Coastal BC Insects: Lorquin’s Admiral Butterfly

Lorquin's Admiral

Posing for the photo shoot up close.

Lorquin’s Admiral (Liminitis lorquini) is a large butterfly found throughout the Pacific Northwest. It’s black in colour with a band of large white spots across the middle both wings and orange tips.

I saw my first specimen at the cabin in June 2015 while it was exploring our front porch. When I went out to see if I could get a picture, it landed next to me and crawled onto my foot, just begging to be photographed.

Checking out our log raft,

Lorquin’s Admiral butterflies live on nectar from flowers.

They are often seen sunning on the ground or plants, and are drawn to moist soil where they sip for nutrients, primarily sodium which they cannot derive from nectar.

Resting in the shade.

Eggs are laid on willow, cottonwood, plum and cherry trees. The larva creates a unique structure called a hibernaculum from a leaf stem and silk threads that they generate. Inside the hibernaculum, it spends the winter, but on occasion will exit to sun itself on the nearby branch.

A useful guide for common butterflies and insects is Bugs of British Columbia (Lone Pine Publishing, 2001) by John Acorn and illustrated by Ian Sheldon. John has a Master’s degree in Entomology from the University of Alberta. The descriptions have interesting facts and are written with adults and young adults in mind, or as the author says, “bugsters.” The colour illustrations by Ian are large and with enough detail to assist in identification. -- Margy