Libytheana carinenta streckeri

Western Snout

An odd butterfly that doesn't fit neatly into the Nymphalidae family for several reasons. One is the elongated palpi that gives them their common name; another is the use of the forelegs by females for walking, while males have the "brushfoot" front legs; and a third odd thing is the caterpillar, which has no spines and resembles green pierid larvae, not nymphalid larvae. The larval food plant is net leaf hackberry trees (Celtis reticulata), which grows in parts of California, but the snout is usually a stray here. I found them in good numbers at Rattlesnake Canyon in the Johnson Valley in October 2022, and most records seem to be from autumn.