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Species Phyciodes tharos - Pearl Crescent

Pearl Crescent - Phyciodes tharos Pearl Crescent - Phyciodes tharos Butterfly ID - Phyciodes tharos - female Northern or Pearl Crescent? - Phyciodes tharos - male Unknown Butterfly - Phyciodes tharos - female Type of Crescent? - Phyciodes tharos - female Is this a Crescent? - Phyciodes tharos - female Waterside crescent - Phyciodes tharos
Show images of: caterpillars · adults · both
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Superfamily Papilionoidea (Butterflies (excluding skippers))
Family Nymphalidae (Brushfooted Butterflies)
Subfamily Nymphalinae (Crescents, Checkerspots, Anglewings, etc.)
Tribe Melitaeini
Genus Phyciodes (Crescents)
Species tharos (Pearl Crescent)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
First described in 1770 (without the name- that came in an index that was published with the second volume in 1773) by Dru Drury as Papilio tharos
Explanation of Names
tharos looks like it should be Greek, but isn't in the dictionaries. The closest is tharros (θαρρος), a variant of tharsos (θαρσος)- "courage", which has survived in Modern Greek- but even that doesn't seem likely.
Size
Wingspan: 3.5 cm.
Habitat
Gardens, fields, roadsides and woodland edges. More restricted to streamsides in the west.
Season
summer in northern parts of range, much of year in South
Food
Larval foodplant: Asters. Adults take nectar.
Life Cycle
Flies most of the year in the south (1-3 or more broods)
Remarks
Very common in the East.
See Also
Silvery Checkerspot, Chlosyne nycteis
Mimic Crescent, Phyciodes incognitus (recently described species from Southern Appalachians)
Northern Crescent, Phyciodes cocyta
Phaon Crescent, Phyciodes phaon, underside - see comments on this one for distinguishing marks:
    
Print References
Brock and Kaufman, pp. 176-177 (1)
Glassberg, p. 113, plate 32 (2)
Internet References
Illustrations of Natural History, v.1, p.43    Drury's original description of the species (under "Fig.V and VI"), referring to figs 5 & 6 on Plate 21
Works Cited
1.Butterflies of North America (Kaufman Focus Guides)
By Jim P. Brock, Kenn Kaufman
2.Butterflies Through Binoculars: The East
By Jeffrey Glassberg