Lepidoptera from unrealted genus/families can not hybridize.

But that's a really great picture and good location information to work with. Five gold star's to you.

In this case the plant the adult was found on doesn't really help point to a species. Any Euphydryas species could nectar on it, but none of them would use it as a larval food plant.

My first impression is that it is an abberant Euphydryas chalcedona. There's a lessor chance it could be an E. colon abberant too, but I'll still go with my first impression both because of appearance keys and the location.

Castilleja, Symphoricarpos, Penstemon and Lonicera are some of their most often used larval food plants if you wanted to look for either wild larva or ovum. They are both pretty easy to see on the plants if you know where to look. They estivate the first winter as 3rd instar larva, so they are easier to rear from the later instar larva collected in their second season.

Fun bugs to rear, and fairly easy if you want to learn how to over-winter larva. I have probably reared 2/3's of the 50+ species/subspecies in NA.
Larry

It looks just like the northwest form of Euphydryas chalcedona/variable checkerspot as shown in my Brock & Kaufman field guide.
It's truly a beautiful butterfly - 'wish I got 'em here!
Sherry

Thank you.

Larry: According to several websites, the Lorquin's Admiral sometimes does interbreed with the Lady's. They're in the same genus. I've never seen one, but there are several photos available on the Butterflies of North America website, and one or two through a Google search which will lead you to that website as well as the Butterflies and Moths DOT org website :)

Because I am a birder, using the plant, location and description of the area I was in, is key in identifying a lot of species. I assume that plant and habitat would be just as essential in keying out insects. :)

All of the Chalcedon's that I have seen and photographed in my location look more like these:

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and finally, yesterday's shot of a breeding pair about 1/4 mile from where the other shot was taken (see first post):

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You can understand my confusion when spotting that one....its pattern doesn't resemble the others I've seen here.

Yet another good example of how common names don't always point to the right species. In general on this forum "Ladies" refer to the Vanessa complex, which are not in the same Limenitidinae subfamily let along genus as Limenitis lorquini (and they can not hybridize). The common name most often used to refer to L. lorquini (and most of the Limenitidinae) is "Admirals". My guess is by "Lady" you were referring to L. archippus which can hybridize naturally with many sp/ssp of other Limenitis sp/ssp they over-lap ranges with.

I worked closely with Dr. Austin Platt at UMBC for a few years while he was doing his hyridization research on NA Limenitidinae, and supplied him with live stock and adults of many of the western sp/ssp. I have many of those lab created hybrids in my synoptic collection, as well as the paper Austin eventually published from the findings.

As for the variation from your noninate E. chalcedona... abberants are not all that uncommon in nature. If enough hours are spent in the field by an observant lepidopterists, they will see many of them over the years. Same with gynandromorphs, or even population clines. Several factors can cause them naturally, and most can be duplicated in the lab. Without the bug in hand to inspect for other possible keys, I still will suggest yours in the picture is an abberant.

FWIW, there are 8 or 9 recognized subspecies of this bug, so it is a very variable species. That is further proved by your additional pictures of the species from your area and the variations that are easy to see between them.

Again, fantastic pictures.

Larry

Yay, thank you Larry for clarifying so much for me on this subject, I really appreciate it :)