Photos, flight season, distribution and host plant information, conservation status, and identification tips for the Sara Orangetip butterfly. Gallery Prev Next Little Groundhog Mtn, Lane Co, July 8 - male Julia's Orangetip Anthocharis julia AKA Julia Orangetip Size: 1.25 - 1.5 inches wingspan Key ID features: Male white above, with bold orange FW tip. Female pale yellow-green above with smaller orange patch near FW tip. Below patchy marbling with light yellow veins. Similar species: Sara's Orangetip, which occurs only along the California border is very similar and difficult to distinguish in the field where they overlap. The two species are distinguished by several characteristics, including larval characteristics, number of overwintering cycles, and shape and color of the chrysalis. Host plant: Crucifers including several rockcresses. Habitat: Wide variety of open habitats. Range: Found throughout Oregon. Season: Mid-March to mid-August Abundance: Common Conservation Status: Secure

Photos, flight season, distribution and host plant information, conservation status, and identification tips for the Patined Lady butterfly. Gallery Prev Next Marys Peak, Benton Co, August 21 Painted Lady Vanessa cardui Size: Up to 3 inch wingspan Key ID features: Larger than other ladies. Above salmon orange with black FW tips with a thick s-curved white bar at the leading edge and a few small white spots. HW above orange with submarginal row of black spots, some with blue centers. Below, HW brown with submarginal row of four small eye spots, and web of white lines and white patches. FW below has bright salmon orange crossed by black, wingtip similar to HW. Similar species: American Lady has two large eye spots below. West Coast lady has orange bar at leading edge of FW above (instead of white). Host plant: Thistles (Caruus, Cirsium ), and many others where thistles don't occur . Habitat: Found in every habitat type. Range: Throughout Oregon. Season: Early March to early November Abundance: Abundant in most years. Conservation Status: Secure

Photos, flight season, distribution and host plant information, conservation status, and identification tips for the West Coast Lady butterfly. Gallery Prev Next Wolf Mtn Rd, Lane Co, September 10 West Coast Lady Vanessa annabella Size: Up to 2 inch wingspan Key ID features: Smaller than other ladies. Above bright orange with black FW tips with a thick vertical orange bar at the leading edge and a few small white spots near the wing tip. HW above orange with submarginal row of black spots with blue centers. Below, HW brown with submarginal row of four small eye spots, and web of white lines and white patches. FW below has bright salmon orange crossed by black in lower 2/3, upper 1/3 similar to HW. Similar species: American Lady has two large eye spots below. Painted Lady is larger, has white bar at leading edge of FW above instead of orange. Hostplant: Many species in the mallow family including streambank globe-mallow, checkermallow and others . Habitat: Flowery meadows, roadsides, and gardens. Range: Throughout Oregon except in Malheur County . Season: E arly March to mid-November. Abundance: Uncommon Conservation Status: Secure

Photos, flight season, distribution and host plant information, conservation status, and identification tips for the Columbian Skipper butterfly. Gallery Prev Next Kinney Cr Rd, Jackson Co, May 27 Columbian Skipper Hesperia columbia Size: Up to 1.4 inch wingspan Key ID features: Above, bright orange often with deeply toothed dark border, male with dark stigmata on FW, female with dark patch in same location. Below greenish tan with reduced disjointed white bands, inner band reduced to a couple of spots. Similar species: Other grass skippers have bolder, more extensive white bands below. Host plant: Various grass species. Habitat: Dry shrubby habitats. Range: Jackson County and southern Josephine County. Season: Early May to mid-October Abundance: Uncommon Conservation Status: Secure

Photos, flight season, distribution and host plant information, conservation status, and identification tips for the Western Pygmy Blue butterfly. Gallery Prev Next Umatilla NWR, Umatilla Co, September 4 Western Pygmy Blue Brephidium exilis Size: 0.5 - 0.75 inches wingspan Key ID features: Very small. Dark orangey-brown above, sometimes with blue patches next to body. HW above with white fringe and indistinct, variable submarginal band of blackish spots. FW below, disjointed white lines on orange-brown background. HW below with brown or blue bands edged in white, and marginal row of bold black spots with metallic blue or silver centers next to submarginal white band. Similar species: No similar species in Oregon. Host plant: Various species in the pigweed family, including Saltbush (Atriplex), Pigweed (chenopodium) and Russian thistle (Salsola kali) . Habitat: Desert lowlands and flats, including disturbed areas. Range: Primarily SE Oregon in Lake, Harney and Malheur counties, but expands north in some years. Season: Mid-July to late September Abundance: Uncommon Conservation Status: Secure

