Sleepy Orange Large Orange Sulphur Queen Monarch (Abaeis nicippe) ( agarithe) (Danaus gilippus) (Danaus plexippus) Wingspan: 1 3/8” to 2 ¼” Wingspan: 2 ¼” to 3 3/8” Wingspan: 2 5/8” to 3 7/8” Wingspan: 3 3/8” to 4 7/8” Food: cassia Food: ebony, Food: milkweed species Food: milkweed species Nectar: various flowers feather tree Nectar: milkweeds, Nectar: milkweed Nectar: , frogfruit species, composites ,

Gulf Fritillary Cloudless Sulphur (Agraulis vanillae) (Phoebis sennae) Wingspan: 2 ½” to 3 ¾” Wingspan: 2 ¼” to 3 1/8” Empress Leilia Orange Sulphur Food: Passilfora Food: cassia species, (Asterocampa leilia) ( eurytheme) (Passionflower) desert Wingspan: 1 ½” to 3” Wingspan: 1 3/8” to 2¾” Nectar: composites, Nectar: bougainvillea, Food: desert Food: Pea family, lantana desert senna, hibiscus, hackberry Nectar: milkweed, , lantana Nectar: sap, dung, goldenrod some nectar

Texan Crescent (Anthanassa texana) Wingspan: 1 ¼” to 1 7/8” Tailed Orange Food: jacobina, , Variegated Fritillary (Pyrisitia proterpia) frogfruit ( Claudia) Mexican Yellow Wingspan: 1 ¾” to 2 ¼” Nectar: betony, Wingspan: 1 ¾” to 3 1/8” (Eurema Mexicana) Food: mesquite, cassia dicliptera, frogfruit Food: Wingspan: 1 ¾” to 2 ½” species (passionflower) Food: fern acacia, cassia Nectar: various flowers Nectar: aster, fleabane, species milkweed, thistle Nectar: cassia and acacia species

Bordered Patch (Chlosyne lacinia) Wingspan: 1 3/8” to 2” Southern Dogface Food: Sunflower family, ( cesonia) ragweed Dainty Sulphur Wingspan: 2 1/8” to 3” Nectar: various flowers Mexican Fritillary (Nathalis iole) Food: , Baja fairy () Wingspan: ¾” to 1 ¼” duster, dalea Wingspan: 2 ½” to 3” Food: Dyssodia, Nectar: , Food: morning glory, sneezeweed, Tagetes Passiflora (passionflower) Nectar: asters, marigold, Nectar: lantana rabbitbrush

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Common Buckeye Palmer’s Metalmark Fiery Skipper ( coenia) ( annabella) ( palmeri) (Hylephila phyleus) Wingspan: 1 5/8” to 2¾” Wingspan: 1½” to 2¼” Wingspan: ¾” to 1 1/8” Wingspan: 1¼” to 1½” Food: toadflax, ruellia, Food: Mallow family Food: honey and Food: Bermuda and other Snapdragon family Nectar: various flowers screwbean mesquite grasses Nectar: aster, chickory, Nectar: honey and Nectar: milkweed, aster, peppermint screwbean mesquite thistle

Painted Lady () American Snout Wingspan: 2”to 2 7/8” Eufala Skipper (Libytheana carineta) Food: legumes, mallow, (Lerodea eufala) Wingspan: 1 3/8” to 2” thistle Wingspan: 1” to 1 ¼” Food: desert and western Nectar: aster, milkweed, Food: Bermuda and hackberry thistle Johnson grass Nectar: aster, black-eyed Fatal Metalmark Nectar: alfalfa, Susan, goldenrod () composites Wingspan: ¾” to 1” Food: brittlebush, seepwillow Nectar: brittlebush

Tiny Checkerspot (Dymasia dymas) White Checkered- Wingspan: 7/8” to 1 3/8” Skipper Food: Acanthus family (Pyrgus albescens) Nectar: various flowers Cabbage White Wingspan: 1” to 1 ½” (Pieris rapae) Food: globemallow, (Vanessa virginiensis) Wingspan: 1¾” to 2¼” desert ironwood Wingspan: 1 ¾” to 2 5/8” Food: Mustard family Nectar: knapweed, Food: Artemisia, Nectar: mustard, red clover, sunflower clover, aster, mint sweetbush Nectar: marigold, Elada Checkerspot milkweed, verbena (Texola elada) Powdered Skipper Wingspan: 7/8” to 1¼” (Systasea zampa) Food: yellow composites Wingspan: 1 to 1 ½” Nectar: various flowers Food: Mallow family Nectar: various flowers

