In this image you see two members of the species Phyciodes tharos, the Pearl Crescent Butterfly. They are feeding upon White Prairie Aster wildflowers. This situation didn’t last for very long before they flew off to different flowers. If you look closely along the back edge of the hindwing you can see the light colored crescent markings that are characteristic of Crescent butterflies.
Above, you can see a Pearl Crescent butterfly probing a disk flower of White Prairie Aster with its proboscis. The flowers are about an inch in diameter and the butterfly is slightly larger. It was a breezy day as I watched these small creatures struggle to hang on while they fed. Something marvelous that you don’t see everyday.
Pearl Crescents prefer open grassland habitats and can be found throughout southern Canada, and the Plains, Midwestern and Eastern Seaboard States of the U.S. They prefer to feed on aster wildflowers. In this image, you can see the lighter, checkered underside of their wings. This is also a defining character of these members of the Nymphalidae (Brushfoot butterflies)
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