CHLOSYNE LACINIA
(click on images to enlarge)


 Chlosyne lacinia is a Nymphalid butterfly occurring 
in the Southwest to Texas and southward to Argentina.
This is a highly variable species in the pupal, larval, and
adult stages.  Four adult forms are recognized although
the systematic justification for these distinctions are
questionable because one mating can produce
offspring resembling all four with an almost continuous
gradation between them. The literature indicates some
geographic specificity, but in fact specimens resembling
all four in the image to the left were collected from one
locality in one morning. From top left to bottom right the
specimens resemble the forms adjutrix, rufescens,
crocale, and nigrescens, respectively.

 

 

Heterosexual lovers in the process of creating a significant evolutionary contribution to the next generation.
 

Laying an egg cluster underneath a wild sunflower leaf.

C. lacinia has been reported to feed (in the larval stage) on numerous Composits. At my first introduction to the species I found large populations on cocklebur (Xanthium saccharatum) at Granite Reef Dam northeast of Mesa, Arizona. However, the most common food source is wild sunflower (Helianthus annuus) which usually grows along or near ditch banks and agricultural fields in the low desert areas of Arizona. It is not a pest of commercial sunflower. C. lacinia is multivoltine, and in the field can complete a life cycle in 25 days.  Mating usually takes place in the morning, and eggs (the egg stage is the only stage that does not exhibit obvious phenotypic variability) are oviposited in clusters underneath leaves.  The average larval cluster size from one egg cluster in the laboratory was 154 with an average of 432 larvae per female (one female can lay more than one egg cluster).
 
 

 
 
 
Skeletonized leaf damage.
Egg cluster.

 

 

Newly emerged first instar larvae. 

 

Gregarious behavior. Third instar larvae near a molt to the 4th instar.

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