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Limenitis arthemis Fabricius, 1807
White Admiral
Family: Nymphalidae (Brushfoots)
Species account authors: Crispin Guppy and Jon Shepard.
Extracted from Butterflies of British Columbia.
Introduction to the Lepidoptera of BC
Introduction to the Butterflies of BC
The Families of Lepidoptera of BC

Photograph

© Jeremy Gatten     (Photo ID #6008)

Map

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Distribution of Limenitis arthemis in British Columbia.
(Click on the map to view a larger version.)
Source: Butterflies of British Columbia by Crispin Guppy and Jon Shepard © Royal BC Museum

Species Information


Adult

White Admirals are large black butterflies with a broad white band across the middle of the wings. The tips of their forewings are black, and there is a distinct lobe on the hind margin of the hindwing. The white bands crossing the wings are almost continuous, with only thin black veins breaking them into spots. The dorsal hindwings of White Admirals have a band of orange spots outside the white band, and usually a band of blue spots outside that. The ventral wing colour is deep red brown and lacks white in the basal area, as in the coastal subspecies of the Lorquin's Admiral. Along the ventral margin of the wings is a double line of pale blue. Females are larger and have enlarged wing markings compared with males. Hybridization between White Admirals and Lorquin's Admirals is common where their ranges overlap, with the hybrids having a mixture of the characters of the two species.

Immature Stages

Eggs are round and pale green. Mature larvae have pale brown heads, bilobed with one pair of modified scoli on the top of each lobe and short pale setae on prominent hairs. The body is dark yellowish brown or olive green, with the back mostly pale mauve or white, occasionally suffused with pale pink (Sugden 1970).

Subspecies

The subspecies in BC is L.a. rubrofasciata (Barnes & McDunnough, 1916) (TL: Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba).

Genus Description


The name Limenitis is derived from the Greek limenitis (harbour keeping), an epithet applied to deities who protected harbours. Fabricius may have derived the name from the fact that the first specimen of an admiral came from the harbour town of Leghorn (Emmet 1991). More probably, however, it is derived from the male's defence of a territory based on a favourite perch site, analogous to an admiral protecting a harbour. The common name "admiral" may refer to one function of an admiral being to protect harbour towns, in much the same way as the male butterflies protect a favourite perch site. Since the common name pre-dated the Latin name, the Latin name may be derived from the common name. Holland (1898) first used the common name "white admirals" for the genus.

Admirals in BC are black with a broad white band across the upperside of the wings, except for the Viceroy, which is orange brown with black markings. Admirals are medium-sized to large butterflies. They are strong, fast fliers, but can usually be observed while perching and slowly patrolling their territories.

All the admiral species hybridize in nature where their distributions overlap, and hybrids between Lorquin's Admirals and White Admirals are common in southern BC. During mating of all species in this genus, it is usual for the males to exhibit mid-valval flexion of the genitalia. Both valves can be seen to flex inward, perhaps stimulating the female (Platt 1979).

The generic name Basilarchia has been used by some authors for the admirals in BC. There are no significant structural differences in adults or larvae between Limenitis and Basilarchia (Layberry et al. 1998), hence we treat Basilarchia as a synonym of Limenitis. There are about 50 species of Limenitis worldwide.

Biology


White Admirals are partially bivoltine in BC, and this may be generally true throughout their Canadian range (Ferris and Brown 1981). Eggs are laid precisely on the margin of leaves of the larval foodplants. The larvae build a dung and silk projection out from the tip of the midrib, or less frequently out from other major leaf veins, and they rest on these projections when not feeding. This occurs for the first several instars. Second instar larvae roll the sides of the base of a leaf upward, build a very solid silk cylinder the length of their body within the leaf roll, and cut away the remainder of the leaf. They then hibernate in this hibernaculum. In spring the larvae emerge from hibernation and mature through to adults (CSG). In captivity, about half of the larvae from near Quesnel matured directly through to adults without hibernation, which would have produced a partial second generation in the wild. In these second broods, most males pupate after the fourth instar, and all females pupate after five instars. The males from these fourth instar larvae are smaller and less clearly marked than those from fifth instar larvae. The mid-September record shown in the flight season graph is probably a second-brood individual.

Males perch in the sun on trees and tall shrubs, mostly 1-3 metres above the ground and along flyways likely to be used by females. They fly out on patrol and to investigate butterflies and other objects flying past. Males favour particular perches, but change perches periodically. When they fly out to investigate other butterflies, interactions with other male admirals last twice as long as interactions with other species. Males fly aggressively at other males until the intruder leaves the territory of the resident; the resident then returns to its perch (Lederhouse 1993). Adults feed on carrion such as old carcasses and fish offal (CSG).

Trembling aspen and willow species are larval foodplants in BC (Sugden 1970). Outside BC larval foodplants include hawthorn, birch, and other poplars (Scudder 1889a).

Habitat


White Admirals occur throughout the northern and central interior of BC south to the northern Okanagan Valley, mostly in deciduous and mixed forests.

Distribution

Distribution

White Admirals range from central AK and YT across northern BC and east to NS. They are found throughout the eastern USA, as the subspecies known as the Red-Spotted Purple.

Status Information

Origin StatusProvincial StatusBC List
(Red Blue List)		COSEWIC
NativeS5YellowNot Listed



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