Lepidoptera of North America 16 Butterflies of the Sierra Nevada By Ken Davenport Contributions of the C.P. Gillette Museum of Arthropod Diversity Colorado State University Lepidoptera of North America 16 Butterflies of the Sierra Nevada by Ken Davenport 8417 Rosewood Avenue Bakersfield, California 93306-6151 Museum Associate C.P. Gillette Museum of Arthropod Diversity Department of Agricultural Biology Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado 80523-1177 March 10, 2020 Front cover: Indra Swallowtail, Papilio indra Reakirt Image courtesy of Paul A. Opler, Paul and Evi Nature Photography ISSN 1084-8819 This publication and others in this series are open access and may be accessed and downloaded at no cost at https://dspace.library.colostate.edu/discover/contributions ofthec.p.Gillettemuseum Copyright 2020© BUTTERFLIES OF THE SIERRA NEVADA IN CALIFORNIA AND NEVADA. By Ken Davenport Museum Associate, C. P. Gillette Museum of Arthropod Diversity, Colorado State University. Abstract: This publication covers the butterfly fauna of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in eastern California and a small area of the Carson Spur in western Nevada. At present (2019), 192 species, 104 subspecies and 15 segregates are known to have occurred within the range at least twice. Five additional species have been recorded at least once in the Sierra Nevada. This publication covers distributions of these butterflies within the Sierra Nevada and three National Parks, their habitats, flight periods and taxonomic issues based on current knowledge. THE SIERRA NEVADA The Sierra Nevada occupies 28,000 square miles and runs 400 miles from north to south and varies from 50 to 80 miles wide at different locations. The range was primarily formed by block faulting and volcanic activity that raised granitic and other volcanic rocks to elevations along the Sierran Crest (Hill, 1975; Huber, 1989 and Matthes, 1930) that has thousands of summits over 10,000’ elevation and ten peaks that exceed 14,000’ and several others over 13,000’. Rivers and glaciers have cut deep canyons on both the west and east slopes and there are many volcanic domes and monoliths, with Half Dome a favorite of those visiting Yosemite Valley. Water has washed sedimentary soil down the slopes to form valley foothills and glacial moraines. The range is filled with scenic mountains, impressive waterfalls and a wide range of plant communities and scenic wonders. There are about 20 rivers that drain the west slope of the Sierra Nevada and provide water to the San Joaquin Valley and California. Some major rivers include the American, San Joaquin, Feather, Kings, Sacramento, Tuolumne, Merced, Kern, Stanislaus and Kaweah Rivers. The Little Walker and Owens Rivers drain the east slope of the Sierra Nevada but those streams end up in lakes in the Great Basin or their water is diverted to Los Angeles. There are three National Parks that draw millions of visitors every year which include Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks covered with trails, impressive waterfalls, forests, rivers and sheer granite cliffs thousands of feet high, Giant Sequoia Groves and a wide variety of plants and animals, including a rich butterfly fauna inside and outside the Parks. The highest peaks in the Sierra Nevada include Mt. Whitney 14,505’, the highest peak in the lower 48 states, Mt. Williamson 14,379’, North Palisade 14,252’, Mt. Sill 14,248’, Mt. Russell 14,094’, Split Mountain 14,064’, Mt. Langely 14,032’ right next to Mt. Whitney, Mt. Tyndall 14,025’, Mt. Muir 14,018’, Middle Palisade, 14,018’, Mt. Lyell 13,114’ and Mt. Dana 13,057’, 5 the latter two the highest mountains in Yosemite National Park with Mt. Whitney located in Sequoia National Park. There are some glaciers in the range, including the Palisades Glacier west of Big Pine by North Palisade and Middle Palisade. The formation of this mountain range has resulted in a gradual increase in elevation on the Sierra Nevada west slope to the Sierran Crest composed of very high mountain peaks, subalpine meadows and cold clear water streams and a great many high elevation lakes. Then there is an abrupt steep drop downwards on the east side of the Sierra Nevada. This situation limits where mountain passes can go. Walker Pass near the south end of the Sierra Nevada is only 5250’ and the highest elevations in Kern County are less than 9000’, so there is very little Canadian Life Zone and no Hudsonian or Arctic Alpine Life Zones in Kern County, so the high elevation Sierra Nevada fauna is absent in that area. The south end of the Sierra Nevada in Kern County is seen from Highway 14 in the Cantil area and that area north to Highway 178 (the Walker Pass Road to Weldon and south along the east slope of the Piute Mountains, a subrange of the Sierra Nevada, is dominated by the Mojave Desert