Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions (California Natural History Guides)

Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions (California Natural History Guides)

Language: English

Pages: 359

ISBN: B00CF5MRGI

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


The California Tortoiseshell, West Coast Lady, Red Admiral, and Golden Oak Hairstreak are just a few of the many butterfly species found in the floristically rich San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley regions. This guide, written for both beginning and experienced butterfly watchers by one of the nation's best-known professional lepidopterists, provides thorough, up-to-date information on all of the butterfly species found in this diverse and accessible region. Written in lively prose, it discusses the natural history and conservation status for these butterflies and at the same time provides an integrated view of butterfly biology based on studies conducted in northern California and around the world. Compact enough for use in the field, the guide also includes tips on butterfly watching, photography, gardening, and more.
* Discusses and identifies more than 130 species
* Species accounts include information on identifying butterflies through behavior, markings, and host plants
* Beautiful full-color plates illustrate top and bottom views of wings for easier identification
* Includes a species checklist and a glossary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

species this can be either a good thing or a bad thing. In general, increasing the number of generations per year is good if it increases the number of progeny able to overwinter successfully. But if survival in the added generation is B U T T E R F L I E S A N D C L I M AT E C H A N G E 41 poor (resources become scarce or decline in quality, or there isn’t time for most individuals to reach the stage in which they can overwinter successfully), the results can be catastrophic. Most species

typically much more limiting; not only do they constitute less biomass, but they are usually highly seasonal and transient. Experiments have shown that the presence of red eggs on hosts deters subsequent visitors from laying on them. (One Old World pierid definitely has an oviposition-deterrent pheromone associated with its eggs. We do not know if any of ours do.) Many parasitoids mark their hosts chemically to posit on lichens growing on fence posts and tree trunks. When the larvae hatch they

philodice, also called C. eriphyle), which occurs only east of the Sierra Nevada, but appear to represent mutations of local origin. Where the Orange Sulphur and C. eriphyle co-occur they hybridize, producing evenly colored orange yellow hybrids never seen in our area. A weak salient of C. eriphyle once crept through the Inyo-Kern area to near Visalia but died out. The Orange Sulphur shows extreme environmentally controlled variation. Cold-season animals are very small; they have relatively

but is likely to be more widespread. It visits wild-lilac (Ceanothus), yerba santas (Eriodictyon), woolly sunflower (Eriophyllum lanatum), and other spring flowers, as well as mud. It leks on and near small specimens of the host tree. There is considerable variation in color below and in the extent of orange in the female above, but it is always much lighter on the ventral hindwing than in John Muir’s Hairstreak (M. g. muiri). Any Juniper Hairstreak (M. gryneus) found away from the two cypresses

similar to Muir Woods grew in the Miocene (some 20 million years ago) in an area of central Oregon that supports sagebrush steppe today. Imagine how different its butterfly fauna must have been then! Butterfly Life Histories Metamorphosis Like all Lepidoptera, butterflies are holometabolous — that is, they have a life cycle encompassing four distinct stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult. Another term for such a life cycle is “complete metamorphosis.” B U T T E R F LY L I

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