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Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter
from the July 5, 2009 Newsletter, issued from the Siskiyou Mountains west of Grants Pass, Oregon:
FIELD CRESCENT BUTTERLIES
In this spring's March 16th Newsletter I introduced you to a Pearl Crescent butterfly in Mississippi, on a levee next to a swamp. Its picture remains online at http://www.backyardnature.net/n/a/crescent.htm.
This week a close relative, the Field Crescent, PHYCIODES CAMPESTRIS, flitted around me during my mountain hiking and you might be interested in comparing the above picture with this week's relative seen above.
At first glance there's a lot of difference because the Pearl Crescent is much more orange than the Field. However, notice that the underlying pattern of markings is the same.
Field Crescents are regarded as the most common crescent butterfly in the western mountains. The Audubon guide says of them, "Males fly about the meadows looking for females, while females slowly flutter through the vegetation searching for asters upon which to lay eggs."