Photos, flight season, distribution and host plant information, conservation status, and identification tips for the Rural Skipper butterfly. Gallery Prev Next Grave Creek Bridge, Josephine Co, June 29 Rural Skipper Ochlodes agricola Size: Up to 1 inch wingspan Key ID features: Above, small, tan-orange with graduated dark border . Male with black stigmata on FW, female with black patch in same location. HW below plain orange-tan in male, plain purplish brown in female which has vague lighter patches. Similar species: Unmarked orange-tan HW below on male distinct within its range. Host plant: Various grass species. Habitat: Forest edges and openings, riparian areas. Range: Josephine, Curry and Coos counties, small area along CA border at Jackson County/Josephine County border. Season: Late May to late July Abundance: Locally common Conservation Status: Secure

This page acknowledges the many people who have contributed to the Butterflies of Oregon project over the years, and how they contributed. Acknowledgments So many people to thank, so little time... First, I want to thank my Dad, the late Norm Bjorklund, who instilled in me a love of nature, and who took me out to see and catch my first Oregon butterflies. Thanks to Eric Wold for helping to re-kindle my love of butterflies back in 2001, and for our joint (and fun!) project of starting the Eugene-Springfield Chapter of the North American Butterfly Association (NABA-ES). Thanks to Paul Severns and Andy Warren, who have taught me a great deal about the distribution, phenology, taxonomy, and ecology of butterflies. They introduced me to many of the sites where I took these photos. Many thanks also to Paul Hammond, Gary Pearson, Sue Anderson, Dan Thackaberry, Bill Neill, Dave McCorkle, Bob Pyle, Vern Covlin, Harold Rice, Eric Runquist, Bruce Newhouse, Dana Ross, Lori Humphreys, Dennis Deck, Rob Santry, Tanya Harvey, and Greg Sigrist, all of whom shared very helpful information on butterfly sites I wasn't familiar with. Their information led to new photos of many Oregon species! Without Andy Warren's essential text "Butterflies of Oregon, Their Taxonomy, Distribution and Biology," I would not have been able to make it this far. Andy's book and his detailed emails with descriptions of where to find many of these butterflies in Oregon have made my endeavor so much easier! Bob Pyle and Caitlin LaBar's excellent field guide Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest (2018) has also been a godsend, with its updated taxonomy, species descriptions and range maps. Andy Warren, Bob Pyle, Jonathon Pelham, Ernst Dornfeld, and John Hinchliff are the giants on whose shoulders this work stands. They each wrote key works on butterflies in the Northwest, and without the foundation of their work, I wouldn't know enough to even get started. Thanks also to Jonathon Pelham and Caitlin LaBar for sharing their great work compiling known county occurrences of butterfly species in Oregon into a single document. They helped me identify some new county records with their effort! Thank you to Paul Hammond at the Oregon State Arthropod Collection (OSAC) for repeatedly helping me with identifications and setting up specimens for photos. A huge thanks to Dana Ross for spending hours helping me get photos of pinned specimens for all the described Oregon species that I haven't photographed live in the field, and for reviewing my photos of some of the tough to ID species--I really appreciate your support! The website www.butterfliesofamerica.com has also been a great help in this endeavor, and I appreciate the BOA team of authors for all their work on that website. Thank you to Pollyanna Lind and Todd Simmler for inspiring me with a snowstorm of great ideas on how I could share my Oregon butterfly photos and put them to good use. And likewise thank you Adam Klein, at New Ventures West in SF for giving me the coaching assignment of sharing my photography with others. Check! A tip of my hat is in order to Lindsay Selser, for her surprisingly motivating question "so where can we see the photos of all the butterflies you've already photographed?" To all these, and any others I may have forgotten, a hearty and deeply-felt thank you! That's me on Dad's lap, up on Mt. Hood, c 1959.

