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Photo#421959
tawny or northern crescent? - Phyciodes - female

tawny or northern crescent? - Phyciodes - Female
Rouge Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
July 4, 2010
wings a bit tattered and worn

Moved
Moved from Crescents.

Moved

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

Pearls and Northerns will get argued over,
they look so much alike. And, they are even more difficult with just a photo. Tawnys are usually distinctive enough to tell fairly easily, but there is some variation, and some are difficult. Generally (speaking of females) they are darker above overall (particularly toward the edge and the base of the wings) and the central pale band leans more toward tan or pale yellowish than in the others (where it is usually just lighter orange). There is a dark spot near the lower middle of the front wing that is usually solid and blocky in Tawnys and broken with orange in it in the others too. The undersides look different too, but it's hard to detail in brief.

To confuse matters more, several authors are breaking them up into even more (nearly impossible to tell apart) species, so you probably would have four instead of three up your way. And, what look like dark Northerns to me, are being called Tawnys now in the Rockies and Black Hills.

 
Wow....I'm okay with just cal
Wow....I'm okay with just calling it a crescent! thanks for the info. Good to know!

 
northern, tawny, pearl crescent.....?
A few people I have contacted who have photographed butterflies in the same area(Rouge Park, Toronto) have ided my picture as a Northern Crescent. Another photographer spotted a northern crescent in the same general location where I took mine a few days before..... the debate continues.

Gary Yankech

 
northern, tawny, pearl crescent.....?
It very well could be a Northern Crescent. Considering there are orange antennae tips, it is NOT a male Pearl Crescent. That is out of the picture. Male and female Northerns have orange antennae tips, whereas only female Pearls have the orange.

The hindwings are quite orange for female Pearl, but not enough to completely rule it out.

 
Thought it worth pointing out
(but hopefully not seeming contrary) that westward male Pearl Cresents may have orange antenna tips, and in some areas they all do. However, this probably doesn't apply to Ontario. Also, wanted to emphasize that this specimen is definitely a female.

And, Gary, if you're happy knowing it is a Cresent, great! Because this is a common debate, and some photographed specimens never get definitely sorted out. Hope our debate under your photo isn't too distracting, because we love seeing the pictures, keep on sending them in (unlike this one, most of them will probably get a one sentence answer at most, being no problem to identify).

 
I will definitely be sending
I will definitely be sending more pics....thanks for all your inputs! I have learned a lot.

looks like a female
Pearl Crescent - Phyciodes tharos.

 
thanks....I was not sure. I l
thanks....I was not sure. I learned that tawny crescent are not that common here in Ontario.

Gary Yankech

Pearl Crescent
*

 
thanks Corey!
thanks Corey!

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