Pearl Crescents (Phyciodes tharos) On Hoary Mountainmint (Pycnanthemum incanum)

August 28^th, 2014. 

Pearl Crescents (Phyciodes tharos) On Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum incanum)  

Lumpkin County, Georgia

Hoary Mountainmint was one of the few wildflowers blooming along the roadside at Dicks Creek. Several Pearl Crescents were feeding at the tiny flowers.

It’s Hot And I’m Keeping My Wings Folded

June 23rd, 2012. It’s hot! It’s been in the 90s F and low 100s F for the last two weeks. And the butterflies are feeling it. We were in the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge at Pond 2A when I spotted a Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) and another tiny butterfly that turned out to be a Southern Skipperling (Copaeodes minima) feeding on Sneezeweed (Helenium amarum) flowers.  

Pearl Crescent

In May, the Pearl Cresents kept their wings open when feeding or resting to absorb warmth. I photographed this butterfly on May 12th in the Piedmont NWR.

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Now they land and immediately folded their wings while feeding, only opening them to fly to another flower. It did make it easy to see the underside of the wings for a change.

Southern Skipperling

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I’d never seen a Southern Skipperling before but I’m not surprised. These little guys are barely ½ inch long. I only noticed this one only because it was feeding with the Pearl Crescent.

It was interesting to watch how both of these butterflies fed. They didn’t wander over the flower. They stood on the center of the flower and pivoted as they fed from the opened florets at the margin of the flower. I’d never noticed this before.

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Identification resources: 

Butterflies and Moths of North America: 

- Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) 

- Southern Skipperling (Copaeodes minima) 

Michael Beohm: West Central Georgia Butterflies
- Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) 

- Southern Skipperling (Copaeodes minima) 

BugGuide: 

- Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos)  [Side] [Top]

- Southern Skipperling (Copaeodes minima) 

Related post:

- Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos)

Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos)

The Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) was another butterfly I encountered last Saturday afternoon. I think I'd seen one once before but hadn’t been able to photograph it. I thought I was going to be disappointed again.

I first saw one as I was walking up the path from the creek. I tried to sneak up on it and either took one step too close or made too much noise when I stepped on some dried leaves. It flew off further up the path. In spite of moving up the path quietly, I spooked again and I lost track of it. When I then walked through a section of wildflowers behind the greenhouse, I spotted either the same, or another, Pearl Crescent that was sitting on a blade of grass and basking in the sun. It posed for some time, opening and closing its’ wings. I left it in peace.

I got this photo of the ventral wing pattern. Notice the big, green eyes.

Some time later, after I had stalked the Red-banded Hairstreak and the Eastern Tailed-Blue, a pair of mating Pearl Crescents flew onto the grass nearby and, although they moved around a little, I was able to get a good photo of the dorsal wing pattern.

Identification resources:
- West Central Georgia Butterflies by Michael Beohm: Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos)
- BugGuide: Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) [Dorsal] [Ventral]
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