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Speyeria hydaspe
This butterfly does not have nearly enough black on it to fit the checkerspot photos in my fieldguide. I wonder if it is a Variable Checkerspot again? No red at all on this one though! Any help on this one? Photo 3 does show the underside of the wing but I am not sure what an "editha" line looks like: " a black line that runs through the mid-wing row of red spots on the underside of the hind wing".
Subalpine meadows on Blackwall Peak, Manning Park, BC. roadside thistles. Altitude around 1900 m. Northern Cascade mountain range. Habitat for this species shows all of the south half of BC including Vancouver island and says meadows in the mountains, flies June to August. So this fits the location for the spotting.
Thanks bayucca for the help with this ID! I have added 4 more photos which have a glimpse of the underside of the wings. There are no good photos of the underside. The main drawback of this ID is the contrast in light and dark markings on my spotting is much greater than any shown in the Hydaspe fritillary photos. Will further update and change as I get more input!!
Thanks, bayucca, I am gradually looking through the links you sent me. I had no idea....what a lot of varied beauty there is on the http://butterfliesofamerica.com site.
I added 4 more photos which have a little of the underside of the wings showing. Hope this might help!
Wow! thanks for all the great information bayucca! This will require more time than I have tonight but I am definitely excited to look at the links you have added here. Thanks for your work on this! I've gone from checkerspot to crescent to fritillary on this one, so will wait until I get some time to fix it up properly! Good night!
Nymphalidae, Heliconiinae, Argynniini, Speyeria sp. That was actually one of the most difficult butterfly I ever checked and hopefully correctly IDed. What a nightmare with checking all the species. I really was surprised of the several species AND subspecies are existing only in the US!!!
My closest approach after this intense search is:
Speyeria hydaspe, possibly Speyeria hydaspe rhodope. But for really being sure I would need to see the underside much better. And maybe ask a real Speyeria crack!
Here are some interesting links to check.
http://butterfliesofamerica.com/speyeria...
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rdxAMRMgcOM/UO...
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pkTyvp0NNCA/UO...
http://northwestbutterflies.blogspot.ch/...
http://northwestbutterflies.blogspot.ch/...
Other candidate might be Speyeria hesperis and Speyeria zerene bremneri?
http://butterfliesofamerica.com/speyeria...
http://www.goert.ca/documents/SAR_manual...
http://butterfliesofamerica.com/speyeria...
Spotted on Jul 28, 2015
Submitted on Aug 5, 2015
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