Adelpha californica, the California sister, is a species of butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. They are common in California, but can also be found in western Nevada and Oregon, as well as in northern Baja California. The upper surfaces of their wings are dark brown to black with wide cream white bands dissecting both wings and two orange patches near the tips of the forewings. The underside is variously colored with browns, blue, orange, and white. A. californica is unpalatable to predators and is part of a large mimicry complex.
Taxonomy
Adelpha californica is classified under the genus Adelpha (sisters) in the tribe Limenitidini of the subfamily Limenitidinae (admirals and relatives) of the brush-footed butterfly family Nymphalidae. It belongs to the serpa species group of the genus. The species was first described by the British entomologist Arthur Gardiner Butler in 1865 as Heterochroa californica. The type specimen was recovered from California.
It was treated generally as a species (though it included Adelpha eulalia as a synonym) until 1944, when the entomologists Geoffrey Douglas Hale Carpenter and Bertram Maurice Hobby reclassified it as a subspecies of Adelpha bredowii. Recent phylogenetic studies, however, conclude that morphological, geographical, and genetic evidence make it clear that it is a separate species.
A. californica was also sometimes included in the genus Limenitis (admirals), but most modern lepidopterists classify it under the genus Adelpha.
Distribution and habitat
A. californica is found in the extreme western North America, from northern Baja California of Mexico, most of California, western Nevada, western Oregon of the United States. It may also sometimes be found in southwestern Washington, though these are believed to be vagrant individuals. They are abundant in oak woodlands.
Description
The upper surfaces of the wings of A. californica are a dark brown to black. It has two large orange patches near the tip of the forewings and wide postdiscal creamy-white bands on both wings. The ventral surfaces of the wings are generally similar but with blue bands along the edges of both wings, as well as blue and orange patterns on the corners near the body. Like other members of the genus, the butterfly is named "sister" for its black and white markings on the forewing that resemble a nun's habit.
A. californica closely resembles A. bredowii and A. eulalia. However it generally does not share the same distribution range as the other two. A. bredowii is only found in southern and western Mexico. A. eulalia is found in Arizona and the surrounding areas, though it may sometimes be found in southeastern California. They also differ morphologically from A. eulalia in usually being smaller and in the presence of a second orange bar in the upper proximal corner of the hindwings. A. californica also closely resembles the females of some species in the genus Doxocopa. Though their distribution range also do not overlap, as Doxocopa are primarily found in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.
Other species which resemble A. californica (though not as closely) includes other members of the genus Adelpha, and the Lorquin's admiral (Limenitis lorquini).