Finding Utah Butterflies-->West Coast Lady (Vanessa carye annabella)

Overview:

During favorable years, West Coast Ladies can be one of the more common butterflies flying in neighborhoods and parks. In our valleys, caterpillars feed on a common lawn weed called cheese weed (Malva neglecta) where it is not difficult to find caterpillars. Similar to Red Admirals, from July to September, males sometimes will establish territories during the late afternoon hours where they will patrol and bask in the filtered sunshine of our back yards and parks. Caterpillars can also be found on stinging nettle and mountain hollyhock in our mountain canyons.

Note: To leverage the next section and fly to specific locations, you need to install Google Earth.

Specific Localities:

Provo River Parkway, Provo, Utah County, Utah.  N40 14'16.13" W111 43'49.63" or click here.
Upper Lambs Canyon, Salt Lake County, Utah. N40 43'0.55" W111 37'22.91" or click here.

Flight Periods:

West Coast Ladies migrate into Northern Utah in April and generally fly through the end of October; weather permitting. It is interesting to note that, during mild winters, larvae have been known to survive on mallows from the fall where they will finish feeding in March, pupate, and create an April flight independent of the spring migrants returning to Northern Utah.

Raising Caterpillars Resources:

The key to raising West Coast ladies is to identify cheeseweed (Malva neglecta) growing either in your lawn, along roadsides, or in city parks. Look towards the center of the leaves for webbed nests with a caterpillar underneath the web. See link below for further instructions.

Raising Butterflies: http://www.raisingbutterflies.org/vanessa-carye-annabella

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