Checkered White (Pontia protodice) Wingspan: 1 ½” to 2 ½” Red Admiral Food: mustard family () including cabbage Funereal Duskywing Wingspan: 1¾” to 3” Nectar: mustards and (Erynnis funeralis) Food: Nettle family composites Wingspan: 1 ¼” to 1 ¾” Nectar: tree sap, Food: deerweed, rotting fruit, desert ironwood bird droppings Nectar: Mexican oregano, wolfberry

Mourning Cloak Western Pygmy-Blue Marine Blue Based on several years’ observations, here is a list (Nymphalis antiopa) (Brephidium exilis) ( marina) of butterfly species you are most likely to see in Wingspan: 2¼” to 4” Wingspan: ½” to ¾” Wingspan: 7/8” to 1 1/8” the gardens and when: Food: willow, cotton- world’s smallest Food: , kidney- wood, hackberry Food: saltbush wood, legumes, mesquite Nectar: oak sap, Nectar: fourwing Nectar: alfalfa, kidney- QUEEN — common all year rotting fruit saltbush, goldenrod wood, Noxious chemicals in the milkweeds that feed both adults and caterpillars make the and their young distasteful and help deter potential predators.

Pipevine Swallowtail GULF FRITILLARY — common all year (Battus philenor) The Gulf is one of the “longwing” butterflies, having Wingspan: 2 ¾” to 5” long, narrow wings as compared to other butterflies. Food: Aristolochia (pipevine) PIPEVINE SWALLOWTAIL — common all year Nectar: lantana, lupine, Spring ‘Echo’ Azure thistle, verbena (Celastrina ladon echo) At rest, these distinctive butterflies rhythmically open Wingspan: ¾” to 1¼” and close their wings, fluttering them when feeding. Food: includes Great Purple elderberry Hairstreak MARINE BLUE — common spring to fall Nectar: various (Atlides halesus) Caterpillars at rest on Velvet Mesquite resemble a flowers, buckwheat Wingspan: 1¼” to 2” mesquite leaf. Food: mistletoe Nectar: goldenrod, TEXAN CRESCENT — common spring to fall sweet pepperbush, Caterpillars feed en masse, laying trails of silk threads wild plum to anchor themselves to the and guide their sib- Giant Swallowtail lings. (Papilio cresphontes) Wingspan: 4” to 6 ¼” Food: citrus SLEEPY ORANGE — common spring to fall It may have gotten its name from the black spot on Nectar: bougainvillea, Reakirt’s Blue lantana (Echinargus isola) Leda Ministreak each forewing that resembles a closed eye. Wingspan: ¾” to 1 1/8” (Ministrymon leda) Food: Astragulus, dalea, Wingspan: ¾” to 7/8” CLOUDLESS SULPHUR — common spring to fall mesquite Food: mesquite This Sulphur is taken from Phoebe (Phoebis), one of Nectar: rabbitbrush Nectar: beebush, the oracles at Delphi, and the Senna (sennae) to lantana, mesquite which many of the species’ larval belong.

Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) SOUTHERN DOGFACE — common spring to fall Wingspan: 3¼” to 4¼” In this case it’s the upper side of the forewing that Food: citrus, Parsley sports a dogface pattern. family Nectar: milkweed, Gray Hairstreak DAINTY SULPHUR — common spring to fall clover, thistle Ceraunus Blue Adults rest with their wings closed, holding them per- (Strymon melinus) (Hemiargus ceraunus) Wingspan: 7/8” to 1 3/8” pendicular to the sun to warm themselves. Wingspan: ¾” to 1 1/8” Food: Mallow and Food: Baja fairy duster, Pea families, cotton MONARCH – uncommon all year mesquite Nectar: milkweed, mint Monarchs migrate thousands of miles each year to Nectar: various flowers winter along the coast and in central Mexico.

