Baltimore Checkerspot Behavior

[Steve M. Chorvas]

A few Baltimore Checkerspot observations that may be of interest, from the Mid-Hudson Valley region in northern Ulster County, NY.   

Baltimore Checkerspots started emerging here in the Town of Saugerties in early June, right on typical schedule, with my first sighting of an adult on June 8th.  By the 16th I was seeing the first of several mated pairs, and the following afternoon I noticed a female that had just eclosed and was still clinging to her spent chrysalis.  By 2:30 p.m. a male had coupled with her on the same perch, where they remained attached for the rest of the day and into the night.  I checked on them at 10:00 p.m. with the aid of a flashlight, and they were still coupled.  By the following morning, they were on the same perch, but were no longer attached.

Over the next several days, I observed similar behavior from several additional pairs, mating in the afternoon hours and remaining attached into the night.  On June 20th, I noticed a female that had just eclosed and was drying her wings.  By 4:00 p.m. a male had coupled with her, next to her spent chrysalis.  They were still attached at 7:00 a.m. the following morning, at least 15 hours later. 

On June 27th I was surveying several sites in the Saugerties area for the 20th annual Eastern Catskills North American Butterfly Association 4th of July Butterfly Count, when I noticed that one of several dozen Baltimore Checkerspots flying in a meadow was something very unusual.  The butterfly initially caught my attention in flight, so I visually followed its path until it went down in dense vegetation where a closer inspection revealed a striking female white variant known as “superba”.    

One study claims that this aberration occurs in 1 out of every 10,000 Baltimore Checkerspots.  In any case, despite having seen thousands of this species over many years, this was my first encounter with this variation, made all the more special by discovering it in a meadow that I created for the primary purpose of hosting a breeding colony of Baltimore Checkerspots.

The accompanying photo depicts the female white variant on the left, with a typical male courting her on the right.

Steve M. Chorvas

Saugerties, NY

[Richard Cech]

That’s extremely cool.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "New York Leps" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to NYleps+un...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/NYleps/1423123425.3179657.1785280148666%40mail.yahoo.com.