Very interesting, Larry! It's amazing that buckeyes would use so many different host plants in such a small area.
In this area, they seem to be honed in on Agalinis. That's what they use exclusively here, also Ron in Louisiana found his on it on the North shore of Lake Pontchartrain about ?80-100 miles from here, and there used to be a forum poster in South Georgia who found them on it there, also. That doesn't mean they won't use other host plants, but Agalinis seems to be favored in this area of the Southeast.
Hopefully, my Castilleja coccinea seeds will come up next year and the buckeyes will use it, but even if they don't, it'll make a beautiful plant for my meadows. I'm raising 10 buckeyes on Agalinis that I'm getting from a BIG stand of it by the entrance to Camp Tiak, the Boy Scout camp not far from my property. I'd like to leave the plants intact here, so that the seeds can form from the flowers and drop on the meadows. I'm also planning on getting more seeds to scatter from the Camp Tiak group - there's enough there for the camp and my place, too.

The pictures are beautiful, Larry. I especially love the looks of Leeds Canyon with that beautiful little creek!

Sherry

Wonderful information Larry. Thank you for taking the time to post this. I love when folks like you take the time to condense information into a format like this for people like myself to take a bit of time to read. :) Gives me a chance to learn a bit about a specific butterfly without being bombarded by so much information I'm totally lost. LoL

~Tina, slowly learning a bit at a time!

My observations based on about 15 years is that I have never been able to predict what plant the Coenia junonia will select as a host plant. The first plant I discovered the larvae on was Linaria vulgaris. One year I had larvae all over a colony of this plant. After that, I can't remember them returning to the plants in the next year or the year after. The plant is extremely invasive, and I finally removed it from the garden.

A few years ago, I found larvae all over a pot of Antirrhinum majus. It was a pot of dwarf snapdragons I had kept on the patio, and that had managed to make it through the heat of the summer. I have tried to keep a pot of dwarf snapdragons on the patio every summer since then, but the Buckeyes have thumbed their proboscises.

I have quite a few different plants that are supposed to be host plants for the Buckeyes. And I usually have a nice population during the summer. But, I've given up on finding the larvae on any LFP in the garden.

Indian Paintbrush grows all over Oklahoma and the area where I live. Castilleja indivisa is the species that grows here. I have never, ever seen Buckeye Larvae on this plant. Yet, it is touted as a host plant.

My observations have led me to form the opinion that in my area, one cannot predict what the Buckeye butterfly will choose for LFP. Possibly the Buckeyes prefer some plant grown on a prairie or in the wild as opposed to a cultivated plant grown in someone's backyard. So, if I do get larvae on any one of the many choices, I won't count on it happening more than once. I'll consider it as a lucky happenstance.

Sandy

Sherry,

You would easily know your area better than me, but I seriously doubt they only use Agalinis exclusively there. Obviously that is what they prefer there though. I also often gathered LFP away from home to put less strain on it there, and usually returned to exact spots where they were very abundant so what I took did not threaten what was there. Didn't matter if they were a mile away or 400 to me. Did the same with gravid females or livestock, always went to specific places I knew supported a large population of the species I was after - also so what I took didn't threaten that population. I knew those sites so well that I knew exactly when, which exact plants and which branches on them I'd find livestock on, and they seldom failed me.

Leeds is one of those special lep places on the edge of the Mojave Desert as it "has it all" so to speak in available nectar and larval plants with the possibility of up to 130+ species of leps. And most of it can be done just road hunting. With my methods even alone I could do a 100' swath along both sides of that entire road in a short period of time, and with a lep friend do 40-50 miles easily using them. Having done extensive field work and night collecting in Leeds for about 10 years I knew exactly when and where for each species, so I never came back from any trip there empty handed. It is also a place for many kinds of wild munchies like pine gun, pine nuts, cactus fruits, berries, salad greens, edible roots and medicinal plants... and also has an very abundant supply of plants that will stick you, sting you or scrape your hide off, things that will bite you - like rattlesnakes (4 species), hornets nests, black and deer flies, scorpions, tarantulas, and an ocassional gila monster. With the difficult terrain away from the road unstable ground or rocks make sprains or falls common, so its a place you want to tread lightly at paying particular attention to where you put your feet, hands and head.

