Chlosyne leanira

Leanira checkerspot
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Chlosyne
Species:
C. leanira
Binomial name
Chlosyne leanira
(C. & R. Felder, 1860)[1]
Synonyms
  • Melitaea leanira C. & R. Felder, 1860
  • Thessalia daviesi Wind, 1947
  • Melitaea cerrita Wright, 1905

Chlosyne leanira, the leanira checkerspot, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in North America from western Oregon south to California, Nevada, Utah and western Colorado, as well as Baja California.[2] The wingspan is 33–40 mm. Generally, females are larger than males, but males have a more apparent red color to their wings.[3]

Adults feed on flower nectar while the larvae feed on Castilleja plants in the Orobanchaceae plant family, particularly the leaves and flowers of this host plant.[2][4]

Young larvae live together in a loose web. Third-instar larvae hibernate, and examination of Chlosyne leanira in Gates Canyon, California revealed that they overwinter as larvae.[2][5]

  1. ^ "Chlosyne Butler, 1870" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
  2. ^ a b c Butterflies and Moths of North America
  3. ^ Higgins, L. G. (1960). "A Revision of the Melitaeine Genus Chlosyne and Allied Species (lepidoptera: Nymphalinae)". Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London. 112 (14): 381–465. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2311.1960.tb00796.x. ISSN 1365-2311.
  4. ^ Mead, Elliott W.; Foderaro, Tommaso A.; Gardner, Dale R.; Stermitz, Frank R. (1993-06-01). "Iridoid glycoside sequestration byThessalia leanira (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) feeding onCastilleja integra (Scrophulariaceae)". Journal of Chemical Ecology. 19 (6): 1155–1166. Bibcode:1993JCEco..19.1155M. doi:10.1007/BF00987377. ISSN 1573-1561. PMID 24249134. S2CID 8857856.
  5. ^ Thorne, James H.; O'Brien, Joshua; Forister, Matthew L.; Shapiro, Arthur M. (2006). "Building Phenological Models from Presence/Absence Data for a Butterfly Fauna". Ecological Applications. 16 (5): 1842–1853. doi:10.1890/1051-0761(2006)016[1842:BPMFAD]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 1939-5582. PMID 17069376.