I spent a delightful cool afternoon at Spruce Knob Lake and Spruce Knob (highest elevation in WV) looking for butterflies and birds. This high elevation sanctuary is a place where I need to go back and spend more time as it harbors many special high mountain species. I saw my first of many Appalachian Tiger Swallowtail. The Appalachian Tiger Swallowtail came about as a hybrid of the common Eastern Tiger Swallowtail and the Canadian Tiger Swallowtail.
The conventional view of speciation is that one species splits into two over time. With time, the new “sister” species become more and more reproductively isolated from each other. In the case of hybrid speciation, new species are formed when two species interbreed to create viable hybrids that then evolve on their own. This can occur when two young species haven’t yet evolved over a long enough period to be completely reproductively isolated.
The Common Ringlet is indeed COMMON in this area. I saw dozens and dozens at the knob and at the lake.
Other notable species species seen were my first ever Peck’s Skipper and first of year Harris’s Checkerspots. I’ve included comparative photos here of Harris’s and the Silvery Checkerspot. Gary Felton contributed the dorsal view Silvery photo and I took the others. Silvery images are on the left. (Click on any image for a larger view)
