• Butterflies
• Dragonflies
• Damselflies
• Tiger beetles
• Hike with Mike

• The butterflies:
• Brushfooted Butterflies
  • Snouts
  • Heliconians and Fritillaries
  • True Brushfoots
  • Admirals and Relatives
  • Leafwings
  • Emperors
  • Satyrs
  • Monarchs
• True Brushfoots
  • Gorgone Checkerspot
  • Silvery Checkerspot
  • Harris’ Checkerspot
  • Pearl Crescent
  • Northern Crescent
  • Tawny Crescent
  • Baltimore Checkerspot
  • Question Mark
  • Eastern Comma
  • Satyr Comma
  • Green Comma
  • Gray Comma
  • Compton Tortoiseshell
  • California Tortoiseshell
  • Mourning Cloak
  • Milbert’s Tortoiseshell
  • American Lady
  • Painted Lady
  • Red Admiral
  • Common Buckeye

Pearl Crescent

(Phyciodes tharos)

The Pearl Crescent is one of the most common and widespread butterflies in the eastern United States. I have seen this species in Florida, where it looked very similar except for its antennae club was black and white, not black and orange like Wisconsin’s Pearl Crescents. It is also one of the hardest butterflies to identify with certainty, because of two very similar butterflies, the Northern and Tawny Crescents. The Northern Crescent was only separated from the Pearl Crescent in the last 25 years and therefore distribution maps where these two overlap are somewhat suspect. In Michigan, the distribution maps in the 1999 edition of “Michigan Butterflies & Skippers” show the Northern Crescent as mainly a northern species, while the Pearl is a more southern species and there is little overlap. In Wisconsin, I think that there is a much broader overlap of these two species and throughout central Wisconsin they provide big headaches to identify.

Identifying characteristics: Above, the species is black along the margins of the wings with a row of thin submarginal crescents that may or may not be noticeable. The rest of the wing is basically orange with a variety of variable dark markings. The spring generation is sometimes very different looking than the later generation. Notice the female from Greenwood Refuge in Waushara County. This individual has very obvious crescents in the wing margin and looks very similar to a spring Pearl Crescent taken by Will Cook in the Sandhills Gamelands, Scotland Co., NC. In the female hindwing, there is a solid marginal line that breaks up the orange area, while the male may be more somewhat more open. Below, there is a darker area in the margin of the hindwing that usually has a pearl crescent in it.

Similar species: All three of Wisconsin’s crescents are very similar. The females especially are extremely similar and I don’t think they can be told apart in the field with any confidence, and it is best to check the males to determine if the species is present. The males of the Pearl Crescent are similar to the females above, and just slightly more open in the hind wing, but the males of the Northern Crescents are much more open and have a very distinctive dark patch in the middle of the hindwing margin below. Males of the Tawny Crescent look much like the female from above, but are very uniform in color throughout the hindwing below with no dark marginal spot.

Habitat: Woodland edges, roadsides, and open fields.

Flight: Two broods. The first brood is found from early May through early July and then a second brood is present in August through mid September.

Abundance: Common throughout southern Wisconsin. Most often noticed along gravel or dirt trails in open areas, where they can often be found searching for nutrients.

Recent Pearl Crescent Sightings

Date seen	County	Reported by
Sunday	Green	Craig Ellefson
Saturday	Green	Ann Thering and Dave Eide
Saturday	Jefferson	Tod Highsmith
Saturday	Rock	Craig Ellefson
Friday	Dane	Mike Reese
Friday	Columbia	Mike Reese
08–13–2008	Dane	Jorgen Goderstad
08–11–2008	Iowa	Ann Thering
08–10–2008	Green	Jeanette Klodzen
08–09–2008	Milwaukee	Judith Huf
08–09–2008	Iowa	SWBA Field Trip: 14 participants
08–09–2008	Green	Craig Ellefson
08–08–2008	Grant	Mike Reese
08–07–2008	Iowa	Mike Reese
08–07–2008	Sauk	Mike Reese
08–05–2008	Dane	Ann Thering
08–05–2008	Kenosha	Judith Huf
08–03–2008	Green	Craig Ellefson
08–02–2008	Green	Craig Ellefson
07–31–2008	Dane	Ann Thering

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