The Latest

September 10, 2011 - An Anise Swallowtail oviposited on my fennel, and at the moment I've got four caterpillars that are doing well. This one looks to be at about the third instar. They're growing so quickly it's hard to keep up with what stage they're in. On a recent trip up to Santa Barbara County I found White Checkered-Skippers on a hilltop, with females ovipositing on small mallow plants. Scroll down to see what their tiny egg looks like. I was also out and about for an enjoyable day with David Horner in the interior parts of Riverside and San Diego Counties and I've added some of the better photos from that drive. Here is a fresh male Checkered White that was just starting his day; a new Juba Skipper from a roadside field of blooming rabbitbrush; and a Woodland Skipper from the same stand of bushes.

August 8, 2011 - Recent photos include a male and female Harford's Sulphur from the San Gabriels and some beautiful Purplish Coppers from Riverside County. The Coppers were found at a roadside turnout near a creek crossing where their host dock plants were easy to find.

August 1, 2011 - I've updated a few pages with some better photographs. The Great Copper page has a much better dorsal shot recently taken at Cuyamaca Lake in San Diego County; the White Checkered Skipper page has better shots as well, including a recent one from the Laguna Meadows; and the Sonoran Skipper page has a nicer photo of a male - the second one on the page. I'm a sucker for nice looking backgrounds, which is one reason shooting in meadows is always so rewarding.

July 12, 2011 - On the Cassia tree in my garden, a Cloudless Sulphur has pupated. Here are two photos, one not too long after pupation, then another once the color has changed to green.

July 6, 2011 - Back in June I saw a Gray Hairstreak ovipositing on my garden deerweed plants, and with the help of an extension tube I was able to get a decent shot of the extremely tiny egg. And at Bluff Lake Meadow near Big Bear in the San Bernardino Mountains, the Sonoran Skipper was common and I now have more shots of this grass skipper, which I'd only seen once previously.

May 8, 2011 - A May 1st trip up Mt. Baldy Road led to more shots of Leanira checkerspots. I've substituted some of the older photos on the leanira page with some from this year's bounty. On the same trip I found a larva of a California Tortoiseshell on its host Ceanothus.

April 26, 2011 - Back at Cactus Springs Trail to look for Leanira Checkerspots on a perfect day in the desert. About a mile into the hike, I found a late instar larva of Chlosyne leanira wrighti, and within minutes found a freshly-emerged adult. There are several photographs of this rare find on the leanira page. Other butterflies seen on this trip include an Apodemia virgulti peninsularis, the Peninsular Metalmark from a large patch of its host, Wright's Buckwheat, in the Laguna Meadows, and a Mojave Sootywing from a roadside just east of Anza-Borrego.

April 17, 2011 - Went out to the desert with ace photographer David Horner. We had some luck at Cactus Springs Trail and at Cottonwood Spring in Joshua Tree. From Cactus Springs Trail I've added a few photographs: yet another Loki Juniper Hairstreak; a last-instar larva of Henne's Variable (or Chalcedon) Checkerspot; a side view of a Sleepy Duskywing; an early instar of the Desert Black Swallowtail's larva; and a Leanira Checkerspot larva David found wandering on the trail. Meanwhile back home, the Monarch larvae in my garden are now in the second instar.

April 14, 2011 - More on the Mourning Cloak page: a better ventral view of a butterfly freshly-emerged from the pupa illustrated at the bottom of the page. The two large pupa shots are from right after pupation and just before emergence. Also, an American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) visited the garden the other day and I thought the photograph was worth putting up. Finally, I noticed that some Monarch eggs have just hatched, and happened to see a tiny first-instar caterpillar on a milkweed leaf. By tiny, I mean he could fit on the head of a pin.

