Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter

from the June 26, 2005 Newsletter issued from the Sierra Nevada foothills somewhat east of Placerville, California, USA
JUNE BUTTERFLIES ON & AROUND SLATE MOUNTAIN
Below are the species I managed to identify in the Douglas-fir/ Sugar Pine forest between 3200 and 4100 feet (975-1250 meters) in elevation on Slate Mountain in eastern El Dorado County.. I hope you can experience some of the pleasure I did when you view the images and see the rainbow of colors and elegant patterns:

• Pale Tiger Swallowtail, PTEROURUS EURYMEDON
  - pale cream with bold, broad, black stripes
  - just two seen, one in a blackberry thicket and another along a rocky roadcut among Deer Brush
  - Audubon says the caterpillar's main host plants are members of the Buckthorn Family, such as the Deer Brush
  http://www.pikespeakphoto.com/paletiger.html
• ? Acmon Blue, ICARICIA ACMON
  - bright lilac-blue, pinkish-orange band on hindwing
  - several seen, Audubon says "nearly the most ubiquitous western blue"
  - caterpillar eats buckwheat, locoweed, Bird's-foot trefoil and lupine; here we have lots of lupine
  - in the field almost indistinguishable from the Lupine Blue, which we also have here
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acmon_blue
• ? Calippe Fritillary, SPEYERIA CALLIPPE
  - orange-brown with complex pattern of black spots
  - just one seen; there's a cluster of look-alike species and two or three are found here, but the Calippe is the most likely for here
  - caterpillar eats violets, and a yellow-flowered violet is common here; the adult often lays her eggs haphazardly under shrubs where violets don't appear until the next spring
  http://www.vireos.com/callippefritmono.html
• California Tortoiseshell, NYMPHALIS CALIFORNICA
  - rich russet with black blotches - just one seen
  - caterpillars eat members of the buckthorn Family
  - Audubon says "may be rare or absent from large parts of its range for several years. These dearths are followed by periods of enormous abundance, including emigrations over immense areas."
  https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Nymphalis-californica
• Painted Lady, VANESSA CARDUI
  - salmon-orange with black blotches & white spots
  - hundreds seen
  - caterpillars eat thistles and other composites
  - "perhaps the most widespread butterfly in the world," Audubon says - yearly spring migrant from the Desert Southwest to much of the rest of North America, where it dies with the first hard frost www.naba.org/chapters/nabambc/construct-species-page.asp?sp=Vanessa-cardui
• Buckeye, JUNONIA COENIA
  - brown with 2 orange bars & 2 bright eyespots
  - hundreds seen
  - caterpillars eat plantain and other things; lots of plantain along the road
  - a migrant, in fall sometimes migrations southward rival those of the Monarch
  http://www.pikespeakphoto.com/junonia.html
• California Sister, ADELPHA BREDOWII
  - dark brown with large orange patch on forewing, and narrow white band
  - dozens seen
  - caterpillars eat Canyon Live Oak here
  https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Adelpha-bredowii
• Southern Duskywing, ERYNNIS MERIDIANUS
  - speckled brown/gray/black and white
  - about ten seen
  - caterpillars eat oak leaves https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Erynnis-meridianus
• Monarch, DANAUS PLEXIPPUS
  - THE Monarch, which we all know
  - only one seen
  - read all about Monarchs at http://www.monarchwatch.org/