Range:
This species ranges from southern Oregon and southwestern Idaho south through California, Nevada, and Utah, and in
patches of the southwest, Colorado, and western Nebraska and Kansas.
Habitat:
It occurs in a variety of open areas, including chaparral, prairies, desert hills, open
woodlands, and canyons.
Diet:
Caterpillar:
Caterpillars eat the flowers and leaves of various species of paintbrush
(Castilleja spp.).
Adult:
Butterflies drink flower nectar.
Ecology:
There are one or two generations of caterpillars each summer. Young caterpillars
live together in loose webs. Third stage caterpillars overwinter in a physiological
state called diapause. Adults generally fly from March to June.
Reproduction:
Males perch on
hilltops to wait for receptive females and occasionally actively patrol
for them. Clusters of yellow eggs are laid on the undersides of host plant leaves.
The eggs turn orange before hatching.
Conservation:
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Global Rank: | G4; population levels are secure, but may be of concern in the future. |
Opler, P. A., H. Pavulaan, and R. E. Stanford. 1995. Butterflies of North America. Jamestown, North Dakota, USA: Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Home Page. http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/bflyusa.htm (Version 05Nov98).
Opler, P. A. and A. B.Wright. 1999. A Field Guide to the Western Butterflies. Second Edition. Peterson Field Guide Series. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, New York, USA, 540 pp.
Pyle, R. M. 1981. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, New York, USA, 924 pp.
Scott, J. A. 1986. The Butterflies of North America. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, USA, 583 pp.
Stanford, R. E. and P. A. Opler. 1993. Atlas of Western U.S.A. Butterflies (Including Adjacent Parts of Canada and Mexico). Published by authors, Denver, Colorado, USA, 275 pp.