''Limenitis weidemeyerii'', or Weidemeyer's admiral, is a

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprise ...

from the subfamily

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 ...

, found in western North America.

Distribution

''Limenitis weidemeyerii'' is found in western

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 ...

, the northern Great Plains (an outlying population), and the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the We ...

, from the Rocky Mountains westward to the Sierra Nevada and

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It is named after

John William Weidemeyer John William Weidemeyer (b. in Fredericksburg, Virginia, 26 April 1819; d. in Amityville, New York, 18 January 1896) was an author and entomologist. Biography In Germany, his father had been an officer in the bodyguards of Jérôme Bonaparte, ...

, a 19th-century entomologist whose specimen from the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

was used to describe the species.

Description

The Weidemeyer's admiral's wings are black and white on the dorsal side, with rows of white spots across the wings. On the ventral side, the black is replaced by brown with gray markings along the margins of the hindwing. The larvae feed on aspen and cottonwood (''Populus''), willows (''Salix''), oceanspray (''Holodiscus''), and shadbush (''Amelanchier''). Adults feed on tree sap, carrion, and flower nectar.

Similar species

* White admiral (two subspecies of ''Limenitis arthemis'') * Lorquin's admiral (''Limenitis lorquini'')

References

External links

"Weidemeyer's Admiral (''Limenitis weidemeyerii'') (W.H. Edwards, 1861)"
''Butterflies of Canada''.
"Caught Between the Pages: Treasures from the Franclemont Collection"
Online virtual exhibit featuring a selection of historic entomological writings and images from the Comstock Library of Entomology at Cornell University {{Taxonbar, from=Q3009304 Limenitis Fauna of the Western United States Fauna of the Rocky Mountains Fauna of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Fauna of the Plains-Midwest (United States) Butterflies of North America Nymphalidae of South America Butterflies described in 1861