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Sunday, September 19, 2010

Silvery Checkerspot- Corrected to Northern Crescent

silvery checkerspot butterfly

Just one picture today. That's because it took me most of an hour to figure out how to label this cute little orange guy.

I'm pretty sure this is a silvery checkerspot, Chlosyne nycteis. It's a butterfly that is one of the Brush-footed butterflies. The size is a little over an inch across. I was about 10 feet away, and got this with the telephoto, so I didn't get to see any detail except what I can see in the picture. It was flitting around the field.

Note: August 27, 2011- This is NOT a checkerspot. It is a Northern Crescent, Phyciodes cocyta, which are also found in Michigan.

I'm no butterfly expert, and I thought this was a skipper. So I looked in my (not so good) butterfly book, with no good results. I looked on line. Finally I was reduced to finding a list of all 45 skippers in Michigan and looking for their pictures. No luck.

So I switched to looking at other Michigan butterflies. It's the same color as some fritillaries, so I looked at 12 of them. Close, but no cigar! So I just kept going down the list and this is the best match.

It says they like open meadows, roadsides, and lake edges. Yup!



9 comments:

Julia said...

Taking photos of butterflies is infuriatingly infuriating! They just keep moving so bleeping fast some days. Good shot. Can't help on the id though. :(

RNSANE said...

I never even see butterflies so you are certainly superior in that department. It's amazing to me that you can photograph them at all!



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Ann said...

What a great picture. I need to get a telephoto lens for my camera. I can never get close enough to get good shots with the one I have.

rainfield61 said...

I took pictures of another butterfly in my garden yesterday evening.

It must be having a long rest since it won't move even rain started to fall.

Duxbury Ramblers said...

Lovely shot of a difficult subject, (having chased a few in my time) :)

Lin said...

Good shot, Sharky! Who knew you were so far away??? I'm gonna miss the butterflies in a few weeks. :(

jeanlivingsimple said...

What a special capture! I don't think I have ever one of these. Your patiences really paid-off.

Sharkbytes said...

Julia- Maybe you can help with today's. I've got a frowny face about this one.

Carmen- why don't you see them?

Ann- too hard to get close without telephoto, that's for sure.

Carol- I'll bet you have. You are always hunting for flowers, even if they are flying!

Lin- Yup, no winter butterflies!

Jean- well, I don't know if I have or haven't. I've never been too much of a butterfly chaser.

Joanne Olivieri said...

Great capture, shark. It's so difficult for me to photograph them and I'm always chasing them around with the camera. Maybe that's why I can't capture them. I should stop chasing them :D