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Photo#458077
Speyeria mormonia? - Speyeria mormonia - male

Speyeria mormonia? - Speyeria mormonia - Male
Steens, Harney County, Oregon, USA
August 14, 2010
~7000ft elevation. Habitat; Sagebrush scrubland with wetlands nearby.
Thought maybe Coronis Fritillary but no dice

Good points, and you are correct.
I jumped to a conclusion and missed some data about where ssp. artonis is found. I tend to forget sometimes that everything is not always the same through all the mountains of eastern Oregon. Subspecies erinna occurs in the next mountains to the north, but artonis is documented as the subspecies from the Steens. They look pretty much the same above (both a bit "different" from the usual for the species), but below artonis is much paler (though I'm sure that there might be occasional individuals that look more like the other in both subspecies).

Moved from Speyeria mormonia erinna.

 
Next time,
I'll try harder to get a photo of the underside to make it easier but not all these butterflies are patient enough for that.
Thanks and Sincerely,
Mark

 
I've thought about carrying a potted blooming Thistle plant
[or something equally intoxicating] around with me to see if I could get things to come and behave better for a camera. I've never tried it out though.

 
Do butterflies love thistle?
So is thistle a plant butterflies are highly attracted to? Are there any smaller plants that they also like a lot? The main thistles around here are quite large (I think bull thistle is what I usually see).
Thanks

 
Partly I was being silly; but yes,
Thistle flowers are like butterfly candy - most love them, and all Fritillaries definitely do. Certainly some kinds are no more than a foot tall, but still might be a bit nasty to travel around with. Smaller and easier to get in a pot, and also loved by many butterflies, are Chrysanthemums and Asters (some individual plants seem to be better than others though). A potted Butterfly Weed might work well. Lavender is a winner too, but agian, it's usually big. One of these days I will give it a try, and see if it works. Rotting fruit, beer, and other fermenting or putrid things can work as bait, but not so much for Fritillaries.

 
Interesting
Lavender you can cut off a small branch and plant it in fall then the following year it will bloom and still be pretty small. Cool I might try that if we have more room in the vehicle next year (we were stuffed sardines in the SUV that trip). Thanks for the information!

I'm pretty confident in the ID
Moved from ID Request.

 
I thought...
.. by looking at "The Butterflies of Cascadia" by Robert M. Pyle (Seattle Audubon Soc.) that it would be S. m. artonis due to the location might equal S. mormonia artonis though I know location isn't always the best way to determine the I.D.
Here's a section from "The Butterflies of Cascadia";
Pg. 277. Variation. Lines 18-22: "... S. m. artonis (W.H. Edwards), 1881 TL Wells, Elko Co., NV, flies in N Great Basin ranges, reaching high meadows of Steens Mtn in Harney Co., OR. Dornfield describes i as "strangely pale and washed-out looking, almost concolorously yellow" below."
Sincerely,
Mark

difficult to be 100% certain
without being able to see the underside, but this one definitely looks like S. mormonia to me, a male.

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