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Project Noah Nature School
Phyciodes mylitta mylitta
Phyciodes mylitta is a cute little butterfly. Larval plants are thistles, like Venus Thistle, Cirsium occidentale venustum, but this little butterfly will hatch on most thistles. The adult butterfly likes asters like Seaside Daisy, Erigeron glaucus and California Aster, Aster chilensis.
Las Pillitas Nursery.
Bayucca ,you are awesome!! I really appreciate your interest in resolving this spotting. I feel very honored.
I feel overjoyed when I spot something new!
Gator ,thanks so much!!
I am a bit late to the ID search; the crescent did not register in my mind right away.
Thank you bayucca and Emma now I know about three butterflies which I did not know yesterday.
1]Variegated fritillary 2] Dark green frtillary and 3] Mylitta Crescent which I hope is this one.
That was a wonderful experience.
Wow, that is a pretty cool twist. I don't know any of these butterflies. My first guess was from what I saw in a book. I think bayucca is right. It says in this link that Mylitta crescents are found in California which is exactly where Emma found it.
No, unfortunately it is not a Variegated. Do you know why it took so long for my ID?? I spent minutes before I noticed, no chance with Fritillaries! I thought it was an easy one with these distinct markings. So even for me quite a funny surprise ;-)... In this case you may check my ID and verify!
Thank you bayucca your comment removed the confusion between the two fritillary's .Then i think we could call this Variegated fritillary as Emma said.
Hi Emma, It could be variegated fritillary, but the second picture have very close resemblance to the ventral view of dark green fritillary too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Green_...
But based on where it is found, I think the dark green is more common in Europe. Since you spotted it in California it might be the Variegated one.
Both of them look very similar.
Namitha,does picture number two say something different?Could it be Variegated Fritillary?
Spotted on Aug 21, 2012
Submitted on Aug 21, 2012
