Subject: Possibly a Crescent or Checkerspot Butterfly
Location: Coryell County, central Texas
March 17, 2013 9:06 pm
Hello, I’m stumped on this one. This beautiful butterfly may be a crescent or checkered butterfly, but I’ve been unable to find a close match on Bug Guide or the web. Perhaps it’s a Pearl Crescent, Phaon Crecscent, or Checkerspot, but I just don’t know. I wish the images were clearer; I had the camera on a ”new” setting and it didn’t work well. Thank you for all of your help. Same plant as usual, lately, perhaps a native Corn Salad; it has tiny flowers, 3-4 mm across.) Gorgeous weather, sunshine and in the seventies.
Signature: Ellen
Subject: Same butterfly inquiry, update: Theona Checkespot?
Location: Coryell County, central Texas
March 17, 2013 10:04 pm
Aha! Is this our pretty friend? I sent an inquiry about a butterfly an hour ago, and I just found the Theona Checkerspot butterfly on a ”Butterflies of Dallas, Texas” website and checked it with Bug Guide. http://bugguide.net/index.php?q=search&keys=theona+checkerspot&search=Search
I really enjoy your website, thank you so much!
Signature: Ellen
Hi Ellen,
We agree that this is a Theona Checkerspot, Chlosyne theona, and we can’t tell you how appreciative we are that you wrote back once you had the identification. We also want to commend you on getting views of both the upper wings and the underside. That is quite a feat with elusive butterflies that often have drastically different markings on the dorsal and ventral surfaces.
After checking my quick-reference Butterflies of Central Texas, my Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Butterflies, and my Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies, I think that your “unknown Checkerspot” is probably a Vesta Crescent. P.S. Love the pix of your Theona Checkerspot. The little piece of white flower just sets it off!
Thanks for your comment/correction. We don’t have the time to double check it right not. We are not infallible and we always appreciate the diligence of our readership.