Butterflies of California

California Sister

• The California sister butterfly favors the foothills and mountains feeding on evergreen and oak trees instead of sipping nectar from flowers. It can grow up to 3 inches wide with a color combination of black, orange and gray. The forewing has a sea of black that surrounds orange spots on the tips, and a series of white spots that resemble a nun's habit when the wings are open.

California Marble

• This butterfly's 1 1/2-inch wings resemble a piece of marble flying along hilly slopes and mountains. The California marble wings are pale-white with a black bar at the tip of the forewing. On the hind wing is a green marble vein pattern tinted with yellow. It mainly feeds and drinks the nectar of jewel flowers.

Western Tiger Swallowtail

• With bold black strips like a tiger, the large western tiger swallowtail makes an impressive sight with a 3- to 4-inch wing span. Like all swallowtails, it has a tail-like prong from the bottom of each hind wing. The colors are a pale white with black stripes and white semicircles along the edge. The tiger swallowtail prefers streams and creeks where it feeds on cottonwood, birch, sycamore and sage plants.

California Dog-Face

• This butterfly's small wing size, barely 2 inches, makes it easier for the California dog-face to travel quickly. Both the male and female have yellow wings with a black top wing and a dog-face shaped spot, but the female is larger than the male. The larvae feed on false indigo plants while the adults thrive on nectar from grey musk sage, coyote mint and bush fuchsia. In 1972, the California dog-face butterfly became the official state insect.

California Tortoise Shell

• The wings of the California tortoise shell are orange with large black spots and black along the edges. The butterfly loves the nectar of manzanita flowers, and it eats evergreen and lilacs in bushy areas and open woods. Measuring about 2 1/8 inches long, the tortoise shell can have massive population outbreaks covering some highways with thousands of butterflies during mating season.

Buckeye

• The buckeye butterfly is hard to miss with its characteristic multicolored eye spots of orange, black and white. When its 2-inch wings are closed, the buckeye butterfly easily blends in among dirt, rocks and desert foliage. This species favors the nectar from various sage plants.