1st Northern Pearl Crescent

The Phyciodes group of butterflies—a.k.a., the Crescents—are found mostly south and west of us, but one species, the Pearl Crescent, is a native, and on a walk to the millpond this afternoon, I found the first of this year's Pearls. They're exceptionally pretty little things, a miniature study in orange and black with a wingspan of no more than an inch-and-three-quarters. The mini-lepidopterans are also exceedingly cooperative models, often posing on plants and allowing the observer to get quite close. They'll be with us through the summer, and, since I recently discovered that there are actually two closely related species in our area—the Pearl Crescent and the Northern Pearl Crescent—I'll be paying closer attention so I can learn how to tell the two apart. This guy has orange on the knobs of his antennae, so he's a Northern. The garden-variety Pearl has all-black antennal knobs. Close concentration has natural history rewards.