Pearl crescent
| Pearl crescent | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Nymphalidae |
| Genus: | Phyciodes |
| Species: | P. tharos
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| Binomial name | |
| Phyciodes tharos (Drury, [1773])
| |
The pearl crescent (Phyciodes tharos) is a butterfly of North America. It is found in all parts of the United States except the west coast, and throughout Mexico and parts of southern Canada, in particular Ontario. Its habitat is open areas such as pastures, road edges, vacant lots, fields, open pine woods. Its pattern is quite variable. Males usually have black antenna knobs. Its upperside is orange with black borders; postmedian and submarginal areas are crossed by fine black marks. The underside of the hindwing has a dark marginal patch containing a light-colored crescent.
The wingspan is from 21 to 34 mm.[2] The species has several broods throughout the year, from April–November in the north, and throughout the year in the deep south and Mexico.
Adults find nectar from a great variety of flowers including dogbane, swamp milkweed, shepherd's needle, asters, and winter cress. Males patrol open areas for females. The eggs are laid in small batches on the underside of host plant leaves of aster species (family Asteraceae). Caterpillars eat the leaves and are gregarious when young. Hibernation is by third-stage caterpillars.
Hybridization
Hybridization with Phyciodes tharos and other species of lepidoptera has been a common study. The reason of these studies is to investigate the effects of incompatible genomes and how they effect offspring and variation between species. As these butterflies span across the west coast of the Americas, hybridization and interspecies breeding is a phenomenon that could lead to variety among species or infertility within offspring.
To study this, laboratory studies have been done to inspect the compatibility of Phyciodes tharos with other species. In Oliver's experimental hybridization, he states that "it is to be expected that the most sensitive test for genetic incompatibility between populations and species would be an assay of viability and fertility by laboratory hybridization"[3]. Even though the cross species were incompatible, it continues the research towards if existing species of butterflies could cross breed and bring back variety within lepidoptera.
Relation to other species
Phyciodes tharos falls under the same category as other crescent butterflies that span from Mexico all the way to Canada. This includes P. batesii, P. cocyta, and P. pulchella. While all of these lepidoptera share the same classification. There genome has been proven to all be different, causing the variation in phenotype. For example, when comparing the antenna of the northern and pearl crescent, the northern crescent has orange antenna tips, while the pearl crescent's are black and white. In Wingert's study on the differentiation between the phyciodes butterflies, they found that the genome sequence of all of these lepidoptera was different because of the low levels of gene flow and hybridization[4]. Even though these species are capable of hybridization, it shows how these butterflies have been able to maintain their separate genomes and not overly hybridize.
Similar species[edit]
- Phyciodes batesii – tawny crescent
- Phyciodes cocyta – northern crescent
References[edit]
- ^ "NatureServe Explorer 2.0 Phyciodes tharos Pearl Crescent". explorer.natureserve.org. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
- ^ "Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) (Drury, 1773)". Butterflies of Canada. Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility (CBIF). 14 December 2021.
- ^ Stasek, David J.; Bean, Caitlin; Crist, Thomas O. (2008-08-01). "Butterfly Abundance and Movements Among Prairie Patches: The Roles of Habitat Quality, Edge, and Forest Matrix Permeability". Environmental Entomology. 37 (4): 897–906. doi:10.1093/ee/37.4.897. ISSN 0046-225X.
- ^ Wingert, Brittany D; Campbell, Erin O; Acorn, John H; Sperling, Felix A H (2024-03-01). "Genomic integrity of Phyciodes butterfly species in a region of contact (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)". Insect Systematics and Diversity. 8 (2). doi:10.1093/isd/ixae006. ISSN 2399-3421.
- Brock, Jim P.; Kaufman, Kenn (2003). Butterflies of North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-618-15312-8.
- Glassberg, Jeffrey (1999). Butterflies through Binoculars: The East: A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Eastern North America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-510668-7.
- Scott, James A. (1986). The Butterflies of North America: A Natural History and Field Guide. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2013-4.
- "Species Phyciodes tharos - Pearl crescent". BugGuide.
- ^ Proshek, Benjamin; Houghton, David C. (2012-03). "Complex MtDNA Variation and Species Delimitations in the Phyciodes tharos Species Group (Nymphalidae: Melitaeini): A Second Look in Michigan and Ohio". The Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society. 66 (1): 41–49. doi:10.18473/lepi.v66i1.a4. ISSN 0024-0966.
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