Red Spotted Purple

The Red-spotted Purple butterfly (Limenitis arthemis astyanax) is so named for its iridescent purple-blue wings and brilliant red markings. This brush-footed butterfly is a mimic of the distasteful Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) and can be found throughout most of Florida.

Their larvae host on Wild cherry (Prunus serotina) and several other trees and shrubs such as wild cherry, apple (Malus spp.), pear (Pyrus spp.), hawthorn (Crataegus spp.), deerberry (Vaccinium stamineum), and hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana). The adult butterflies will nectar on common butterfly garden flowers like pentas and buddleia but, like many other brush-footed butterflies, they are also drawn to rotting fruit, moist earth and other food sources.

Taxonomic fun and polytypic species:

Genus Limenitis: The genus Limenitis includes over 25 species of butterflies commonly known as Admirals, many of which are located in Asia. The North American species of the genus are known as the Group Basilarchia. Limenitis is New Latin for “of harbours” and derives from an ancient Greek term for haven or harbour.

Species Arthemis, a polytypic species: The species arthemis is polytyic which is a species that has more than one recognized sub-species or variation. The name arthemis derives from the name of Artemis, Greek goddess of the wilderness and the hunt.

• American White Admiral (Limenitis arthemis arthemis) has distintive white banding on its wings and is sometimes also classified by the scientific name of (Limenitis camilla)
• Western American White Admiral (Limenitis arthemis rubrofasciata) has no blue spots on its inferior wings.
• Red-spotted Purple and Red Spotted Admiral (Limenitis arthemis astyanax) and (Limenitis arthemis arizonensis) both lack the distinctive white bands that mark the other members of the species.

Sub-species Astyanax: Astyanax (Greek for “King of the City”) was the son of Trojan prince Hector and his wife Andromache who is reported to have either been killed in the siege of Troy or alternately survived to found Messina in Sicily and also the line that led to Charlemagne.

If you would like more information on this complex of sub-species, here are some additional and highly technical resources. A recent project at Cornell University spent over a year working to untangle the history of these sub-species including where and why they diverged from a single species. Also, a 2008 article in the journal Evolution looked into the mimicry complex that exists for these mimic sub-species in relation to their model species, the Pipevine Swallowtail

Photo Credit: This specimen was photographed in Crawfordville, Fl on October 18th, 2009 by my friend Patricia Bauman who was unlucky enough to have a camera on hand when I started dashing around after butterflies. Thanks Patti!