''Chlosyne leanira'', the leanira checkerspot, is a
butterfly
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
of the family
Nymphalidae
The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species have a red ...
. It is found in North America from western
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
south to
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
,
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
,
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
and western
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
, as well as
Baja California
Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...
.
[Butterflies and Moths of North America](_blank)
/ref> The wingspan
The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...
is 33–40 mm. Generally, females are larger than males, but males have a more apparent red color to their wings.
Adults feed on flower nectar while the larvae feed on ''Castilleja
''Castilleja'', commonly known as paintbrush, Indian paintbrush, or prairie-fire, is a genus of about 200 species of annual and perennial herbaceous plants native to the west of the Americas from Alaska south to the Andes, northern Asia, and one ...
'' plants in the Orobanchaceae
Orobanchaceae, the broomrapes, is a family of mostly parasitic plants of the order Lamiales, with about 90 genera and more than 2000 species. Many of these genera (e.g., ''Pedicularis'', ''Rhinanthus'', ''Striga'') were formerly included in the ...
plant family, particularly the leaves and flowers of this host plant.
Young larvae live together in a loose web. Third-instar
An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or ass ...
larvae hibernate, and examination of ''Chlosyne'' ''leanira'' in Gates Canyon, California revealed that they overwinter as larvae.
Subspecies
Multiple subspecies of ''C. leanira'' have been identified:
* ''Chlosyne leanira oregonensis'' (Bauer, 1975) (Oregon)
* ''Chlosyne leanira leanira'' (C. Felder & R. Felder, 1860) (California)
* ''Chlosyne leanira obsoleta'' (Hy. Edwards, 1878) (California)
* ''Chlosyne leanira nebularum'' (Austin & M. Smith, 1998) (California)
* ''Chlosyne leanira elegans'' (Priestaf & J. Emmel, 1998) (California)
* ''Chlosyne leanira wrightii'' (W. H. Edwards, 1886) (California)
* ''Chlosyne leanira cerrita'' (Wright, 1905) (California)
* ''Chlosyne leanira alma'' (Strecker, 1878) (Arizona, Utah)
* ''Chlosyne leanira basinensis'' (Austin & M. Smith, 1998) (Nevada)
* ''Chlosyne leanira flavodorsalis'' (Austin & M. Smith, 1998) (California)
* ''Chlosyne leanira austrima'' (Austin & Smith, 1998) (Baja California)
Phylogenetic Relationships
Taxonomic relationships of ''Chlosyne'' and related genera
Phylogenetic relationships of butterfly species in the family Nymphalidae
The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species have a red ...
were analyzed using mitochondrial DNA sequences. Four species groups were found to be monophyletic
In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...
: ''Euphydryas
''Euphydryas'' is a genus of Nymphalidae butterflies
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly ...
'', ''Phyciodes
''Phyciodes'', the crescents or crescent spots (like some related genera) is a genus of butterflies of the subfamily Nymphalinae in the family Nymphalidae.
Species
In alphabetical order:"''Phyciodes''_Hübner,_ '', '' 819]"at_Markku_Savela's_''Lepi ...
'', ''Chlosyne'', and ''Melitaea">Chlosyne">819]"at_Markku_Savela's_''Lepi ...