The Rockslide Checkerspot or Sierra Nevada Checkerspot (Chlosyne whitneyi) is a butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 of the Nymphalidae

Nymphalidae

The Nymphalidae is a family of about 5,000 species of butterflies which are distributed throughout most of the world. These are usually medium sized to large butterflies. Most species have a reduced pair of forelegs and many hold their colourful wings flat when resting. They are also called...

 family. It is found from British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

 and Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

 south, in the mountains, to California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 and Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

.

The wingspan

Wingspan

The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

 is 32-41 mm. Adults are on wing from July to August in one generation per year.

The larvae feed on various species in the sunflower family including Erigeron

Erigeron

Erigeron is a genus of about 390 species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution with the highest species diversity in North America, where 173 species occur....

 and Solidago species. They feed gregariously on the leaves and flowers of their host plant. Third- and fourth instar larvae hibernate under rocks.

Subspecies

• Chlosyne whitneyi whitneyi
• Chlosyne whitneyi damoetas (Skinner, 1902)
• Chlosyne whitneyi malcolmi Comstock, 1926