Aug. 30 2020 - Butterflies

Here are some butterflies I photographed this summer at our lake home in northern Minnesota. This is a White Admiral. It has a wingspan of 3 to 3½ inches. Its Latin name is Limenitis arthemis and it has two subspecies. The White Admiral is the subspecies found in the northeastern United States and the southeastern parts of Canada. The southern subspecies is called the Red-spotted Purple. It looks like the White Admiral without the white bands on each wing.

AdmiralWhiteLimenitisarthemisDunningLakeItascaCounty20200812

This is a Monarch caterpillar. Last year we saw quite a few of them at our lake home, but this is the only one I saw this year.

ButterflyMonarchcaterpillarDunningLakeItascaCounty20200731

And, of course, this is an adult Monarch butterfly. It is perched on a Swamp Milkweed plant. Monarchs are often associated with Common Milkweed plants, but they seem to like Swamp Milkweed even better. It has a wingspan of 3½ to 4½ inches.

ButterflyMonarchSwampMilkweedDunningLakeItascaCounty20200724

Many butterfly species have a different pattern on the upper and lower sides of the wings. On the Monarch, the black lines seem very similar on both top and bottom, but the orange color is much lighter on the bottom side.

ButterflyMonarchSwampMilkweedDunningLakeItascaCounty20200724

This is an Orange Sulphur butterfly perched on a thistle blossom. It has a wingspan of 1½ to 2½ inches.

ButterflySulphurOrangeColiaseurythemeDunningLakeItascaCounty20200801

Great Spangled Fritillaries were quite common this year in our wildflower garden. With a wingspan of 2½ to 3½ inches, they are not as large as Monarchs.

FritillaryGreatSpangledSpeyeriacybeleDunningLakeItascaCounty20200731

The pattern on this butterfly looks like that of the previous one. In 2009, I submitted a photo like this to BugGuide.com and asked for help in identifying it. They confirmed that it is a Great Spangled Fritillary, but it is a subspecies called Krautwurm's Fritillary.

FritillaryKrautwurm'sSpeyeriacybelekrautwurmiDunningLakeItascaCounty20200801

Here’s a picture showing the underside of the Great Spangled Fritillary’s wings. This is a good example of a butterfly with a different pattern on the top and bottom sides of its wings.

FritillaryGreatSpangledSpeyeriaCybeleDunningLakeItascaCounty20200703