Photos, flight season, distribution and host plant information, conservation status, and identification tips for the Juba Skipper butterfly. Gallery Prev Next Rd 23, Lane Co, June 16 Juba Skipper Hesperia juba Size: Up to 1.5 inch wingspan Key ID features: Above, male brownish orange with jagged line of light orange spots, dark brown edges, like teeth pointing inward, dark stigmata. Above female brown with jagged row of light orange spots, some almost white spots near wing tip, also with dark brown edges, like teeth pointing inward . Below greenish gray with disjointed white bands, lowest patch of white on outer band displaced inwardly (but not as strongly as Nevada Skipper). Similar species: On HW below Nevada Skipper has the lowest segment of the outer white spot band more strongly offset. Host plant: Bunchgrass species. Habitat: Sage habitats, roadsides, dry woodland openings. Range: All of Oregon except north Coast Range and coast. Season: Mid-April to early October Abundance: Uncommon Conservation Status: Secure

Photos, flight season, distribution and host plant information, conservation status, and identification tips for the Pacific Dotted Blue butterfly. Gallery Prev Next Frisselll Ridge, Lane Co, July 16 - male (L), female (R) Dotted Blue Euphilotes enoptes AKA Pacific Dotted Blue Size: Up to 0.85 inch wingspan Key ID features: Small. Male blue above with dark wing borders. Female dark brown above with vague orange zigzag along trailing margin. Both sexes have checked fringe on FW. Below bluish-gray with black spots, and orange edges to submarginal black spots on HW. Similar species: Euphilotes blues are often best told apart by host-plant association, location and flight period. Several other species have orange bands on the ventral hindwing, instead of separate orange spots. In the western Cascades, only this species has separate orange spots. Host plant: Eriogonum nudum (bare-stem buckwheat), E. elatum (tall woolly buckwheat) and E. compositum (arrowleaf buckwheat). Habitat: Well-drained sites where hostplant grows, including high plateaus, ridges, gravelly slopes and roadsides. Range: Western Cascade Range, Siskiyou Mtns, Klamath Mtns . Season: Mid-April to early August Abundance: Common Conservation Status: Secure

Photos, flight season, distribution and host plant information, conservation status, and identification tips for the Western Sulphur butterfly. Gallery Prev Next Prairie Farm Springs, Jefferson Co, July 1 Western Sulphur Colias occidentalis Size: 1.5 - 2.0 inches wingspan Key ID features: Males above, bright lemony yellow with unbroken black border. Females above lighter yellow or cream, with less distinct black border. Below, central pearly "discal" spot in HW with single pinkish-brown ring, and few or no submarginal black or brown spots. HW below has black over-scaling, giving it a green cast. Similar species: Clouded Sulphurs have heavier submarginal spots on HW below. Queen Alexandra's Sulphurs are larger, greener below, and usually lack pink discal spot-rim below. Host plant: Many species in the pea family. Habitat: Meadows, roadsides, dry steppe slopes and forest glades. Range: Mountain ranges throughout Oregon, except Coast Range. Season: early March to early November Abundance: Common Conservation Status: Secure

on iNaturalist Join the revolution! On the iNaturalist.org website, there is a Butterflies of Oregon Project that collects and displays all of the photos of butterflies submitted from Oregon. There are now over 30,000 photos of butterflies from Oregon, and the number of people submitting butterfly photos from Oregon is growing every year! You can view the most recent Oregon butterflies posted to iNaturalist at right, or go directly to the Butterflies of Oregon Project page. Note: the links at right to the individual iNaturalist posts only work if you right-click the link and select "open in a new tab" or "open in a new window." iNaturalist.org has the largest online collection of recent records of butterfly sightings, and the largest number of users, and has emerged as the best place to both share your sightings and get help identifying them. By contributing your photos of Oregon butterflies to iNaturalist, you are making them available to others for learning, study and pleasure. Being part of this community of naturalists benefits everyone involved. recent Oregon sightings: View additional recent Oregon butterfly sightings on iNaturalist.org.

Photos, flight season, distribution and host plant information, conservation status, and identification tips for the Gillett's Checkerspot butterfly. Gallery Prev Next Oregon State Arthropod Collection, #000176215 - male Thank you to Dana Ross and Paul Hammond , volunteers at OSAC! Gillett's Checkerspot Euphydryas gillettii Size: Up to 2 inch wingspan Key ID features: Above black with red and white spots, wide red band through both wings, usually with narrow white bands on both sides. Below similar pattern, but with black reduced, and confined to narrow lines between red and white patches. Similar species: This is the only Oregon checkerspot with wide red submarginal spot bands above. Host plant: Species in the honeysuckle family, possibly black twinberry (Lonicera involucrata ) and red twinberry (L. utahensis ) . Habitat: High flowery meadows. Often occurs near small streams or wetlands, not straying far from its host plants and nectar sources. Range: On the summit of the west rim of Snake River Canyon near Hat Point . Season: Late June to early July Abundance: Uncommon Conservation Status: Secure in other states. Survival of colonies may depend on wildfire interrupting habitat succession. Current Oregon population unknown.