''Chlosyne nycteis'', the silvery checkerspot, is a species of

Nymphalinae The Nymphalinae are a subfamily of brush-footed butterflies (family Nymphalidae). Sometimes, the subfamilies Limenitidinae, and Biblidinae are included here as subordinate tribe(s), while the tribe Melitaeini is occasionally regarded as a distinc ...

butterfly that occurs in North America. It is listed as a species of special concern in Connecticut and Maine, and is believed

extirpated Local extinction, also known as extirpation, refers to a species (or other taxon) of plant or animal that ceases to exist in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinct ...

in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

Description

Adult

The dorsal view is pale yellow orange with dark borders and markings. The hindwing has white-centered submarginal spots on both sides, dorsal and ventral. The hindwing is pale and has a white crescent at the margin.

Caterpillar

The caterpillar is almost all black with dusted white spots. Sometimes, it has a yellow-orange stripe or two smaller stripes along the side. 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 ...

is known for its branched spines.

Range and habitat

Their range consist of southern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

south to

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, but does not occur in the

Gulf Coastal Plain The Gulf Coastal Plain extends around the Gulf of Mexico in the Southern United States and eastern Mexico. This coastal plain reaches from the Florida Panhandle, southwest Georgia, the southern two-thirds of Alabama, over most of Mississippi, wes ...

. Silvery checkerspots enjoy moist areas such as streamsides. They can also be seen in meadows and forest openings.

Lifecycle

In the northern portion of its habitat, one brood hatches between June and July; for the remainder of its range, two broods occur from May to September. Three broods have been reported in the deep southern part of Texas. Females lay eggs in batches which can be up to 100 individuals. Early

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 ...

caterpillars stay in groups as they skeletonize leaves while the third instar hibernates.

Larval foods

Larval foods are various

Asters ''Aster'' is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Its circumscription has been narrowed, and it now encompasses around 170 species, all but one of which are restricted to Eurasia; many species formerly in ''Aster'' are ...

, including

Eurybia macrophylla ''Eurybia macrophylla'', commonly known as the bigleaf aster, large-leaved aster, largeleaf aster or bigleaf wood aster, is an herbaceous perennial in the family Asteraceae that was formerly treated in the genus ''Aster (genus), Aster''. It is ...

Verbesina alternifolia ''Verbesina alternifolia'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. ...

Helianthus ''Helianthus'' () is a genus comprising about 70 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae commonly known as sunflowers. Except for three South American species, the species of ''Helianthus'' are native to ...

, and

Rudbeckia ''Rudbeckia'' () is a plant genus in the Asteraceae or composite family. Rudbeckia flowers feature a prominent, raised central disc in black, brown shades of green, and in-between tones, giving rise to their familiar common names of coneflowers a ...

Adult foods

Adult foods include from

nectar Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists ...

from

Red clover ''Trifolium pratense'', the red clover, is a herbaceous species of flowering plant in the bean family Fabaceae, native to Europe, Western Asia, and northwest Africa, but planted and naturalized in many other regions. Description Red clov ...

Common milkweed ''Asclepias syriaca'', commonly called common milkweed, butterfly flower, silkweed, silky swallow-wort, and Virginia silkweed, is a species of flowering plant. It is native to southern Canada and much of the United States east of the Rocky Moun ...

and

Dogbane Dogbane, dog-bane, dog's bane, and other variations, some of them regional and some transient, are names for certain plants that are reputed to kill or repel dogs; "bane" originally meant "slayer", and was later applied to plants to indicate tha ...

References

*
"''Chlosyne'' Butler, 1870"
at Markku Savela's ''Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms''. Accessed 2017-04-07 *
Silvery Checkerspot
Butterflies of Ontario {{DEFAULTSORT:Chlosyne Nycteis nycteis Butterflies of North America Butterflies described in 1847 Taxa named by Henry Doubleday