Submitted by Russel Barsh, director of Kwiaht.

Pale yellow butterflies festoon the meadows at Cattle Point for a few days each year.

Briefly in April and early September, the sedges and tall grasses around the lighthouse at Cattle Point are aflutter with hundreds of small, buff-colored butterflies flying short, erratic hops from stem to stem. You are witnessing the twice-annual mating dance of Ochre Ringlets, whose scientific name, Coenonympha California, refers to this seasonal behavior: from the Greek nympha (“bride”) and coeno (“in common” or “all together”). What you see skipping through the meadow, however, are the bridegrooms: male Ringlets in search of receptive females! (Only females have a tiny dark eyespot on their forewings.)

Long classified as a subspecies of the Common Ringlet, Coenonympha tullia, the Ochre is now recognized as a genetically distinct species found on the Pacific Coast of North America from the Salish Sea to southern California. In the Salish Sea region, the distribution of this butterfly is very patchy, with significant populations found only on San Juan Island — mainly at Cattle Point — and the Victoria Capital Region on Vancouver Island. Cattle Point is crucial for the survival of this species in San Juan County, as it is for at least one other butterfly species, the Silvery Blue, and for Sand Verbena moths.

Look closely at an Ochre Ringlet: it seems to have only four legs. The first pair are quite short and nearly invisible, curled up beneath the body. This characteristic is shared by many butterfly species in the large family to which Ringlets and other Satyrine butterflies belong, the Nymphalidae. Indeed, this family has sometimes been called the “Four-Footed” butterflies because they routinely rest on just four of their six legs. Why they have evolved this characteristic is uncertain. Is growing the third-leg pair simply a waste of energy? If so, why do we not see this loss of legs more widely in butterfly families?

Ringlets lay their eggs on grasses and sedges; they are not picky, and feed on both native and non-native species, which makes weedy, grassy Cattle Point a paradise for them. But caterpillars will only eat fresh, green salad. April-hatched caterpillars feast on spring regrowth and develop quickly. Some of them pupate in summer, and emerge in time to mate in September; while others grow more slowly and overwinter, to emerge the following spring. Summer weather conditions determine whether offspring of the September “wedding” can find enough food to survive. Those that do, will also overwinter and mate in spring.

Interestingly, the adults that emerge in April tend to be rather grayish compared to the yellow-orange September brood. Researchers have suggested that dark coloration helps the spring brood absorb warmth from the sun but this has not been tested. Another unsolved mystery of the insect world!

Cousins of North America’s two Ringlet species are found in Europe. In the United Kingdom, they are referred to as Heaths rather than Ringlets. Heaths are strongly associated with peatlands and moors, where they can be “patchy” like the Ringlets of San Juan County, with vast numbers of butterflies concentrated in small, isolated geographic areas.