Cryptopod: Serpentine Butterflies

I’m pretty sure they’re butterflies, anyway. Dunno: you lot are the experts in such things:

Image shows a chunk of gray serpentinite with a bit of rust-red staining, pebbly ground, and two brown moths.
Cryptopod I

I know the rocks they’re on and around is serpentinite, which isn’t always green. At Patrick Creek, in northern California, quite a bit of it is this lovely silvery-gray sheen with fabulous colors splashed through it. Pretty amazing what rocks get up to in a subduction zone. I’ll be going in to that soon, as I have twelve trillion pictures with moths and serpentinite and so will save some for after you’ve identified our beauties.

Image shows a close-up of a butterfly. The body is very hairy. The antenna look like golf clubs. The wings are a mottled brown and gray, with light gray triangular patterns. The underwings are a russet brown.
Cryptopod II

The antennae look like they belong to a butterfly, right? It kinda creeps me out to think of really thick, hairy fliers like this as butterflies – I’ve always associated that body style with moths. Like, butterflies are supposed to be brilliantly colored and fluttery and stuff, and moths are the practical ones. Is that why these butterflies evolved to look like moths? They envied their practical cousins?

Image shows a similar butterfly, facing left, wings folded in more of a wedge.
Cryptopod III

This one looks pretty aerodynamic, like a very elegant paper airplane, folded by someone who actually knows what they’re doing. So I suppose I can begin to think of them as sleek. Then again, one goes and looks like it’s sticking its tongue out at us, and shatters the illusion. Even though it’s a very lovely, curly tongue.

One of the moths on a serpentinite pebble. It's got its wings stretched out like an opera cape, and there's a curly little proboscis sticking out.
Cryptopod IV

Can you blow a raspberry with a proboscis? That one’s certainly trying, methinks.

Here’s the two in a grouping more friendly to photographers. Maybe they’re sorry about being rude.

Image shows two of the brown butterflies together.
Cryptopod V

And as a grand finale, one posed beautifully with a pyramidal chunk of serpentinite, which was utterly awesome.

Image shows a pyramid-shaped chunk of serpentinite with a butterfly balanced on the tip, wings outstretched.
Cryptopod VI

Right, my darlings: hopefully you’ll be able to identify our hairy butterflies who seem to love serpentinite as much as we do, and then I can in the near future regale you with tales of serpentinite, with some more fabulous butterfly photos. They really did a great job posing on the rocks for us!

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Cryptopod: Serpentine Butterflies
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5 thoughts on “Cryptopod: Serpentine Butterflies

  1. rq
    2

    Here’s an easy way to differentiate between moths and butterflies: what is the position of the wings at rest? Butterflies will fold them up vertically (or do that annoying open-close bit that makes it difficult to get a good shot of the wingspread), while moths will lay them out flat.
    And yes, butterflies can be pretty drab, and in this case, the curled-up proboscis (awesome shot in IV!) is a give-away for ‘butterfly’.
    Google Images spat out a more southerly duskywing that looks awfully similar, so I’m going to go with Lithified Detritus‘ ID of the Propertius Duskywing.

  2. 3

    My first thought, based on wing position and general appearance was “moth”. But the antennae are clubbed, not feathery, which says “butterfly”. I’ll go along with LD.

  3. 4

    Ah, and I see Duskywings are part of the Pyrginae, or Spread-winged skippers. According to Wikipedia,

    Spread-winged skippers bask with their wings held wide open. The wings are held closed when they are at rest.

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