User:Oluchiao/Anthocharis sara

Anthocharis sara
Anthocharis sara, the Sara Orange-tip is one of three species in the sara orangetip complex. It is basically a California endemic butterfly with populations extending from Baja California into extreme SW Oregon where it is replaced northward to the Alaskan panhandle by the julia orangetip (Anthocharis julia). The common name, Pacific orangetip, is obsolete since its implied distribution includes two separate species. (Above is the existing article) (Below are my contributions)

Like many butterfly species, they have strongly seasonal life cycles. They are a bivoltine species, meaning that each year they have two adult emergences. The first brood lives from late January to April and the second brood lives from May to early July. Sometimes there is some overlap between the two generations.They also have two consecutive flights at one point in the year and are not present for the other half of the year.

The female Orange-tip has orange tips at the ends of its wings while the male has Ultraviolet reflective tips that appear orange to human eyes but appear “bee purple” to the butterfly. In Anthocharis sara mating the males carry out an act called patrolling, where they “fly a beat”. This is usually them flying up and down a linear path and is used as a way to increase the likelihood of sexual encounters with females. Males usually patrol by the sides of streams and roads in the canyon bottoms. In these actions, there seems to be a hierarchy between the males where the “best” sites are taken up by the dominant males.

The Orange-tips commonly lay their eggs on plants in the Mustard family. The females lay blueish-green eggs on the stems and leaves of these plants. These eggs eventually turn bright red. When the larvae emerge they eat the buds, flowers, and fruits of the plants. The larvae are a plain green color and when they mature they form a light brown thorn-shaped pupa. It is possible for them to remain in this pupa for up to three years.