Coenonympha tullia ampelos

admin — Sun, 28 May 2006 18:09:29 +0000

Locally abundant in grassland on the Sierran East slope only--Carson Valley, Sierra Valley, Honey Lake area, etc. The late 19th-Century collector C. F. MacGlashan did not record it around Truckee, but in the 1970s-80s it was abundant along Cold Stream and on benches along the Truckee River. It went extinct around Truckee in the late 1990s for no obvious reason. During the lifetime of this project it has briefly colonized Castle Valley (below Castle Peak) and gone extinct again; it strays erratically to Donner Pass but has not been known to breed there. This entity intergrades with the California Ringlet, C. t. california, around Portola and again further north in the Pit River drainage. For most of their ranges, the two are separated by the Cascade-Sierra crest. Despite their very different appearance, molecular evidence confirms that they belong to the same biological species.

Two broods, April-June and autumn, often flying until snow time. At Sierra Valley both generations are pretty dark and ochreous, but farther east and northeast in the Great Basin, summer individuals may be quite pale. The hosts are perennial grasses (and perhaps sedges), but have not been identified afield.

Adults visit Aster, Goldenrod, Rabbitbrush, Horse brush, Alfalfa and a variety of other flowers. They often fly along linear habitats such as roadsides and ditches. There is substantial color and pattern variation, individual, seasonal and geographic.

Coenonympha tullia california

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

This very pale-colored Ringlet is still abundant in foothill woodland, breeding in grassland intermittently up to 5000', but seems to be in precipitous decline in the Sacramento Valley where it went extinct at North Sacramento and is "on the edge" in Rancho Cordova. There are two very different-looking broods. The spring brood (March-May) is somewhat silvery above and the basal half of the hindwing is intemnsely melanized below (for thermoregulation, we assume). The second brood emerges in May-June, enters reproductive diapause and estivates until September-October, when it reemerges to breed. These butterflies are pale buff, the color of dry grass!, and show little basal-distal contrast below. The life cycle is thus quite different from that of the Great Basin or East Slope Ringlet just across the crest; but the two intergrade north of our area, as at Portola.

Hosts perennial grasses; preferences unknown. Adults are rather inconspicuous, unenthusiastic flower visitors, and do not puddle.

Art Shapiro's Butterfly Site - Coenonympha

Coenonympha tullia ampelos

Coenonympha tullia california