Common Name: Common Checkered Skipper
This familiar insect appears to
be found from sea level to tree line-but things are more complicated than that.
At the molecular-genetic level, the populations along our transect
are apparently two different species.
One is multiple-brooded and occurs as high as Lang Crossing (5000') on the
Sierran West slope, and then again in Sierra Valley at 5000' on the East slope.
These populations today breed largely on introduced
weeds of the genus Malva (in the Sacramento Valley also on the native Alkali
Mallow, Malvella leprosa, and on the now rare Checkerblooms, genus Sidalcea,
in tule marshes). The other is single-brooded, occurs above 6000' (including
Donner and Castle Peak) and breeds only on native Sidalcea.
There are
very slight "statistical" differences in pattern, but the genitalia
are the same. There seem to be occasional strays of the lowland animal picked
up at Donner, mainly late in the season. In southern California occurs a morphospecies,
P. albescens, which differs from communis in genitalia and is, like it,
multiple-brooded. This animal, however, is molecularly indistinguishable from
the univoltine Sierran (genitalic) communis!
The lowland animal occurs
anywhere in the open where hosts are nearby, including urban vacant lots and
around ranch buildings and corrals. The montane
animal occurs in open coniferous forest with Sidalcea in the understory,
and along wood roads and paths. Both visit a great variety of flowers avidly.
The flight seasons are March-November in the Central Valley, June-August in
montane sites, and late March/April-October at Sierra Valley. (At Sierra Valley
the univoltine animal is as close as the top of Yuba Pass.)
Males are perchers, generally
well off the ground, and extremely energetic fliers. They often appear blue in
flight (females, lacking the silky hairs, do not).