Family: Nymphalidae, Brush-footed Butterflies view all from this family

Description 1 5/8-2 1/2" (41-64 mm). Above, black with numerous cream-colored dots, several red-orange spots near base of wings, and border of red-orange half moons. Similar below with more cream-color and orange. New England individuals smallest, with wide red border; Ozark region individuals largest, with narrower red border.

Similar Species Harris' Checkerspot smaller, shorter wings, with lighter orange.

Life Cycle Eggs 1/32" h x 3/128" w (0.8 x 0.6 mm) laid in clusters. Young caterpillar feeds in silk nests and overwinters half grown. Mature caterpillar, to 1" (25 mm), black with orange side stripes and many black branching spines. Chrysalis to 3/4" (19 mm), white, black, and orange; adult emerges after only 10 days. Host plants are turtlehead (Chelone glabra), false foxglove (Gerardia grandiflora and G. pedicularia), plantain (Plantago lanceolata), and white ash (Fraxinus americana).

Flight 1 brood; May-July.

Habitat Wet meadows in woodlands in the Northeast; sphagnum bogs in Lake States; hillsides and drier ridges in open mixed hardwoods in Ozarks.

Range SE. Manitoba to Nova Scotia south to Nebraska, Arkansas, and Georgia.

Discussion While often seen in damp turtlehead stands in the Northeast, the Baltimore has been found to have many other host plants and habitats. The caterpillars of Connecticut colonies, for example, feed on false foxglove among rocky upland oak woods. The Baltimore is named for George Calvert, a 17th-century American colonist and the first Lord Baltimore, because its orange and black colors match those on his heraldic shield.