Insects of Gunnison National Forest, Colorado

As I prepare for the upcoming field season and refresh my memory on the flowering plants of Colorado by reading my own blog post that I realized that I still haven't blogged about the birds and insects of Gunnison National Forest from last year.  Oops!  I guess this is what happens when school becomes an overwhelming part of your life.

Anyways, here are photos of insects observed from the 2014 field season.  They are not as well identified as the flowers and birds.  Sorry to the insect-lovers.  But feel free to leave a comment (or two) if you know some of the species and/or if I identified something incorrectly (very likely since I did most of the identification last summer and didn't check them since then).  Thanks in advance.

Male Osmia sp.


Male Osmia sp. visiting Mertensia fusiformis.

Female Osmia sp. visiting M. brevistyla.




Unidentified male Osmia sp.

Two form bumble bee queen (Bombus bifarius).

B. bifarius queen visiting Mertensia fusiformis.


B. bifarius queen

Glacier Lily (Erythronium grandiflorum) visited by B. bifarius.

Central bumble bee (B. centralis) visiting M. fusiformis.

B. centralis visiting M. fusiformis.


California bumble bee (B. californicus) visiting Delphinium sp..


Bombus sp. visiting Lathyrus lanszwertii.


Unknown skipper


West Coast Lady (Vanessa annabella)






V. annabella

Milbert's Tortoiseshell (Aglais milberti)

Green Comma (Polygonia faunus)

Silvery Blue Butterfly (Glaucopsyche lygdamus) visiting Viola vallicola.


G. lygdamus


Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) visiting M. fusiformis.


E. claudia

E. claudia


E. claudia




Mating Sheridan's Green Hairstreaks (Callophrys sheridanii).


Western Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio rutulus)


Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon)


P. zelicaon


P. zelicaon


P. zelicaon


P. zelicaon


P. zelicaon


Hesperis Fritillary (Speyeria hesperis)




Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus)







One-eyed Sphinx (Smerinthus cerisyi)


Langton's Forester Moth (Alypia langtoni)


Black-banded Orange Moth (Epelis truncataria)

Formica obtusopilosa. Accidentally sat on these guys' nest while I was photographing the mating Sheridan's Green Hairstreaks.

Unknown weevil (Superfamily Curculionoidea)

Robber fly (Family Asilidae) with prey.


Unknown damselfly (Suborder Zygoptera).


Unknown damselfly (Suborder Zygoptera).


Striped horsefly (Tabanus sp.).  While mosquitoes are not as bad as Yukon (I didn't wear my bug jacket this entire summer, hooray), the most annoying insects are the horseflies.  I smacked this one as it landed on me and then decided to take a photo of it.


Unknown cricket (Family Gryllidae)


Bee-like Robber Fly (Laphria sp.)