Red-Spotted Purple, Limenitis arthemis astyanax
Nymphalidae or Brushfoot Butterfly Family

Medium large butterfly, with wingspan of about 3 to 3.5 inches.  Upper surface of the wings black shading to iridescent blue toward the rear.  Wings are edged with rows of pale blue and white bands.  The forewings have an additional inner row of tiny red to orange spots.  The hind wings have a black band between the pale spots and the blue.  Underneath the wings are dark, dusted with blue, with a row of large orange spots and rows of white bands along the edges and with several black-rimmed red to orange spots near the body.  The adults sip moisture from tree sap, mud puddles, animal dung, and occasionally from flowers.

The larva is a hideous lumpy, bumpy, green, white and orange thing with two long black bumpy horns.  It resembles a bird dropping, which protects it from predators.  The larvae feed on leave of cherry, birch and willow; in Wildwood they probably depend on black cherry. 

Red-Spotted Purples are a subspecies of Limenitis arthemis that are found in the southeastern US from Florida to Texas, north to New England to Minnesota.  The northern subspecies (Limenitis arthemis arthemis) is called the White Admiral and looks very different, with a broad white band across the the black wings and blue spots along the edges.  There is a white band underneath as well.  White Admirals do not make it as far south as Virginia, so we will not see them in the Park.  In New England west to Minnesota the two subspecies overlap and can interbreed.
Red-Spotted Purples probably evolved their variant color scheme to mimic members of the blue and black swallowtail complex, several of which are poisonous.  They thus benefit from looking inedible to predators.  They are easily distinguished from all the other members of this complex because they lack the tails at the ends of their wings that are found in all swallowtails.  Also, on the undersides of their wings they have orange spots away from the edge which are not found in other members of the complex.  Others in this complex that are known from Wildwood are the Pipevine Swallowtail, the black form of the female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, and the Spicebush Swallowtail.   

Red-Spotted Purples are a subspecies of Limenitis arthemis that are found in the southeastern US from Florida to Texas, north to New England to Minnesota.  The northern subspecies (Limenitis arthemis arthemis) is called the White Admiral and looks very different, with a broad white band across the the black wings and blue spots along the edges.  There is a white band underneath as well.  White Admirals do not make it as far south as Virginia, so we will not see them in the Park.  In New England west to Minnesota the two subspecies overlap and can interbreed.

Red-Spotted Purples probably evolved their variant color scheme to mimic members of the blue and black swallowtail complex, several of which are poisonous.  They thus benefit from looking inedible to predators.  They are easily distinguished from all the other members of this complex because they lack the tails at the ends of their wings that are found in all swallowtails.  Also, on the undersides of their wings they have orange spots away from the edge which are not found in other members of the complex.  Others in this complex that are known from Wildwood are the Pipevine Swallowtail, the black form of the female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, and the Spicebush Swallowtail. 

 

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