a couple of records also in West Sacramento, across the river) but died out quickly; it is not properly part of our fauna. It is extremely variable phenotypically. Multiple broods; host plants Sunflowers (Helianthus), including H. annuus in our area.

Chlosyne palla

admin — Sun, 28 May 2006 18:09:30 +0000

Common in the foothills and to 7000', but only a rare stray in the Central Valley. Males are territorial perchers, often in paths or on rocks. Where Euphydryas chalcedona (q.v.) is strongly blackish, the females of the Northern Checkerspot are trimorphic - orange and male-like, black with yellow spots (an apparent mimic of E. chalcedona), and intermediate. Where E. chalcedona is mostly red, only the male-like female morph occurs (true also at Donner, where there are no chalcedona). The genetics and ecology of this interesting polymorphism remain surprisingly unstudied.

There is one brood, mid-spring to early summer (generally March-July, starting later at higher elevations). Adults visit California Buckeye, Yerba Santa, Milkweed, Dogbne, Thistles, and especially certain yellow Composites, such as some (but not all) members of the Woolly Sunflower (Eriophyllum lanatum) complex. Half-grown larvae overwinter. The usual host at low elevations is Broad-Leaved Aster (A. radulinus), occasionally on Goldenrods (Solidago); in the mountains recorded on Asters, Solidagos, Senecios and Rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus). At Donner this species appears to have gone through at least one cycle of extinction and recolonization. As it was declining, its emergence dates shifted later; after recolonizing they were early again.