Sexual Dimorphism and the Sagebrush Checkerspot

Andy Kaufman and Danny DeVito..Those were the days!

Bob Hillis, one of the best friends of the blog, has surpassed me as a lepidopterist.  Not that this is any Herculean accomplishment.  And it's no shame, either;  Bob is one heck of an animal finder and has a flair for identification.  Having said all that, Bob is playing the game at a distinct disadvantage.  His only field guide, as he lepidopterizes, are the mountains of Southern Utah is Kaufman.  

   We're not talking about Andy Kaufman, who portrayed the lovable Taxi mechanic Latka Gravis.  Thank you very much.  Andy died very young of lung cancer and, although there is no evidence that he knew a butterfly from a fly in the ointment, it's possible that up in St. Peter's arboretum he is waltzing around with a butterfly net, in pursuit of a tiger swallowtail.  Or perhaps those guys in the short white coats are chasing Andy through the arboretum with a somewhat larger butterfly net and a straight jacket.  Who knows?

The Checkerspot page from Kaufman, held down by RTP.

   At any rate, Bob Hillis is being assisted, solely, to the best of my knowledge, by Kenn Kaufman and his tome, Field Guide to Butterflies of North America.  Kenn, like many of us, began as a bird watcher and bird artist and segued to butterflies.  He is three years younger than yours truly and chooses to live in Ohio.  Make of that what you will.  At any rate, along with Jim Brock, who is a life long lepidopterist, Kenn has produced the bible of butterfly watching for our continent.  To the best of my knowledge, no one else has attempted to capture pictures and maps of all the butterflies of North America in a single volume.

    In a way, Kaufman's field guide is similar to Arthur Singer's North American Birds. where all the birds in (you guessed it!) North America are presented with distribution maps.  Kaufman does a pretty good job of getting all the butterflies into his book.  After all, there all only 750 species of butterflies to be found in North America.  But unlike birds, butterflies have extremely complex patterns and are remarkably different over even a small geographic range.  

    These regional differences are such that experts like our friend Caitlin LaBar are unwilling to pass judgement on some of the butterflies Bob Hillis finds in Southern Utah.   Cait annually terrorizes the butterflies in the Rocky Mountains, south of Helena, Montana, roughly 800 miles due north of St George, Utah.  So one might expect her to be an expert on Utah butterflies, as well.  But when it came to separating the Utah crescents, she flat out refused.  "Find a local expert."  she said.

    Let us compare this to bird identification.. If my nephew sent me a picture of a towhee (or virtually any other bird)  that he saw in the East Bay, I should be able to identify that bird with total confidence.  I might resort to a field guide, but with location, time of year and a good picture, I should have little problem.

    Last week Sandra and I went to the Deschutes River just south of the Dalles to look for late spring butterflies.  It was a very windy day and we didn't do very well.  But in a car park near the river we captured two small butterflies that looked remarkably different.   A bit later we returned to our favorite boat launch and witnessed the single species puddle party you see above.  If you turn up the sound, you can hear the Deschutes. 

   Now, if I wanted to be especially catty, I would ask you to identify those cute little flappers from the page in North American Butterflies.   They are Sagebrush Checkerspots, which are about 300 miles out of range according to Kaufman's distribution map.

Sagebrush checkerspot female, Deschutes River, May 2024

  

 Next I'm presenting you with a couple of my pictures.  The first was taken at the puddle party on the banks of the Deschutes, which at this point in its journey is a fast moving rapids strewn river descending through a desert canyon.  That alfresco shot provides a very good look (if I say so myself) at a male Sagebrush Checkerspot.  If one was using Kaufman, he would have a pretty good chance of making the identification, if he was willing to overlook the distribution map.    If one is using Pyle and LaBar (Cait's book) it should be an easy identification, assuming you have the patience to match up the numerous orange and yellow patches to the picture in the book.  

    The second picture, taken back at the ranch in highly controlled circumstances, is the female Sagebrush Checkerspot.  If one was using Kaufman they would have no chance.  His book portrays a Northern Checkerspot that looks a little like this butterfly.    Cait's book has a photo much like this one that matches perfectly if you have the patience for a careful examination. 

Sagebrush Checkerspot male, ventral

    The last two pictures are ventral shots of the Sagebrush Checkerspot, male on top, female below.  They are very similar but not identical.  As you may have surmised, I really wanted the female sagebrush to be a northern, which is less common in that area but was recorded last year.  I was over ruled, and more careful examination confirmed my consultant's identification.  

    If I had Kaufman's book as my only resource, I surely would have got it wrong. 

    So wherever you are, if you want to identify the difficult butterflies, the best answer is find someone who is an expert and willing to help. And if you are lucky enough to receive their help you can parrot Latka Gravas and say, "Thank you very much."

jeff

Sagebrush Checkerspot female