KMHRP Butterflies


Buckeye pair - male on right

KMHRP is an outstanding place for Butterflies! In summer especially when there are lots of wildflowers blooming, the park is loaded with them! TWO DOZEN species may be found in a single day with a little effort. Here we present a list of species currently found at KMHRP, and photos of half of them.

Only those species seen at KMHRP in in the last decade are listed here. Many species are extirpated in recent (modern) times, and have not been seen in over a decade.

Species PRECEDED by an ASTERISK (*) have only been seen once in last decade; they are ACCIDENTALS. (Well known synonyms are in parentheses).


Giant Swallowtail

Tiger Swallowtail
Tiger Swallowtail

PAPILIONIDAE - Swallowtails (5)
Anise Swallowtail - Papilio zelicaon
Western Tiger Swallowtail - Papilio rutulus
* Pale Swallowtail - Papilio eurymedon
* Pipevine Swallowtail - Battus philenor
Giant Swallowtail - Papilio cresphontes


Weird XL Anise Swallowtail?

PIERIDAE - Whites, Orange-tips, Sulphurs (6)
Cabbage White - Pieris rapae
Checkered White - Pieris protodice
* Sara Orangetip - Anthocharis sara
Orange Sulphur (Alfalfa) - Colias eurytheme
Cloudless (Senna) Sulphur - Phoebis sennae
* Dainty Sulphur - Nathanis iloe


Checkered White


Red Admiral

NYMPHALIDAE - Brush-foots (9)
(Striated) Queen - Danaus gilippus strigosus
Monarch - Danaus plexippus
Gulf Fritillary - Agraulis vanillae incarnata
Red Admiral - Vanessa atalanta rubria
Painted Lady - Vanessa cardui
West Coast Lady - Vanessa carye anabella
American (Virginia) Lady - Vanessa virginiensis
Mourning Cloak - Nymphalis antiopa
Buckeye - Precis coenia


Mourning Cloak - Photo by Jess Morton


West Coast Lady
(Painted and American Lady similar)


Fatal (Dusky) Metalmark

RIODINIDAE
Metalmarks (1)
Fatal Metalmark - Calephelis nemesis


   
Acmon Blue - Male (top), Female (bottom)

LYCAENIDAE
Hairstreaks, and Blues (4)
Gray Hairstreak - Strymon melinus pudica
Pygmy Blue - Brephidium exilis
Marine Blue - Leptotes marina
Acmon Blue - Plebejus acmon


Pygmy Blue

HESPERIDAE - Skippers (8)
Fiery Skipper - Hylephila phyleus
Sandhill Skipper - Polites sabuleti
Field Skipper (Sachem) - Atalopetes campestris
Woodland Skipper - Ochlodes sylvanoides
Umber Skipper - Paratrytone melane
Eufala Skipper - Lerodea eufala
Funereal Duskywing - Erynnis zarucco funeralis
Common (Western) Checkered Skipper - Pyrgus communis albescens
(probably the "White type" is the local population)


Fiery Skipper


Umber Skipper


Eufala Skipper


Skipper sp.

Hypothetical - single probable sightings unconfirmed by absolute specimen evidence:
* Rural Skipper - Ochlodes agricola
* Wandering Skipper - Panoquina panoquinoides errans

33 species of butterflies have been found at KMHRP in the last 10 years. Surely other migratory and transient species have occurred undetected due to lack of knowledgeable observer coverage.

There are additional hypothetical (not positively identified) modern records. Those, taken together with the likely historically present species (i.e., in 1950 when it was still "undeveloped") there probably have been 50 species at the site in modern times. During the annual (July) PV/SB Audubon Butterfly Count, 20 species and hundreds of individual butterflies are usually found and counted at the site JUST IN A SINGLE DAY!

The critically endangered Palos Verdes Blue, whose world population lives a half mile away, almost certainly used to live here.


Gulf Fritillary


White-lined Sphinx Moth Not a Butterfly & more resembles a hummingbird