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| The White Admiral cross-breeds with the Red-spotted Purple to produce partially banded offspring. Lepidopterists now know these two very different forms, once been considered separate species, are in fact the same species. The White Admiral has a deep purplish-black ground colour on its upperside, with a broad white band crossing both of its wings. There is a row of spots, blue with often a small amount of red, adjacent to the outer side of the white band on the hindwing. The underside is pale reddish brown with red spots along the outer edge and the near the base; the white bands are repeated on the underside. Its wing span ranges 4.7 - 10.1 cm. In the Algonquin Highlands, you will find them from June through August or September, near deciduous broad-leaf or mixed evergreen forests, usually near Aspen or Birch. Adults favour foods are sap of Cherry and Oak trees, rotting fruit and dung, but also sip aphid honeydew. Eggs are laid singly on tips of leaves of Aspens, Cherry, Oaks, Poplars and Willows and others. The larva is white with grayish-brown areas, resembling a bird dropping when it sits on a leaf. The caterpillar is cream-coloured, humped, dark-saddled and mottled, with 2 large brush-like bristles behind its head. |
Limenitis arthemis arthemis
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