Showing posts with label * butterfly fingers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label * butterfly fingers. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Sunday, June 22, 2014
unidentified Satyrium hairstreak ~ 06/22/14 ~ Chews Ridge
unidentified male Satyrium hairstreak
posted 10/11/14 - This ID has had me stumped ever since June. Both photo series are of the same individual as I turned around to capture different lighting angles. It would have been great to get a photo of the topside (dorsal) wing color and abdomen to help ID, but that didn't happen. As I was asking Chris his thoughts as to what it was, he forgot it was simply sitting on my finger and it promptly flew away into the sun when he made a sudden movement. That's the handicap I've given myself this year by not collecting specimens. Honestly, I didn't want to deal with lugging around a net and killing jar, pinning and spreading, and not to mention permit paperwork. I think scrutinizing photos has been a good learning tool for me, but as evidenced here, it's not perfect.
I sent one of the lighter-colored pics around to my trusted butterfly posse (I hope they don't mind me calling them that), and I received a surprising variety of answers. Their suggestions for ID are as follows (links open in new windows for photo comparisons):
I also trust Butterflies of America (BOA) more than self-reported ID sites like BugGuide and Flickr, which both have a few ID errors. Even UC Irvine's Butterflies of Orange County has what I believe is a gold-hunter's in the middle of hedgerows. These look-alike spp. are not well-illustrated in my field guides, so we're not alone in our uncertainty. Can you ID?
ps - After initially insisting it was a mt. mahogany because of how dark it was, I'm now leaning towards a hedgerow hairstreak, mainly because of the tailend patterning. There's a notable lack of any orange near the tails, which even if worn would have been an indication for gold-hunter's. Besides, the tails are too long to be a male gold-hunter's, I think. Oh, how do I know it's a male? The relief of the teardrop-shaped scent gland (stigma) can be seen in the middle of the hindwing in the shadowier photos.
ps - After initially insisting it was a mt. mahogany because of how dark it was, I'm now leaning towards a hedgerow hairstreak, mainly because of the tailend patterning. There's a notable lack of any orange near the tails, which even if worn would have been an indication for gold-hunter's. Besides, the tails are too long to be a male gold-hunter's, I think. Oh, how do I know it's a male? The relief of the teardrop-shaped scent gland (stigma) can be seen in the middle of the hindwing in the shadowier photos.
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Boisduval's blue ~ 06/05/14 ~ Chews Ridge
female Boisduval's blue
Now, here's a butterfly with a fancy French name! Jean Baptiste Boisduval was a famous lepidopterist, among other things, and I often see his name associated with the naming of numerous butterflies. Chris Tenney introduced me to Boisduval's on my first ever visit to Chews Ridge back April 17, 2014. It looked so similar to the silvery blue I saw the previous week on April 8 at Pinnacles, that I spent some time really comparing the two and even consulting with Art Shapiro. I have netted pics of a couple extremely worn Boisduval's from a May 2 visit to Chews Ridge, which I haven't posted yet. So, I'm guessing these here are the 2nd generation this year.
Since I rarely get pics of the full-on topside, I've had to rely on the underside markings. See the white-outlined, curvy row of black spots and then the black spots closer towards the wing edge (submarginal) on both the fore and hindwings (particularly in the middle picture above)? Well, Boisduval's will always have a hint of those submarginal black spots, even when really worn, and silvery never does.
The real point of this post is that I know the bottom picture is absolutely a female with a brown topside and hints of orange on the hindwing underside with an extra row of dots (Good grief, it looks just like a Gorgon copper from the underside!), but I can't really say for the first set. Another form of female? Or is it a boy? Does anyone know? Erg. I should mention that green sheen in the first photo is not always evident. Usually, it just looks black.
