Gorgeous photos! I've never seen any of those. Were they all in your garden, or did you go out to other local areas?

Beautiful pictures - thanks for posting them!

Sherry

Hello! I really love your photos. Thanks so much for sharing them with us. It's very interesting to me to see the butterflies in your area. I see that Sherry did not hazard a guess on the ID's, and that should definitely be my cue to also refrain from doing so! LOL! Just for fun though, take a look at the Mormon Fritillary on Google images and see if you think that could be a match. The last one looks to be a Gray Hairstreak to my unprofessional eyes. It sounds like you had a lot of fun shooting them, and that is just awesome. Keep posting.
Angie :)

dr.liz and misssherry Thanks, and yes these were in my garden.

bandjzmom Thanks! Great stab at the ID of the fritillary too. With your name I was able to do another search and am torn between the mormon fritillary and the great spangled.

Now the ID on the hairstreak I think is spot on. Especially since, and I don't know for sure, I thought it was laying eggs. The plant it was on was Mont Blanc Lavatera the exact type of plant it should be on! Heading out to see if I can find eggs as we have lots of yellow jackets this year.

Couldn't find any eggs :( but will continue to watch. Unfortunately I have quite a bit of the plant and it wasn't around long.

Thanks again all.

Welcome! I really don't think the Frit is a Great Spangled. If you look at the top forewing markings on the Mormon, they look exactly right to me. Sounds like there would be a good chance of Hairstreak eggs being on the Lavatera. How exciting! Keep us posted.
Angie

Thanks bandjzmom. Your eye is way better than mine.. I have yet to refine my butterfly ID skills. Sooooo.......

Frit #2 LOL

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I have a guess but don't want to taint anyones thoughts. Man are these frit's every flighty. Hard to get within 10' of them.

SCG

SCG,
Your photos are amazing, very sharp and vibrant! May I be so bold to ask what camera and lens you used? Thanks!
Rhonda

rvird01, thanks you very much, greatly appreciated. The camera I am using is a Nikon D90 and the lenses for these are either the Nikkor 70-200 F2.8 VR or the Nikkor 50mm F1.4D, neither are macro so are cropped heavily.

Another of the, what I know think, woodland skipper.

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SCG

SCG, love your photos. The last picture is a Pearl Crescent or Phycoides tharos. Do you see the little crescent moons on the upper wing margins/edges? The crescents and some of the checkerspots have this mark. Kind of like a "trademark"!

Sandy

Sandy, Thanks!! I am still comparing LOL! But the pictures sure seem to match. Man are these things hard to identify, so many look soooooooo similar.

SCG

*edit* yeahp, I see it now. Thanks again!

This post was edited by SouthCountryGuy on Tue, Jul 30, 13 at 0:15

The Pearl Crescent and Northern Crescent are currently considered separate species, the Pearl being mainly east of the Rockies. The Northern Crescent (P. cocyta) is pictured above, note the orange antenna club tips.

The common and scientific names for many of the crescents have changed over time and continue to be debated.

It is nice to see some western butterflies posted here. Keep an eye out for that Canadian swallowtail.

Two more beautiful shots! Thanks for sharing. If you go to the website linked here below, you can see which butterflies, skippers, and moths have already been documented in your specific area. It'll help you with getting ID's on the ones you don't know. You could well come across something which isn't already on the list, and then you can report your sighting along with a photo, so that it can be officially documented in your area. :o)

http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/checklists?species_type=0amp;tid=144

Larry, thanks for the positive ID. You guys sure know your butterflies!

Bandjzmom, Thanks for the link. I find it interesting that they list butterflies documented for my area yet they do not show up on the map. So I will try to put them there :) Thanks again.

SCG

Thanks for the correction, Larry. Being a "southerner" I forget about the Northern Crescent and Pearl Crescent differentiation.

Sandy

bandjzmom You did nail the mormon fritillary ID. I got some more pictures of it today including the underwing and antennae club tips and they match perfectly with the site you gave me.

Even though I am depressed I missed the Canadian Swallowtail flight (did see a couple earlier this year) here is another western butterfly. :-)

Cabbage White (Pieris rapae)

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SCG

Yay!! Lucky for me is all. It was the specific wing pattern that helped me. Nice Cabbage White! Is it on Marigold? I only see 2 white butterflies in my yard..the Cabbage and the Checkered.
Angie

SCG,
You're using similar equipment. I shoot butterflies using a Canon 7d with either a 70-200 2.8, 85 1.8 or 100 2.8 macro. Thanks again for sharing.
Rhonda

I like the Mormon id also for the fritillary, If you ever get an underwing shot that will help.

The author Pyle lists Northern Pearl Crescent among the common names, so pretty much anything goes for that one, just keep P. cocyta for the Latin name.

There could still be some Canadian Tigers at higher elevation.

