Butterfly identification help - seen today in Suffield

Clay Taylor ctaylor at att.net
Fri Aug 22 06:50:05 EDT 2008


Um, Alex, you can't have a "hybrid" within the same species - simply an intergrade between forms.   To my knowledge, the White Admiral and the Red-spotted Purple forms occur throughout the range of the species, with the White Admiral occurring more frequently in the north and RSP in the south, but altitude also seems to play a role, too.

However, I am puzzled by why you call it a hybrid / intergrade, etc. - it looks fine for a regular RSP to me.   Here is one taken this June at my house in Moodus - I see no difference from the one in Fred's photo.   I have only ever seen 1 WA at that spot, and very few in East Haddam.

Also, I have never seen a crab spider all the way up on a buddleia flower, so why isn't it simply nectaring?   The pictured individual is clearly the survivor of numerous bird hits, but there is nothing there in the photo to suggest that it is hanging dead, when the wings usually are held in a weird angle.  Come to think of it, I have never seen a crab spider kill and hold such a large butterfly - it usually is a smaller species like a skipper, sulfur, crescent, etc.

Clay Taylor
Calallen, TX (Corpus Christi)
ctaylor at att.net 




  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Grkovich, Alex 
  To: jhimmel at comcast.net ; FredNowak at comcast.net ; CTLEPS-L at lists.yale.edu 
  Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 9:54 PM
  Subject: RE: Butterfly identification help - seen today in Suffield


  Not exactly, John (as you no doubt know). It is in fact a Hybrid Purple (or Hybrid Admiral), a "cross" between the southern Red Spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis astyannax) and the northern White Admiral (or Banded Purple, L. arthemis arthemis)...This one is either form albofasciata or proserpina (not sure which one, but I think it may be proserpina), and it appears to have been caught on this flower by a crab spider (although the spider cvannot be seen in the photo)...

  For those that don't know, the Red Spotted Purple and White Admirals are considered to be two subspecies of the same species, and hybrids such as these occur in a wide belt from (at least) southern Connecticut to as far north as along the Kancamagus Highway in northern New Hampshire (a few have been found even in southern Quebec)...In this specimen, one can see the typical coloration (more or less) of the Red Spotted Purple, with traces of the white bands of the Banded Purple...

  Watch for "Red Spotted Purples" with the submarginal band on the dorsal HW solid blue (rather than green or greenish blue), in squarish blocks and without iridescence (which is characteristic of the Red Spotted Purple), and rather strongly coppery colored below...These, even though there is no real trace of white banding (except along the FW leading edge) are also in fact Hybrids, and are not "pure" Red Spotted Purples; this phenotype (common in CT, Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts) represents the "first stage" of the integrade from Red Spotted Purple to White Admiral, along the southern edge of the hybrid zone between the two subspecies...

  Alex


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: owner-ctleps-l at lists.yale.edu on behalf of JH
  Sent: Thu 8/21/2008 8:34 PM
  To: FredNowak at comcast.net; CTLEPS-L at lists.yale.edu
  Subject: Re: Butterfly identification help - seen today in Suffield


  It's a Red-spotted Purple. 

  John


  Visit my webthingys at:
  www.johnhimmelman.com
  www.connecticutmoths.com
  www.ctamphibians.com
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Fred Nowak 
    To: CTLEPS-L at lists.yale.edu 
    Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 7:48 PM
    Subject: Butterfly identification help - seen today in Suffield


    I have a birding friend that I have been encouraging to become a butterflyer. Today he took the photo in the attachment at his home in Suffield and he wants to know what it is. I have four butterfly books but they do not have a compelling answer. Would someone please identify this butterfly?

    Fred Nowak
    East Hartford






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