Species Profile: Duskywings (Erynnis)

There are four species of Erynnis in Washington.  A fifth species, Afranius Duskywing (Erynnis afranius) was previously thought to have been found in a few locations in eastern Washington and Idaho, but those specimens have since been ruled out as mis-identified Persius Duskywings (E. persius).
Dreamy Duskywing (E. icelus) is the smallest of these species, and the only one without a series of white spots ("hyaline spots") on the dorsal forewing.  It sometimes has one or two light gray, almost white spots on the forewing, but never a full series of four spots with one near the center of the forewing as in the other three species.  Dreamy Duskywing larvae feed on willow, aspen, and poplar.
Propertius Duskywing (E. propertius) is the largest of these species, and is usually much lighter than the other three species.  Females have large white spots and heavy dusting of gray scales on the forewings.  Larvae feed on oak leaves.
Persius Duskywing (E. persius) is separated from Dreamy by the presence of white spots on the dorsal forewings.  It is usually slightly larger than Dreamy.  The dorsal forewings of Persius are more evenly covered with gray scales, separating it from the easily confused Pacuvius.  Persius Duskywing larvae feed on legumes, primarily lupine species.
Pacuvius Duskywing (E. pacuvius) is easily confused with Persius, but the forewing is mostly brown from the body to the row of white spots, most of the gray coloring is restricted to the marginal area.  Larvae feed on Ceanothus species (mountain balm, buckbrush) and adults are primarily found near these shrubs.

Gifford Pinchot NF butterflies

Yesterday a friend and I explored some areas around Siouxon Creek, Calamity Peak Rd., and Canyon Creek in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.  I wasn't able to photograph any of the butterflies, but here is a list of what we saw:
Clodius Parnassian (100+) - Parnassius clodius
Western Tiger Swallowtail (2) - Papilio rutulus
Pale Tiger Swallowtail (3) - Papilio eurymedon
Margined White (2) - Pieris marginalis
Western Sulphur (1) - Colias occidentalis
Silvery Blue (10+ males, 1 female) - Glaucopsyche lygdamus
Hydaspe Fritillary (1) - Argynnis hydaspe
Western Meadow Fritillary (2) - Boloria epithore
Snowberry Checkerspot (10+) - Euphydryas colon
Lorquin's Admiral (20+) - Limenitis lorquini

Also saw two new flowers: globe gilia and Cascade/subalpine mariposa lily.

Globe Gilia

Globe Gilia

Cascade Mariposa Lily

Siouxon Creek

Northern Cloudywing larva update

In my last post I included photos of a Northern Cloudywing (Thorybes pylades) that I am rearing from an egg found in the Klickitat River Canyon.  It is now in the 5th instar and is 24mm long.  I am re-posting the original photo set so you can compare them with the new set.

Candystore of Caterpillars

That's how I described my day in the Klickitat River Canyon on June 1 when telling my parents about it.  Seemed like every time I turned around I found another caterpillar!  Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) larvae covered many of the willows along the river, most were over 2 inches long (5th/final instar), but there were a few clusters of mid-instar larvae around an inch long.  Bushes of Gray's desert parsley (Lomatium grayi) held several late-instar Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) larvae and two Indra Swallowtail (P. indra) larvae.  Several California Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis californica) larvae were found on deerbrush ceanothus (Ceanothus integerrimus), and Elegant Sheepmoth (Hemileuca eglanterina) larvae were found on snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus).  I found several eggs on lupine flower spikes that were either Arrowhead (Glaucopsyche piasus) or Silvery (G. lygdamus) blues, two Silvery Blue larvae on lupine seed pods, and an egg on Lathyrus (pea, not sure of species) that I believe is a Northern Cloudywing (Thorybes pylades) that I am now rearing on American vetch (Vicia americana).
During the following week when I was at the Sinlahekin Wildlife Area, I found several masses of early/mid-instar Milbert's Tortoiseshell (Aglais milberti) larvae and one 5th instar Satyr Anglewing (Polygonia satyrus) larvae, all on stinging nettle, along with another Northern Cloudywing egg on American vetch and several 1st instar Anicia Checkerspot (Euphydryas anicia) larvae on Chelan penstemon (Penstemon pruinosus).
A friend of mine asked how in the world I find all this stuff, particularly the eggs. It's sort of a mix of probability, intuition, and knowing the host plants and life stage of different species at different times of year.  For example, I knew that Anise Swallowtails use many species of Lomatium along with other species in the carrot/parsley family, and that Indra Swallowtails specifically prefer Gray's desert parsley.  Both swallowtail species fly fairly early in the spring, so their larvae should have been on those plants this time of year.  Anise Swallowtail caterpillars are bright green with black bands and yellow or orange spots, and are pretty easy to pick out against the feathery green leaves of Gray's desert parsley.  However, my mind was focused on that image so I completely missed the two tiny black Indra larvae that Ben found!

Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) larva on Gray's desert parsley (Lomatium grayi) along Klickitat River

Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) larvae - orange-spotted form (left two) and yellow-spotted form (right)

Pre-pupal Anise Swallowtail larva (left) and pupa/chrysalis (right, brown form)

The smaller Indra larva died a couple days later from refusing to feed on dill or fennel (a risk I took as Indra are picky eaters compared to Anise Swallowtails which eat nearly anything in the parsley family).  The larger larva seemed to be doing alright on dill, but died a week later possibly from a bacteria or virus that also attacked one of the four Anise Swallowtail larvae I brought home.

Indra Swallowtail (Papilio indra) larvae, L1/L2 @ 5mm (above), L3 @ 13mm (below)

Most species of blues have been flying for a few weeks now, or are beginning their flights, so eggs and larvae can be found now, usually on legumes.  Silvery and Arrowhead blues tuck their eggs in between the unopened buds of lupine and occasionally on the flowers or seed pods.  Boisduval's Blue (Plebejus icarioides) primarily lay their eggs on the underside of lupine leaves.  Larvae of these species can be found in the same locations.

Arrowhead Blue egg on lupine buds at the Sinlahekin (left) and Boisduval's Blue egg on lupine leaf near Klickitat (right)

Silvery Blue larva, new pupa with shed larval skin (upper left) and mature pupa (upper right), all are the same individual found on lupine near Goldendale.

Purplish Coppers (Lycaena helloides) feed on dock (Rumex sp.), smartweed (Polygonum sp.) and other related species, and their eggs and larvae are often easily found on these plants.  In some cases the plants are literally sprinkled with eggs!

Purplish Copper eggs on smartweed (Polygonum sp.) at Fish Lake, Sinlahekin Wildlife Area

A couple years ago I discovered a colony of Northern Cloudywings at the Sinlahekin, and observed the females laying eggs on American vetch (Vicia americana) and cream pea (Lathyrus ochroleucus).  The eggs are relatively large (~1mm) and white, making them rather conspicuous on the underside of leaves.  When I saw a pea/vetch-type plant in the Klickitat River Canyon I flipped over a few leaves and found the egg shown here.

Northern Cloudywing egg (from Sinlahekin, left) and hatching/hatched egg (from Klickitat, right)

Northern Cloudywing larva (from egg found near Klickitat) with approximate larval instar (L#) and length. Click on photo to view at full-size.

As mentioned before, I located the hostplant of Anicia Checkerspots at the Sinlahekin this year: Chelan penstemon. Checkerspot larva usually build web nests similar to tent caterpillars.

Anicia Checkerspot eggs and newly-hatched larvae (upper left) and 2nd instar larvae.  Chelan penstemon in inset.

I always check any nettle I find for larvae of Milbert's Tortoiseshell (Aglais milberti), Satyr Anglewing (Polygonia satyrus) and Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta).  Milbert's lay their eggs in masses, and the caterpillars feed together until later instars when they build individual nests, compared to the other two species which lay 1-3 eggs at a time and the larva feed singly.  There will always be some exceptions, but it has been my experience that Milbert's tend to make leaf nests with the leaf folded upward, while Satyr Anglewing and Red Admiral larvae fold the leaves downward.

Milbert's Tortoiseshell larvae (L4) on stinging nettle at the Sinlahekin

Milbert's Tortoiseshell larvae (L4 with some tiny L2 near the center) on stinging nettle at the Sinlahekin

Milbert's Tortoiseshell larvae (L3) on stinging nettle at the Sinlahekin

Satyr Anglewing larval nest (top, note leaf folded downward), L5 larva (center and bottom) and pupa (right)

Finally, here are some photos of the Mourning Cloak larvae we were finding all over the willows along the Klickitat River.  I brought four of the larvae home and all pupated within three days.  One was parasitized; the chrysalis appeared dead yesterday and today there is a hole in it and some kind of fly pupa in the cage.  Oh! and how appropriate, I just glanced over at my bug cage and noticed the first butterfly has emerged! So lets end this post with my favorite butterfly...