GIANT SWALLOWTAIL — common spring to fall Caterpillars, known as “orange dogs,” feed exclusively on citrus leaves; their resemblance to bird droppings serves as the perfect disguise from predators! Butterfly Life Cycle Without the ability to chew, adults use special- Going “Native” Attracts Butterflies ized sensors in their feet to “taste” a plant be- Found on every continent except Antarctica Select plants native to the Sonoran Desert or other arid re- fore deciding whether it is one their caterpillars and in every kind of from tropical for- gions for your garden. Provide a mix of both larval and nectar can eat and therefore a good place to lay their ests to tundra, butterflies don’t begin life as plants; a variety of flowering plants also insures a year round eggs. beautiful, winged creatures, but start out as nectar supply. Plant in groups, masses of flowers are more wriggly caterpillars. Over the course of several Unlike their adult selves, caterpillars chew their likely to attract passing butterflies. Finally, avoid pesticides weeks, caterpillars spend all their time eating leafy food, using strong jaws. Virtual eating ma- and herbicides. What else? Fill a pie plate with gravel and leaves and flowers, shedding their skins as chines, caterpillars are actually picky eaters, then keep filled with fresh water for drinks and/or provide a they grow bigger. When the time is right, they each species having its own “go-to” plants. damp soil area where adults can acquire needed salts and begin the process of metamorphosis. Turning minerals. You can even set our pieces of overripe fruit which that final shed skin into a pupa, or chrysalis, will attract species like the Empress Leilia which prefers rotted fruit and tree sap. they continue the transformation process, Puddle Parties emerging weeks, or even months, later as an Larval Plants Ever wondered what that gathering of butter- adult butterfly. Most adults live only a short Dutchman’s Pipe (Aristolochia watsonii) – summer-fall – Pipevine Swallowtail flies was doing around that mud puddle? To time, just long enough to lay eggs for the next Arizona Passionflower Passiflora( foetida) – late spring-fall – Gulf Fritillary supplement generation. their diet of Both Larval and Adult Plants sugars, Pineleaf (Asclepias ) and Desert Milkweed (A. subulata) – spring-fall – Queen and Mon- butterflies arch (larval), Queen and Painted Lady (adult) gather salts Baja Fairy Duster ( californica) – all year – Ceraunus Blue (larval and adult) and other Dogweed (Dyssodia pentachaeta) – all year – Dainty Sulphur (larval), Dainty Sulphur and West- minerals ern Pygmy Blue (adult) from damp Desert Senna (Senna covesii) – spring-fall – Cloudless Sulphur (larval and adult) soil and muddied water. Males are more likely to go “puddling,” the minerals collected Adult Plants passed along in their sperm improving the vi- Butterfly MistAgeratum ( corymbosum) – spring-fall – Queen, Painted Lady ability of the female’s eggs. Woolly Butterfly BushBuddleia ( marrubifolia) – spring-summer – multiple species Red Bird of Paradise (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) – late spring-fall – Swallowtails and Sulphurs Lantana species (Lantana sp.) – spring-fall – multiple species Butterfly or Moth? Autumn Sage (Salvia greggii) – spring and fall – multiple species Eating for Two How do you tell the difference? Butterflies are Adult butterflies generally active during the day, while moths Migration . . . on the road again! drink their meals, a are nocturnal. Butterflies have smooth anten- Just like birds, many butterflies will relocate to avoid seasonal changes in the weather or to find liquid diet of nectar nae that end in a rounded bulb, while those new food sources. Most notable is the Monarch and its annual two-way migration. Some species from flowers, sap of moths are feathered. At rest, a butterfly “overwinter” as caterpillars, pupae or even as adults, from trees or juice holds its wings upright; moths fold their wings but Monarchs cannot live through a cold winter. Travel- from ripe fruits. over their back. Butterflies perform their ling as much as 3,000 miles one-way, Monarchs from They use their pro- transformation in a chrysalis hanging from a west of the Rocky Mountains spend the winter along boscis, a long, tube- stem or branch or even a wall. Moths either the California coast while those from central North like tongue, just like spin a cocoon of silk or pupate underground. America spend the winter in roosts in the mountains of a straw. When not in And finally, though some moths can be color- central Mexico in large colonies of millions of individu- use, it conveniently curls up like a garden ful, butterflies are the ones whose brilliant als. When spring comes, they head north again, succes- hose. colors make them standouts in the natural sive generations journeying all the way back to where world. their “ancestors” started.