How to Identify a Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly :- A black butterfly with an inner band of white spots and a band of huge orange spots along the wing edges is the Baltimore checkerspot. Generally, the northeastern United States and southeast Canada are home to Baltimore checkerspot butterflies. They occasionally make it as far south as Alabama and Arkansas. In the northeastern range, their preferred habitat consists of meadows, bogs, and marshes; in the southwest, it consists of open or wooded hillsides.
How to Identify a Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly
Not to be overlooked is how difficult it may be to locate the butterfly, even if you live in its range. Butterfly expert and writer to Birds & Blooms Jill Staake states, “It’s difficult to confuse the striking colours of the little Baltimore checkerspot with any other butterfly.” It may require some luck to identify, though. Some localities may have an abundance of it, while other surrounding regions may have none at all.
Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly
These butterflies only have a small geographic distribution, and some populations may be in decline. Due to the preference of the Baltimore Checkerspot for wetland habitats, populations of this and other cherished species are declining significantly as a result of the loss and deterioration of these habitats.
The White Turtlehead (Chelone glabra), the most frequent host plant for Checkerspots, has a defence mechanism as well. Iridoid glycosides, which are present in White Turtlehead, cause the plant to taste terrible to birds when they eat it.
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The Baltimore Checkerspot has forced to broaden its choices for host plants as its environment becomes less abundant, and now includes the English Plantain (Plantago lanceolata), which grows in arid fields. There have been reports of large populations of Baltimore Checkerspot in areas where English Plantains are grown.
After reaching adulthood, Checkerspots feed on Asclepias syriaca, or common milkweed, and Apocynum androsaemifolium, or spreading dogbane. The latter plant is poisonous to cattle, dogs, humans, and some other mammals, but not to Checkerspots. As a matter of fact, dogbanes and milkweeds are closely related!
Due to its univoltine nature, the Baltimore Checkerspot produces only one brood annually. The brood flies fly from May to June in the southern range and from July to August in the northern range. Univoltine species frequently adapt so that their life cycles align with those of the host plants on which they rely. Because of their unique needs, this life cycle plan puts the butterfly species at greater danger of population decreases.
The majority of caterpillars exit it throughout the autumn and spend the winter in the leaf litter near the base of the bushes. A return to feeding and activity is prompted by warmer temperatures and longer days, but neither host plant may produce enough spring leaf to satisfy the growing caterpillars’ ravenous demands. Many larvae complete their development on other herbaceous plants, which may also contain iridoid substances, in a unique adaption.
