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Monday, June 25, 2012

Northern Cloudywings: follow-up from last year

I'm busy preparing for another trip to the Sinlahekin Wildlife Area (almost 4 whole days!), but I wanted to put up a quick post before I leave in a couple days.  Do you remember all my talk about cloudywings last year, after my trip to Oklahoma, and then confirming Thorybes pylades at the Sinlahekin?  I won't bore you with more excited chatter about this little gem (although you may hear more if I can find any larvae on this trip!), but here are photos of the three specimens I collected at the Sinlahekin last year.  I'm sure two are females, and almost positive that the other one is a male.  Male Northern Cloudywings (Thorybes pylades) have an obvious stigma (see my butterfly terminology post) on the leading edge of their FW, which makes the wing look slightly angular.  Normally the stigma is much lighter than the rest of their dark wings, but it is less obvious in faded individuals, such as these.  I'm open to corrections if anyone reading this is more familiar with cloudywings.
Male, dorsal
Male, ventral
Female, dorsal
Female, ventral
Female, dorsal
Female, ventral

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