Thursday, November 17, 2005

Checkered whites, and checkered skippers

We had a freeze in my part of Travis County last night, and I was curious if butterflies would be around today. They were. I saw a beautiful red admiral, but he left before I could take his picture. The emperors and question marks seem to be gone. But there were several tiny sulphurs and metalmarks around the rosemary bush, as well as these two species below that I managed to get photos of.

A pair of checkered whites on my rosemary bush. The female has heavier patterning. Pontia protodice


A pyrgus species, probably Pyrgus oelius, the tropical checkered skipper. It could also be a white checkered skipper or a desert checkered skipper, but from the available photos on the web, I'm guessing the tropical. All 3 species are found in Austin.

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