@Larry, in Glassberg's latest book, A Swift's Guide to Butterflies of North America, the Northern Pearl Crescent is referred to as the Northern Crescent and Latin name is listed as Phycoides selenis. Kaufman's still has it as P cocyta. I find this just as interesting as the debate as to whether the two species are really one species or two. Glassberg makes the comment, ". . .considering that Pearl and Northern are probably best considered as one species, while Tawny is local and rare, you'll almost always be right if you call them Pearl Crescents." SCG's location suggests Northern Crescent as neither the Pearl or Tawny is shown in that area. I'm wondering if genetic studies have been done. Kaufman mentions that there is no indication of hybridization though the species overlap--which makes me think there must be genetic differences, but why still the reference to the possibility these are all one species?

@bandjzmom you bet it is on a marigold. I was almost considering not planting them next year but the butterflies like them so much they have to stay. Your lucky to have two whites I been sitting outside for 3 days now waiting for a different species lol.

@nvird01 I would kill for that macro lens :) For butterflies I hate the 6' focus range of the 70-200 and you need to get too close with the 50. Going to try with my 18-105 but it just isn't as sharp. Been so long since I got to use my equipment, young kids, I forgot I have a 1.4X teleconverter till now...LOL! I would love to see some of your shots.

@Larry & Butterfly

While being so new to butterfly chasing I, too, find it interesting. The more online research I do the more grey the matter on the crescent becomes. I am going to send the photo to BAMONA and see what they say :)

To confuse you more my geographic location allows for an aggressive range overlap. I am so close to the edge of the Rocky mountain range we often see species of birds, maybe now butterflies, that are supposed to be east of them. FWIW I am only at 2600 ft, if curious the closest town is Baynes Lake.

Larry I am under the impression the swallow tail's of this area should be done their flights by now, am I wrong?

I never thought of shooting the underside of butterflies as most photos you see are always a flat view. By accident I got this one and is what I used to try and confirm the mormon fritillary ID.

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Does this help at all?

Have a great day.

SCG

Okay, it won't be long and I will have all my local species posted. Hopefully before you are all bored.

I can't find this guy on any website and I haven't figured out what to look for yet. Only seen it twice and It doesn't like to stick around for long.

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TIA

SCG

The last picture is some type of badly worn, ragged and faded fritillary, probably a Mormon frit. Poor thing is on its last leg! :(

I'm enjoying seeing pictures of butterflies we don't see here! So, don't hesitate to post!

Sherry

Well dang it, I feel stupid now. I looked at every picture of butterflies for this area I could find but DIDN'T look at the fritillary section because my head was stuck around them being more orange in color. Now I think it is a Great Spangled Fritillary. Thanks for the frit tip.

SCG

Wow! This just gets more and more interesting! I am looking at that poor bedraggled dark butterfly above and wondering about how it could be called a Great Spangled. No Great Spangled that I have ever seen in NW GA has looked like that. So, I did what I always do and started to research a bit. Lo and behold, I found this SUBspecies of Great Spangleds known as Speyeria cybele letona. When I looked at images of FEMALE GS "letonas" they look just like your photo. So cool!!! I have definitely learned something new, and I think that you are right about the ID. Please keep sharing!
Angie

Like Sherry, I too am enjoying the photos of species that we don't see. I hope to get back up to the Bear Plateau area of Wyoming someday to view more of the northern species.

Keep the pictures coming. Will be eager to hear what BAMONA says about your crescent.

Well thanks again folks and am glad you like the photos. I enjoy taking them and look forward to sharing more.

Not sure how long BAMONA will take but I got the images off to them today. I called it a Northern Pearl crescent lets see what they say LOL!

As in the subject, viewer discretion advised past this point as most certainly there is some butterfly nudity.

Gray hairwing

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A couple of skippers.

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Have a great day!

SCG

Hairstreak, not hairwing; gray hairwing is a fishing lure!

The yellow/black frits are commonly referred to as "Leto Fritillary", a female western great-spangled variant. They are in western Oregon also.

The underwings of the above frit have great-spangled patterning, mainly the broad yellow HW band.

The Crescent speciation debate, started by Opler, is ongoing; Pyle's book is now over 10 years old and he refers to electrophoretic studies showing that subspecies are more likely than distinct species.

SCG,

Your skippers look like Ochlodes sylvanoides, or Woodland Skippers.

Sandy

The Woodland Skipper is by far the most common skipper in the SE BC region.

Thanks folks, I really love the fact you look into butterflies so much.

I should have labeled them as woodland skippers but i was lazy. I really appreciate that you folks confirm the ID.

The woodland skipper is the fastest insect i have seen, other than the robber fly sitting in wait.

Thanks all, I really do appreciate it.

Thanks for sharing your terrific photos, enjoyed them all..

Ditto! Gorgeous pics!

Thanks minrose and terrane. Hopefully the weather will turn so I can get and share more.

SCG