August 12, 2012 - Butterflies

We have a wildflower area in our yard that is popular with the butterflies. One common visitor is the Northern Crescent. It’s a fairly small butterfly with a wing span of 1 – 1½ inches. On the left, you see the pattern of the upper wings and on the right, the underwings. The flower is a Black-eyed Susan.

ButterflyCrescentNorthernDunningLakecomposite20120719

This purple flower is Wild Bergamot and we have two nice patches of it this year. It seems especially attractive to Great Spangled Fritillaries. We’ve often seen a dozen of these large butterflies feeding on the Bergamot. The one on the left has the usual coloring for this species and the one on the right is a less common form called Krautwurm’s Fritillary.

The wings of a butterfly are covered with scales. As they brush against things, some of the scales are lost. Note the smudgy look of the wings of the butterfly on the left. This one looks like it is well worn.

ButterflyFritillaryGreatSpangledKrautwurmsrightDunningLake20120719

Here’s a better look at a Krautwurm’s Fritillary. In general, it is darker than the more common form and also yellowish rather than orange. The wingspan of these butterflies is 2½ to 3½ inches.

ButterflyFritillaryGreatSpangledKrautwurmsDunningLakecomposite20120719

This is a Long Dash Skipper on an Ox-eye Daisy. It’s found throughout the northern United States and southern Canada. The wingspan is 1¼ to 1½ inches. This photo was taken at Paradise Beach along the North Shore of Lake Superior.

SkipperLongDashfemalePolitesmysticParadiseBeachCookCounty20120625

Within the classification of living things, the order Lepidoptera contains butterflies and moths. Skippers are a separate group within the butterflies. I learned on BugGuide.net that you can usually tell the three groups apart by the ends of their antenna. Butterflies have club-shaped ends, skippers have scoop-like ends, and moths have antenna with various simple or complex ends. This close-up of a Long Dash Skipper shows the scoop-like ends of the antenna pretty clearly.

SkipperLongDashfemalePolitesmysticParadiseBeachCookCounty20120625

Here’s a Silver-spotted Skipper. With a wingspan of 1¾ to 2½ inches, it’s one of the larger skippers in our area. In the book Butterflies of the North Woods, it looked like we were north of the range for this skipper. Maybe the range is expanding to include Itasca County.

SkipperSilverspottedDunningLake20120719