Edith's checkerspot facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Edith's checkerspot
In Olympic National Park, Washington state, U.S.
Scientific classification
Subspecies
See text

The Edith's checkerspot (Euphydryas editha) is a type of butterfly found in western North America. It belongs to the Nymphalidae family, also known as brush-footed butterflies. Scientists are very interested in how different groups of this butterfly look. They can vary a lot in color, wing size, and body size.

Most Edith's checkerspot butterflies eat only one type of plant. These plants, like Plantago erecta and Orthocarpus densiflorus, are important for the butterfly's life cycle. They use these plants from when they are eggs, through their caterpillar (larva) and pupa stages, until they become adult butterflies. Male butterflies often mate with many females, but females usually mate only once. Males spend a lot of time looking for mates, often by flying to the tops of hills.

Sadly, changes in climate and the destruction of their homes (habitats) have harmed some groups of these butterflies. Two special types, the Euphydryas editha quino and the Euphydryas editha bayensis, are now protected by the Endangered Species Act.

What Edith's Checkerspot Butterflies Look Like

The Edith's checkerspot butterfly has black wings with bands of red and pale yellow or white. It also has a band of yellow or white spots near the edge of its wings. Another wide red band crosses the middle of its wings. The underside of the wings has stripes of yellow-orange and cream colors.

These butterflies have a wingspan of about 3.2 to 5.1 centimeters (1.2 to 2 inches). However, their look can change a bit depending on where they live. Butterflies from coastal areas are black with red and cream spots. Those from mountains are often red or have a mix of red, black, and cream spots. Butterflies living at higher altitudes are usually smaller and darker.

The caterpillars of this butterfly are black with white or orange spots, or they might have white stripes. The pupae (the stage before becoming an adult butterfly) are white or gray, with black blotches and streaks.

Where Edith's Checkerspot Butterflies Live

The Edith's checkerspot butterfly lives in North America. You can find them from southern British Columbia and Alberta in Canada, all the way south to Baja California, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado in the United States.

They are common in places like the San Bernardino Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, and the higher Cascade Mountains in Oregon and Washington. They also live in parts of the Great Basin and the Rocky Mountains. You might even spot them on hiking trails such as the Animas River Trail or the Colorado Trail.

Edith's Checkerspot Habitats

These butterflies usually live in mountains. They prefer open areas like ridgetops. Their homes can range from coastal chaparral (a type of shrubland) and open woodlands to high alpine tundra (cold, treeless areas).

Edith's checkerspots like grasslands and rocky spots in the mountains. They are often found in areas with serpentine soils. These soils don't have many nutrients, but they support the native grasslands that the butterflies love.

Plants Edith's Checkerspots Use

Edith's checkerspot caterpillars eat different kinds of plants. These include various species of paintbrush (Castilleja), beardtongues (Penstemon), lousewort (Pedicularis), owl's clover (Orthocarpus), Chinese houses (Collinsia), and plantain (Plantago).

Many groups of these butterflies eat only one type of plant. Their choice of plant often depends on where they live. Things like where they lay eggs and how they move are suited to their local area. This means the butterflies' survival depends a lot on when their favorite host plants grow each year.

How They Eat

Edith's checkerspot caterpillars use different plants for food and shelter. While they usually don't help pollinate the flowers, caterpillars are known to eat the leaves, flowers, and sometimes even the whole plant. If they run out of food, they might starve trying to find another plant.

Adult male and female butterflies drink nectar from flowers. Caterpillars munch on the leaves and flowers of their host plant, and sometimes nearby plants too.

Life Cycle of Edith's Checkerspot

Female Edith's checkerspot butterflies start laying eggs about a day after they become adults. They lay groups of up to hundreds of eggs at the bottom of their chosen host plants. Most groups of these butterflies are monophagous, meaning they only lay eggs on one type of plant, even if other options are available. Common plants they use include Plantago erecta and Orthocarpus densiflorus.

Edith's checkerspot caterpillar

The eggs hatch into young caterpillars (larvae). These caterpillars need to grow enough to enter a resting stage called diapause before their host plants dry up in the summer. To help their babies survive, female butterflies try to lay eggs on cool, moist slopes. This is where the host plants stay green for longer.

Once the caterpillars enter diapause, they need to warm up by basking in the sun. This helps them grow. Their body temperature can be about 10-12°C (18-22°F) warmer than the air around them. They grow fastest when their body temperature is between 30-35°C (86-95°F). They need enough sunlight to finish diapause and become a full-grown butterfly. It's interesting because these caterpillars no longer prefer the cool, shady slopes where they grew up, as too much shade can slow their growth.

How Edith's Checkerspots Protect Themselves

Caterpillars in the Euphydryas group are often attacked by one to three types of tiny wasps or flies called parasitoids. These include Apanteles wasps, Benjaminia wasps, and tachnid flies.

Checkerspot butterflies have ways to protect themselves from predators. Their caterpillars can twitch together at the same time to scare off attackers. Also, depending on the plant they ate as caterpillars, the larvae, pupae, and adult butterflies can be a bit poisonous to animals that try to eat them. This is because they might take in toxins from the plants.