Friday, May 23, 2014
variable checkerspot ~ 05/23/14 ~ Pinnacles
variable checkerspot / chalcedon checkerspot
I love the face she's giving me, as if she's sticking out her tongue. Technically, what I call "tongue" is her proboscis, a long, coiled and extendable mouthpart that functions like a drinking straw to suck up various liquids, such as nectar from flowers, water from mud, and moisture from poop (or so I've heard - I used to have a volunteer who would travel with domestic cat poo in a baggie for just this purpose... I wonder how he explained at customs?). With enough patience and a quick trick, I find butterflies
are regularly agreeable to climbing on my finger so that I can take a
closer look. Paul took a picture of me with her on my finger. I think he found my doing this rather peculiar.
If
it's not obvious from my photos, I prefer not to carry a net. More
traditional lepidopterists use a net to either collect and/or catch and release for a
closer look. This can be a legal issue in public parks or in areas
where endangered butterfly species are found. I'm still solely a
collector of photographs (and trailside litter, especially glass bottles). I'll admit that I've been dragging my feet writing up a
request to obtain a collecting permit,
which will also cover any primary catch and release activities for my
project. Eh, I'm in no hurry to start hauling around a bunch of
collecting crap up and down hot hills. Carrying enough water for myself is heavy enough, thank you (136 fl oz = 8.5 lbs ≈ 4 L ≈ >1 gallon ≈ 8 hours for me). Photographs are working just fine for my needs right now.
Note her dark topside, which is very typical of the variable checkerspots found at Pinnacles. This individual also shows solidly colored pumpkin-orange antennae, compared to the look-alike Edith's checkerspot, which has black-striped stems dipped in various curry colors at the tips. I find it impossible to distinguish the underside patterns between the two look-alikes in photos. However, when both of these butterflies are on the wing together at Pinnacles and can be seen chasing each other, the variable flashes black and yellow, while the Edith's has a definite reddish background color.
Oh, I should mention that I'm not 100% positive she's a she. I'm only guessing based on the hefty girth of the abdomen (fatty, fatty). Honestly, I don't know how to sex most butterflies. Some can be obviously sexually dimorphic, but I have to be careful when there are look-alike spp. found in the same area and flying at the same time (there's a practical distinction between physical and temporal proximity), when one sex looks like the opposite sex of another sp. It's a strange phenomena that I'm starting to notice.
As a last note, I generally don't use the name chalcedon to ID this butterfly. It's the Bay Area folks from whom I first heard the name, probably to distinguish it from the federally threatened Bay checkerspot, which they do not call Edith's, btw, even though it is. Plus, I mangle the pronunciation of chalcedon.
Friday, May 16, 2014
large marble ~ 05/16/14 ~ Mal Paso Canyon
Did I choose the butterflies, or did they choose me? I guess it helps when studying butterflies that given enough patience they'll cooperate for poses on my fingers. Am I the butterfly whisperer? Not really. Macro, macro, macro! Mwahahaha... In the hand, this large marble is totally a piece of cake to ID. However, I still can't distinguish this butterfly in flight compared to the more ubiquitous cabbage butterfly, which has been extremely frustrating for me. Chris is quite impressive with his flight ID skills (probably all those years spent as a birder), but it's hard to explain to another person exactly what you look for to make that ID. I think everyone has different cues that work for them. I know a local botanist who is color blind, and I actually think that helps him distinguish the slight color variations in plants. We all have our gifts.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
bernardino dotted blue ~ 06/09/11 ~ Pinnacles
bernardino dotted blue
Euphilotes bernardino
for more information click here and here
Euphilotes bernardino
for more information click here and here
This little butterfly was mud-puddling with several others of its kind in a small area where water was seeping from the ground. As I was attempting to get pictures for a clear ID, I wiped my hand across my forehead to collect sweat and reached down for the butterfly to walk onto it. It stayed there for about 10 minutes with its proboscis probing around my finger as I clumsily tried to take pictures with my other hand. The result was a crappy photo of the butterfly and a lovely shot of a rock that looks like Jabba the Hutt.