plant community and a mix of Sierra Nevada montane butterflies and Mojave Desert butterfly species. The Mojave Desert ranges north along the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada to about Whitney Portal east of Mt. Whitney and west of Lone Pine in Inyo County, then replaced by Great Basin Desert north of there. The Sherman Pass Road travels east from the Kern River near the bridge south of Johnsondale has a scenic turnout at Sherman Pass summit at 9200’ where one can see the Mineral King area in Sequoia National Park to the north, Olancha Peak and Mt. Whitney to the east and northeastern, and Kennedy Meadows to the southeast. From Sherman Pass, the road then goes eastward, then southward through Kennedy Meadows to the Chimney Peak Road, then east down the very dry barren looking Nine Mile Canyon to the Mojave Desert at Hwy. 395. Some species of the High Sierra begin to appear above 8000’ in the Sherman Pass area and over 120 species of butterflies occur in the Sherman Pass area. Several Mojave Desert species including Megathymus yuccae martini, Anthocharis cethura hadromarmorata, Euphilotes mojave and Apodemia mejicanus deserti occur in lower Nine Mile Canyon along that road in April. No paved roads access Sequoia or Kings Canyon National Parks from the east side of the range and no paved roads reach the west slopes of the very high country either. The only access to the really high peaks in those Parks is by trail and back packing. Conversely, many roads access the west side of the Sierra Nevada but few of those reach the Sierran Crest. The first Sierra Nevada Pass with a paved road north of Walker Pass on the east side of the Sierra Nevada to completely cross the range is Tioga Pass at 9943’ which enters Yosemite National Park from Lee Vining and scenic Mono Lake. This area is readily accessible to lepidopterists (unless the road is closed because of snow, ice or rockslides) as many square miles of National Forest are outside of the Park. The next Pass to the north is Sonora Pass at 9,624’which readily accesses the Arctic-Alpine Zone with relatively easy hikes short distances from a parking lot and trailhead at the Pass. Other east slope accessible Passes with paved roads further north include Carson Pass at 8574’ and Ebbetts Pass at 8736’ but Donner Pass 7056’has a well-known butterfly fauna based on 6 published reports by Thomas and John Emmel and Arthur Shapiro and his University of California, Davis students. A small part of the Sierra Nevada, the Carson Spur, is important because many Sierra Nevada species enter Nevada only in Carson City, Douglas and Washoe counties. Mt. Rose at 8911’ is the highest peak there, but being further north and with a wetter and colder climate, several boreal butterfly species are found there. The northern part of the range in Sierra and Plumas counties lacks the tall peaks found in the High Country of the Sierran Crest with the highest peaks at about 9000’ elevation, so many species of butterflies found on mountains above 11,000’ do not occur in those counties, but are replaced with other desirable species not found to the south. Paul Opler conducts regular butterfly counts in the Yuba Pass area and kindly shared those records in the species accounts butterfly records section. METHODS OF ASSEMBLING THIS INFORMATION AND REPORT. The author has been actively collecting and observing butterflies in the Sierra Nevada since 1962. On a 1963 trip as a young boy to Yosemite National Park I was impressed with the butterfly faunal collection on display at the Yosemite Museum and on a return trip to Yosemite Valley in 1970, I would see Garth & Tilden’s 1963 Yosemite Butterflies book in a book and gift store which I bought; this book really ignited my interest in butterfly faunal papers and butterfly taxonomy which included subspecies. I would later do a similar study of the butterflies of Kern County after meeting Jim Brock in Bakersfield where we both lived in 1975 (and where I still live); Jim taught me a lot about the butterflies of that region, which included many butterflies of the Sierra Nevada fauna. Then in 1983, the Lepidopterists’ Society published my scientific paper on the butterflies of Kern County, later writing a much more detailed report about the butterflies of Kern and Tulare Counties (174 species occurred in those two counties) which included many Sierra Nevada species published in several editions in 2003, 2008 and 2014 by Colorado State University. The author also wrote a lengthy publication on Yosemite Butterflies, an area which I visited frequently inside National Forests outside the Park. That work was published by The International Lepidopterist’s Survey in two editions in 2004 and 2007 which covered the text of 171 butterflies known to occur in the Yosemite region, and a Color Plates issue in 2007 with Norbert Kondla, C.