Males Emerge First

This butterfly shows something called protandry. This means the male butterflies usually come out of their pupa stage about 4 to 8 days before the females do. Both males and females live for about 10 days on average, though some can live up to three weeks.

This early emergence of males can affect how successful they are at mating. For butterflies like the Edith's checkerspot, mating earlier in the season might lead to more surviving offspring in the next generation. This is because the young caterpillars need to grow to a certain size before their host plants dry up in the summer. So, caterpillars from eggs laid earlier in the season are more likely to reach that size. This is why males who mate at the start of the season are more likely to have surviving offspring than those who mate a few weeks later.

Protecting Edith's Checkerspot Butterflies

The different types of Edith's checkerspot butterflies show how climates have changed over long periods. Scientists expect that global warming will cause these butterflies to disappear from southern areas in the coming years. This is because the warm season is getting shorter there.

In the warmest, southernmost areas, about three-quarters of the butterfly groups have already died out. But in colder, northern areas like Canada, less than twenty percent have disappeared. It has been found that four times as many groups died out along the southern borders (like Baja California and Mexico) compared to the northern borders (Canada). Also, nearly three times as many groups died out at lower elevations (below 2,400 meters or 8,000 feet) than at higher elevations (from 2,400 to 3,800 meters or 8,000 to 12,500 feet). This pattern matches what scientists predict about global warming. It shows that the butterfly's living range has moved both northward and to higher elevations since the 1800s.

For the Euphydryas editha quino subspecies, the main reason for its decline is the destruction of its habitat. Climate change also poses a threat. The Quino checkerspot groups along the southernmost border (in Mexico) are most at risk from the continuing warming and drying climate. Sadly, these are also the best remaining habitats with the least threat from human development. In contrast, most Quino habitat in the Los Angeles–San Diego area has been destroyed by building and development.

Because of the Quino checkerspot's situation, it was the first time a plan to save a habitat listed climate change as a current threat. This means climate change should be considered when designing protected areas and managing efforts to help species recover. Some checkerspot butterflies that don't move much have stayed in their original homes despite human activity. They have even developed ways to adapt to these changes.

In January 1997, the subspecies Euphydryas editha quino and Euphydryas editha bayensis were given federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. This law helps protect animals and plants that are in danger of disappearing. The Euphydryas editha bayensis has also been given a special rank of T1 by the Nature Conservancy. This means very few individuals of this subspecies are left.

How Edith's Checkerspots Affect Humans

Edith's checkerspot butterflies lay their eggs on different plant species. Sometimes, this can cause the host plant to die. If these plants are important for farming or other human uses, this could have an economic impact. Also, the caterpillars, pupae, and adult butterflies can be poisonous if eaten by animals with backbones (vertebrates).

On the positive side, adult butterflies help with pollination. When they visit flowers to drink nectar, they sometimes help spread pollen, which is good for the plants in their habitat.

Types of Edith's Checkerspot Subspecies

The Edith's checkerspot species has many different types, called subspecies. This list might change as scientists learn more or find new ones.

• Euphydryas editha alebarki Ferris, 1971 – Klots' checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha augusta (Edwards, 1890) – Augusta checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha aurilacus Gunder, 1928 – Gold Lake checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha baroni Edwards, 1879 – Baron's checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha bayensis Sternitzky, 1937 – Bay checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha beani Skinner, 1897 – Bean's checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha bingi Baughman & Murphy, 1998 – Bing's checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha colonia (Wright, 1905) – Colonia checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha editha (Boisduval, 1852) – Edith’s checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha edithana Strand, 1914 – Strand's checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha ehrlichi Baughmon and Murphy, 1998 – Ehrlich's checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha fridayi Gunder, 1931
• Euphydryas editha hutchinsi McDunnough, 1928 – Hutchins' checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha gunnisonensis Brown, 1971 – Gunnison checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha karinae Baughman & Murphy, 1998
• Euphydryas editha koreti Murphy and Ehrlich, 1983 – Koret's checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha insularis Emmel & Emmel, 1974 – Island checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha lawrencei Gunder, 1931 – Lawrence's checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha lehmani Gunder, 1929 – Lehman Caves checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha luestherae Murphy & Ehrlich, 1981 – LuEsther's checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha mattooni – Mattoon's checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha monoensis Gunder, 1928 – Mono Lake checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha nubigena Behr, 1863 – Cloud-born checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha owyheensis Austin & Murphy, 1998
• Euphydryas editha quino (Behr, 1863) – Quino checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha remingtoni Burdick, 1959
• Euphydryas editha rubicunda (H. Edwards, 1881) – Ruddy checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha tahoensis Austin & Murphy, 1998 – Lake Tahoe checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha taylori (Edwards, 1888) – Taylor's checkerspot
• Euphydryas editha wrighti Gunder, 1929 – Wright's checkerspot

Images for kids

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  Female and male Edith's checkerspots mating

See also

In Spanish: Euphydryas editha para niños