Anthocharis sara, Lucas, 1852

Stout, Todd L., 2018, A review of three species-level taxa of the Anthocharis sara complex (Lepidoptera: Pieridae: Pierinae: Anthocharidini), Insecta Mundi 615, pp. 1-38 : 2-3

Anthocharis sara . Anthocharis sara is primarily a California endemic species with its distribution extending from the peninsular ranges of Baja California North including Cedros Island northward throughout cismontane Southern California through the Sierra Nevada northwest into extreme southwest Oregon ( Emmel and Emmel 1973; Brown et al. 1992). The common name pacific orangetip which previ- ously assigned subspecies A. s. flora W. G. Wright, 1892, and A. s. alaskensis Gunder, 1932, to A. sara is obsolete, as larval and pupal characters assign these subspecies to A. julia ( Opler 1999) .

Adults of A. sara from Cedros Island, BCN, are well illustrated in the Butterflies of America website and appear to be more phenotypically similar to southern California A. sara sara than A. sara gunderi Ingham, 1933 , ( Warren et al. 2017). San Diego County cismontane populations of A. sara sara can be found to the east in the western portion of the Colorado Desert through Anza Borrego Desert State Park into extreme western Imperial County, California.

Bivoltine populations of A. sara sara in southern California and A. sara gunderi from Santa Catalina and Santa Cruz Islands (Los Angeles County) have larger second brood adults with more faded ventral hindwing mottling than first brood examples ( Emmel and Emmel 1973; Shapiro and Manolis 2007). Note: These second brood wing characters are also consistent with occasional second-generation A. thoosa inghami (Tom Kral pers. comm.) (Gunder, 1932), from Pima County, Arizona, (spring rains permitting) and more generally with other multivoltine pierids such as P. protodice , P. occidentalis , and P. beckerii . In all these species, adults emerging from non-diapausing pupae can be larger and have more faded ventral hind wing markings as compared to their respective early spring forms emerging from overwintered pupae.

A. sara sempervirens is reviewed in detail by Emmel et al. (2008) in the original description based upon the unique habitat of Redwood National Park coupled with some examples similar to the allotype female where the orange apical patch is replaced by yellow.

A. sara pseudothoosa ( Austin, 1998) , which has higher frequency of white females than nominotypical A. sara , is univoltine and flies in the White and Inyo Mountains of California to the east slope of the Sierra Nevada east towards the Sweetwater Mountains of Douglas County, Nevada, north past Lake Tahoe Region into Washoe County, Nevada ( Austin 1998).

Based upon field observations and examined museum records, A. sara has produced more strays than A. thoosa or A. julia . Mark Walker and Brian Banker collected a second brood of A. sara sara in the Dead Mountains of San Bernardino County, CA. (Walker pers. comm.). Paul Opler (pers. comm.) also provides a record of A. sara sara from Benton County, Oregon, in McDonald National Forest, approximately 130 miles to the north of established populations of A. sara sara in Josephine County.