EnchantedLearning.com is a user-supported site. As a bonus, site members have access to a banner-ad-free version of the site, with print-friendly pages. Click here to learn more.
The Oregon Silverspot is a brown and orange butterfly that lives in humid coastal salt-spray meadows and fields from Northern California to Washington.
This butterfly is a threatened species due to loss of habitat and the decline of its host plant (the plant that the caterpillar eats). The Early Blue Violet (Viola adunca) is its host plant.
Adults use their straw-like proboscis to sip nectar from yarrow, Canadian goldenrod, and Douglas aster. Females can lay over 200 cream-colored eggs that turn pink, usually under the violet plant. 60 percent hatch into caterpillars that eat the violet's leaves. Classification: family Nymphalidae.
Anatomy: Like all butterflies, it has 6 legs, 2 pairs of wings, an exoskeleton, 2 antennae, and a 3-part body (head, thorax and abdomen).
