Species Limenitis weidemeyerii - Weidemeyer's Admiral - Hodges#4524

4524

Limenitis weidemeyerii W.H. Edwards, 1861. Type locality: Rocky Mountains [neotype designated by S. Perkins and E. Perkins, 1967, in F.M. Brown: Lakewood, Jefferson County, Colorado]

Basilarchia weidemeyerii (W.H. Edwards) Grote, 1873

Limenitis (Basilarchia) weidemeyerii (W.H. Edwards) ? date and author

Limenitis weidemeyerii lorquini (W.H. Edward) ? Porter, 1990

Named after John William Weidemeyer, whose collection was the source for the original specimen.

Butterflies of America lists 6 subspecies in our area:

Above, black with a wide white postmedian band on both forewings and hindwings. Below, forewing is black with white band and white spots inside band. Hindwing is blue-grey with black cross lines inside the white band and a variable row of reddish spots inside a row of blue-grey crescents outside the white band.

Larva is hump-backed, mottled grey and white.

The Rocky Mountains and adjacent lowlands.

Found around wet places where its host plants grow.

Larvae feed on Poplar (Populus spp.), Willow (Salix spp.) and perhaps other woody plants.

White Admiral is similar on the upperside, except for blue markings along the edge, but below has a much darker hindwing with extensive red markings. It is generally found in the northeast.

Lorquin's Admiral has brown wing tips, above and is much more brown on the underside. Its range encompasses the west coast.

Nearctica.com

eNature.com

Butterflies of America

Butterflies of Canada

Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, v.13, p.162    Edwards' original description of the species.