March 31, 2011 - A couple of visits to one of my favorite desert trails - Cactus Springs Trail in the Santa Rosa Wilderness - were timed just right as the weather began to warm up considerably this week. I wanted to see the hard-to-find Anthocharis lanceolata desertolimbus, and I wasn't disappointed. I've hiked this trail numerous times, and this was my first sighting of this butterfly. I also saw several Sleepy Duskywings here - the first time I've seen them on this trail. I've replaced the previous photographs of this duskywing with a better shot from this hike. I was also able to photograph a female ovipositing and got a decent shot of the egg; scroll down for that. Henne's Variable (or Chalcedon) Checkerspots were nearly ubiquitous along the trail. The Loki Juniper Hairstreak also appeared on the Juniper bushes, especially as the days got warmer. I've added another photo of this striking butterfly. I also saw many California Dogfaces, and a couple of females were interested in what looked like a stick. But tiny green shoots were just beginning to emerge from what proved to be False Indigo, and as the photograph shows, there should be plenty of caterpillars on this plant in the near future. Also seen on March 30-31st: a Pale Swallowtail; a Desert Black Swallowtail; many Brown Elfins, Perplexing Hairstreaks, and Silvery Blues; a freshly-emerged Behr's Metalmark; lots of Sara Orangetips; a couple of Juba Skippers; and several Funereal Duskywings.

March 21, 2011 - Walking through El Dorado Park in Long Beach the other day I saw about half-a-dozen Mourning Cloak caterpillars heading west looking for a place to pupate. I returned with my camera and got a few shots of a larvae, and along a fence found two pupae and a larva looking for a spot to pupate. I brought all three home to photograph (scroll down for the pupa photos), and I'll be releasing them in my garden. The caterpillar pupated a couple of days later; the long pupa photo is this one.

February 8, 2011 - On the Monarch page, I replaced one shot with another; this one had just emerged from its chrysalis and was hanging out in the fennel plants. I've slowly been changing the family pages with links to the photographs. These will now be simpler but a little more colorful; they have a single thumbnail link to a page for that butterfly. All the individual species pages are done, and now three of the six family pages are finished: Papilionidae (Swallowtails), Riodinidae (Metalmarks), and Hesperiidae (Skippers).

Introduction

Nearly all these photographs of butterflies and their host plants were taken either in my garden, the local park, or (most often) in wild areas within a few hours of my home in Long Beach, California. Butterflies are a life-long interest of mine, and I started photographing them seriously beginning in the summer of 2005. I've listed on six pages - one for each family represented locally - all the butterflies in my area (to subspecies level) and their larval host plants, with links to pages I've created for each butterfly. Some of these are rarely seen and a few are even endangered species, and thus a challenge to find and photograph, but I've included them on the list if they fly in this region. In fact, the challenging butterflies are often the most interesting. There are, of course, various difficulties with creating a comprehensive list to subspecies level, and so it tends to evolve as I learn more or with taxonomic changes.

In my garden I may see fifteen or so different species in a typical year (I've seen twenty-five species there over the years). But by day-tripping to various places no more than a few hours' drive from my house, I can multiply this number many times over. In fact, there are about 215 taxa that I've listed for our area. The lists on this site are all of these butterflies - those I'd like to photograph that are in my area or a reasonable drive from where I live. My goal is eventually to see and photograph them all, as well as their host plants. Some that are rare or only occasionally stray into our area are common in Arizona, and I've included a few photographs from there.

Southern California is an incredibly diverse place to explore and enjoy the natural world. Mountain forests, beaches, wetlands, grasslands, deserts, meadows, even islands - all are within easy reach with their various lepidopterous inhabitants. I've learned to appreciate these places, and I hope my photographs help convey some of the richness of our native flora and fauna.

Feel free to e-mail me: denbugg at hotmail dot com.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to John F. Emmel, Jim Brock, Ken Davenport, Bill Gendron, Gordon Pratt, Fred Heath, John Pasko and Chris Henzlik for all the invaluable help with identifications, locations, suggestions, etc. Any mistakes are my own.