Grrr. All these naming variations are starting to really annoy me. Once again, the common name is the best identifier. BugGuide has a succinct explanation for why the multiple sp. names of the field crescent exist. Based on what Chris Tenney told me, I knew this was the darker field crescent, as opposed to the orange and highly variable Mylitta crescent, which we also saw on this outing. Underside, they're both a patterned pale orange. However, the orange-tipped antennae (click on pic to enlarge) tripped me up upon closer inspection. Even Jeffrey Glassberg in his multiple books has changed his tune about field crescents always having black antennal tips - they don't always. It's posts like this that make me question why I'm even bothering with Nature ID. Sigh.
2 comments:
Don't beat yourself up, Katie. The butterfly would be as beautiful, whatever we called it. Even a butterfly's significant other wouldn't care too much.
Ya, the butterflies themselves don't care what we call them. Art sent me a book Naming Nature by Carol Kaesuk Yoon that I plan to blog about once I finish reading it. I think it would have been interesting to have lived in Carl Linnaeus' time.
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