Chlosyne lacinia

The Bordered Patch (Chlosyne lacinia) is a North and South American butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is sometimes also called the Sunflower Patch.

Description

The Bordered Patch is an extremely variable butterfly. The upper side of the wings is mainly black with the fore wing having rows of white and/or yellow-orange spots of varying sizes. There is usually one whitish spot in the fore wing cell. The hind wing has many color variations. Those variations can be: almost completely black to having some red postmedian spots to having a few rows of white postmedian spots to having an all red-orange discal area to having a yellow-orange postmedian band of varying width. The underside of the wings is just as variable as the upper side. It varies from having a few rows of white and red spots to having a yellow-white hind wing median band of varying width to the underside being mostly golden-yellow with large yellow-orange spots and a thick golden-yellow median band. All of these variations have a red spot near the hind wing tornus. Its wingspan ranges from 1¼ to 1⅞ inches.