Great Basin Wood-Nymph
Cercyonis sthenele
Description 1 3/8-2" (35-51 mm). Above, light to
dark brown. Below, pale brown to silvery gray-brown striated, with outer half of HW paler than inner and often bearing 2 small but prominent eyespots; HW also has band composed of darker scaling between 2 gently wavy or mildly zigzagged dark lines. 2 large eyespots usually appear on outer FW, equidistant from margin above and below; sometimes yellow around eyespots but never in strong patches.
Similar Species Large Wood Nymph larger and HW below usually lacks whole band. Red-eyed Wood Nymph has rust-colored flush. Dark Wood Nymph usually smaller, lower FW eyespot closer to margin than upper and HW band below radically zigzagged, especially on the innermost dark edge of band.
Life Cycle Egg whitish, keg-shaped. Caterpillar light green with dark back stripes and yellowish side stripes; feeds on grasses (Poaceae). Chrysalis light green.
Flight 1 brood; June-July.
Habitat Basin sagelands, dry shrub steppes, oak-lined arid canyons, and pinyon-juniper woodlands.
Range E. British Columbia and Washington south and west through Great Basin to Four Corners area of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico; also central and S. California and Baja California.
Discussion One widespread population of the Great Basin Wood-nymph has a dappled and frosty-whitish underside, but populations from outside or along the edges of the Great Basin retain the chocolate-brown hue characteristic of wood nymphs. The name C. sthenele used to apply only to a San Francisco sand dune subspecies which is now extinct; the Great Basin Wood-nymph then went by the names C. paula, C. silvestris, and C. behrii.
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