What a deal! A butterfly for the butterfly blog! This is a Mylitta Crescent that was in a friend's garden in North Berkeley today. I see quite a few Mylitta Crescents around, but very little of the host plant. The caterpillars eat thistles, both native and imported. We have many weeds in the gardens of Berkeley, but few thistles among them, so I just don't know how this butterfly survives. More info about this insect here: http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=1748
Strangely, the seep-spring yellow monkeyflower, Mimulus guttatus, has been reported as a larval host for Mylitta Crescent. Perhaps it has a wider range of host plants than we know. I also wonder if perhaps Mylitta Crescent could develop on bachelor buttons or some other ornamental Centaurea, or Echinops, globe thistle, since they are in the thistle tribe...
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