Category: Asters

Common Buckeye Revisited

I’m looking forward to my Asters blooming. They are a big draw for an incredibly beautiful butterfly. The Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia). It’s when those Asters are blooming that I get to see the Common Buckeye.

As an adult and butterfly they have a life of just six to twenty days. During those few days they sip the nectar of not just Asters, but also Tickseed Sunflower, Gumweed, Knapweed, and Chickory.

The Common Buckeye shows up in a different coloring as well. Yes, this is the same species, but is a rosa morph. The coloring of Common Buckeye butterflies are changed by the day length and temperature in which the eggs and then the caterpillars develop. Whatever the coloring, I’m looking forward to spotting some of these beauties.

Silvery Checkerspot

Warm sunlight shining through a tiny butterfly wing. Capturing this view of the wings was a challenge. A view that this little critter didn’t want to share. But seeing this, the underside of the wings, makes identification easy. Silvery Checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis) on Apple Mint (Mentha suaveolens). In this view the hindwing is pale with a large white crescent at the margin. That is a key to identification.

Another Silvery Checkerspot with that same ventral view of the wing. Again the telltale white crescent at the margin.

Adult Silvery Checkerspots seek nectar at many species of flowers including Black-eyed Susan, Apple Mint, Common Milkweed, Red Clover, and Dogbane.

Females lay eggs often a bit more than one hundred at a time on larval host plant leaves that include asters, coneflowers, and sunflowers. In their early larval stages they stay together consuming those leaves. Though they can totally skeletonize those leaves I won’t panic since I know that they’ll turn into precious little butterflies.

American Lady Butterfly

During the summer while my volunteer White Wood Asters are blooming I can count on seeing bunches of American Lady Butterflies (Vanessa virginiensis) sipping the nectar. I see there are oodles of larvae host plants listed for American Lady Butterflies. Asters are one of the plants listed.

Purple Coneflowers will also attract them and make for a fun picture with the American Lady’s intricately designed ventral (or bottom) side of their wings visible.

Here the American Lady is on the blooms of Bugle Weed. This beautiful butterfly enjoys the nectars of flowers but also it’s attracted to the juice of rotting fruit and tree sap. I’ve been able to entice American Lady Butterflies to my back porch by putting out fruit that will eventually go into the compost. It’s fun to experiment and see who shows up.

Common Buckeye Butterfly

A beauty in the world of butterflies. Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia). It’s common in the southern states, along the California coast and in central America. Also found in other areas of the US, though not as commonly seen.

Here at my cabin I see the Common Buckeye butterfly on apple mint, which is what it’s on in all three of these photos, and on various species of aster.

Common Buckeyes don’t depend on just a single larval host for their eggs and caterpillars but many. A few of these host plants are snapdragon, plantain, ruellia, and toadflax. I look forward to seeing these butterflies every year, and most years I do get to see them. I’ve got my fingers crossed for this year.

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