Mature (L5) Mourning Cloak larvae on willow along the Klickitat River, June 1

Mourning Cloak

Cluster of L4 (~1 inch) Mourning Cloak larvae on willow

More L4 Mourning Cloak caterpillars

Pre-pupal larva and two pupae - they all insisted on attaching themselves to the zipper of my cage, so I had to tape the silk to sticks.

Newly-emerged Mourning Cloak!

Product review - BioQuip's new "blue boards"

I'm working on a post about all the caterpillars and eggs I saw last week, should be up later this afternoon, but in the meantime I wanted to let everyone know about a new type of spreading board offered by BioQuip that I tried out for the first time (I have no affiliation with BioQuip and wasn't asked to do this review, it's entirely my own opinion).
Economy Pinning Boards (Blue Boards)
I highly recommend these new boards!  They are a high-density polystyrene foam, which allows easy pinning, compared to the traditional wooden pinning boards that I've always had trouble with.  They are also very smooth, which greatly reduces problems with rubbing scales off butterfly wings that I had with the styrofoam boards I've been using (BioQuip's Versaboard, a good product but one I'll be replacing with the new boards).  The only problem I have with these new boards is that they are not deep enough to fully hold the insect pins.  True, the pins do not have to be pushed so far through the board, but then the butterflies would sit only half-way up the pin, and I prefer to have them closer to the top of the pin to allow room for labels on the pin under the butterfly.  So, the way I pin butterflies means that the pins stick out of the bottom of these boards about 1/8-1/4 inch.  I found a way around this problem by using some of the glass-headed pins to tack the blue boards onto the back of my old versaboards as you see in the photos below (the pins are at an angle through the sides of the blue boards).
Update 5/12/2014: at the suggestion of someone at BioQuip, I attached the blue boards to 1/4" foam sheets (plastazoate or polyethylene), which works great.  It provides that little extra depth I needed for the pins without being too clunky. The foam sheets can be cut to the size of the boards, or you can attach 3-4 boards to each 16x18" sheet, either with glass-headed pins or by lightly gluing them around the edges.
I also found that the new boards seem to slightly grip the wings on smaller butterflies, which greatly helped in the spreading process.  For the first time I didn't have any problems spreading the wings of skippers and tiny blues!  Out of all the specimens I collected on my recent trips, I didn't tear any of the wings; usually I always tear parts of at least one or two specimens using the old types of boards.
Finally, the groove sizes are so much better than the sizes on the versaboard.  They have smaller groove sizes available, and these boards can fit many more butterflies than the versaboards.  Here are the sizes they have available and what butterflies each size are used for.
1/16" groove (two grooves per board) - small Hesperiidae and Lycaenidae
Common Sootywing (Pholisora cattallus), skipperlings, Western Tailed Blue (Cupido comyntas), spotted blues (Euphilotes sp.), azures (Celastrina sp.), smaller specimens of Plebejus sp. and some smaller coppers and hairstreaks.
1/8" groove (two grooves per board) - most other Hesperiidae, Lycaenidae, some Pieridae/Nymphalidae
medium/large blues, coppers and hairstreaks, most skippers, small/medium pierids (Anthocaris, Euchloe, Pontia, Colias, etc), most satyrids (Coenonympha, Erebia, Cercyonis), crescents (Chlosyne, Phyciodes), small/medium checkerspots (Euphydryas).
1/4" groove (one groove per board) - fits nearly every large butterfly species we have in the northwest
All other Nymphalidae, all swallowtails should fit in this size except maybe the largest Two-tailed Swallowtails (Papilio multicaudata) or large southern/tropical species.
3/8" groove (one groove per board) - large swallowtails and medium-bodied moths
I haven't tried this size yet and don't see a need for it except for when I collect some sphinx moths or other larger species.
13/16" groove (one groove per board) - largest butterflies and moths
I also haven't tried this one, but it is intended for the largest Lepidoptera species such as the large tropical butterflies and most large moths.

Butterflies spread on "blue boards" with a 1/8" groove size

Butterflies spread on "blue boards" with a 1/4" groove size

Some notes about my spreading methods...

After positioning the butterfly on an insect pin (long, thin black pins) and placing in a groove on the board, I position the wings using spade-tip forceps (aka stamp tongs) and pin them down with glassine paper strips and glass-headed pins.  Once the wings are in place, I prop up the abdomen as necessary and carefully position the antennae close to the wings.  I've found that the antennae are less likely to be knocked off later if they are close to the wings and not sticking out straight ahead.

For more information about supplies and collecting methods, refer to my "Collecting Lepidoptera" page.