Even so, I would highly recommend Leeds to anybody who passes through the area (like when doing all the State & Nat'l Parks & Reserves in the area) and wants to get some wild lep time in. But keep in mind that all rattlesnakes, gila mosters (and desert tortise) are protected in Utah unless an immediate threat (even stepping on the first two in the wild doesn't negate that). And that even touching a Desert Tortoise there is aggressively prosecuted if seen with a very steep first offense fine (unlike here where you can have them as pets). No idea what the fine is now, but it was $2500 unless you are doing the annual DT counts or rattler/gila round ups for the Ag Dept like I did while I lived there.

Tina,
I think most here would say I don't condense anything when I post... but then they don't really know what I "could" write if I thought it was beneficial enough to home gardeners to be worth the effort, if I was up to it (mostly not) and the ink didn't run dry. LOL

Snow Canyon State park is another awesome place near Leeds.

Larry

{{gwi:548536}}

That last picture really looks like the wild west, Larry - it looks like there should be cowboys riding slowly on horses with The Red River Valley tune playing in the background. :)

There's one very interesting thing about the area I'm visting to get the host plant material for my caterpillars. This area with SO much plant material didn't have a single caterpillar in it! I saw a big buckeye, probably a female, so maybe there soon will be, but this is weird, since I passed by another area with far fewer plants, and each plant had a cat on it! I don't know how they pick their hosts!
I'm going to keep trying with the buckeye host plants. Nearly all their host plants are pretty, most in the snapdragon family, making them very desirable even without cats.

Sherry

St. George has been there almost since Utah was settled, and still has a few ranches, but its mostly a retirement, winter snowbird haven and pass through for tourists now days with quite expensive property,large elaborate homes and lots of golf courses for its size. Jolley's is stil there, a western apparel and supply that hase been there for many generations. I ran around with Larry Jolley (Washington town mayor) and his brother Robert when I lived there, and stayed in contact with them for years after I left. It was a sad day when I was in the area and stopped by Larry's house to say hello, and found out he had passed away.

Depending on species, typically some females do pick fairly isolated or young plants or specific places on plants to oviposit. So in places where the host plant is abundant over large areas it may contain no livestock at all, or in such low numbers that larva are not easily found because they can disperse so far and wide. So knowing exactly where to look for either ovum or larvae on which LFP's ups your chances of finding them. Long experience tells you where, so I imagine you have a pretty good handle on this species and plant in your area. I always got a kick out of folks on field trips with me for the first time or two when the entire mountain, canyon or area was wall to wall host plant as far as you could see for a species sought, and from 100's of feet away I'd direct them to a specific plant and branch or two on it to go check for either ovum or larvae. You just learn from long experience about each species. In part how I could road hunt new places and spot where livestock would most likely be even at 70MPH, and actually see the larva sometimes even at that speed.

One of the things about doing leps that keeps you interested and going back is that there is always something new to discover and learn no matter how long you've been doing them.

Larry

Larry, I just recently went through the Mojave Desert and couldn't even get the MIL and group to pull over for a picture of a Joshua Tree much less a trip along side the road for Leps. :( I'll have to convince hubby to allow it next time through there, if ever I go through the area again. *sighs* What a bummer!

I know he'll take me hiking in the surrounding areas out here though, absolutely without issue. But when MIL was with, no way. LoL Crazy but she seems to have a grudge against my house plants, I don't dare even mention butterfly interests. She tried to convince me that my house plants took oxygen out of the air. Heh I wasn't even going to argue that one... Just giggled and bought more house plants! ;)

I appreciate all the information you all post here, I love learning, something new every single time I come back here. Thank you! :D

~Tina