Nimekuwa mzembe kidogo katika kutuma changamoto za mara kwa mara, kwa hivyo nitajaribu kuchukua mwendo. Nani anaweza kuniambia chochote kuhusu kipepeo huyu? Unayopata zaidi ni kwamba inatoka nusu ya Magharibi ya Amerika. Mikopo kwa familia, jenasi au spishi na kichekesho mikopo kwa spishi ndogo na inatoka wapi.
Euphydryas anicia cloudcrofti
Ted imeweza kutambua kwa haraka lep hii kwa usahihi wa ajabu kwa mvulana wa mende. Ninyi wenye ukoma mnaosoma hili mnapaswa kuning'iniza kichwa kwa aibu kwa kutokurupuka juu yake haraka.
Kama ilivyoelezwa kwenye maoni, kipepeo huyu huruka tu kuzunguka mji wa mapumziko wa Cloudcroft, New Mexico katika Milima ya Sacramento. Kwa miaka mingi wamekuwa wakipigania kuwa hii iorodheshwe kama spishi iliyo hatarini kutoweka, lakini wameshindwa katika kila jaribio (kukataliwa hivi karibuni ilikuwa Agosti 2009). Jiji linategemea takriban maeneo ya mapumziko ya msimu wa baridi na watengenezaji wamepigana kwa mafanikio dhidi ya ulinzi.. Eneo lote liko ndani ya Msitu wa Kitaifa wa Lincoln, lakini wamefunga tu eneo la kukusanya vipepeo, sio maendeleo. Wanapouliza huduma ya misitu kuhusu kipepeo hii wanasema bila shaka kwamba checkerspot iko hatarini (ingawa sivyo). Bila shaka hawataki wewe kukusanya – lakini kama ulitoa milioni chache kuendeleza makazi yake, hiyo ni hadithi tofauti.
I’m going with one of the checkerspots – familia Nymphalidae, genus Euphydryas. I’m not very good with the species, but with all that orange and very little whitish coloring I’m guessing E. anicia capella from the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains.
Great guess – but not quite. You do get credit for getting the species right though!
Oh, well that wouldn’t be Euphydryas anicia cloudcrofti (Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly) from central New Mexico, would it? Kama ni hivyo, that’s a great shot of a rare subspecies. Ikiwa sivyo, vizuri, these checkerspot subspecies are too difficult for me. 🙂
Ndiyo, it is! I should make these harder… or stop posting images I’ve already uploaded to Butterflies of America! ina. Ingawa, kudos for getting this correct, still required digging through the anicia subs, these checkerspots can be a headache to ID.
I was there last summer and got a few great shots of this rare butterfly. It was actually pretty common along forest roads around the town. Within an hour I saw 4-5 puddling – made for a pretty easy photo-op.
Ha! Kweli, I didn’t find the photo at BofA until after I’d made my 2nd guess, honest. Those points are mine! Kweli, I was using BugGuide when I settled on anicia – I wasn’t sure about it but chose it because of the very orange capella subspecies. When you confirmed anicia it was then easier to search for other subspecies. I came across a photo of cloudcrofti on a FWS conservation plan document and it was a dead ringer.
Finding species/subspecies of highly restricted geographical occurrence is one of the best things about this business (taxonomists arguments about validity notwithstanding)! There must be something special about the Cloudcroft area – there is a buprestid beetle known only from that area that I looked for once (unsuccessfully).