Mylitta crescent

The Mylitta crescent is a small orange butterfly marked above with black spots, checks and a black border, with a row of small black dots ringed in orange along the hindwing edge. Males carry a plain, unmarked orange patch on the hindwing that females lack, and the underside shows cream, tan and brown bands ending in a bright crescent mark near the margin.

Caterpillars feed on thistles, including Canada thistle, and the species overwinters as a partly grown larva before finishing development the following spring. Several generations fly each year across a range that runs from weedy fields and roadsides to streamsides in the mountains of western North America.