Help with a BFor Moth identification?

I found this little creature on the sedum basking in the sun today, and I can't find an ID picture in our Ohio Butterflies book--does anyone have an idea what it is?

And pardon this poor picture, please, but this is another creature that I can't ID. This one sat on the hydrangea leaf outside our dining room window for an hour....

Any help on these two IDs would be appreciated. Thanks. t.

hmmmmmmm looks like a Mexican Fritillary to me but don't think you would get them way up there so I am stumped lol

They appear to be Tawny Emperors. Hackberry Emperors also have two dark brown bars on the forewings but one will be a broken bar...your butterfly has complete bars...so my bet is a Tawny.

~ Cat

yea Cat lol

Thanks, cat!

I thought maybe they were fritillaries, too, ---some variation on 'variegated fritillaries'--- because there was so little black in them to be asterocampas but I see the wing shape is the same.

I am new to ID-ing butterflies and I know some BFs have different shades/colors depending on season, male/female, or just 'because'....for ID purposes I suppose it's better/easier to go by wing shape first. I was stumped because these had so little black compared to those in my book. the wing shape though is identical to the asterocampas.

FYI everyone, --a cool BF site for IDing northern varieties:

http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabambc/construct-group-page.asp?gr=Nymphalidae

Thanks again for helping to ID them! I really appreciate it!

A mitey handsome Tawn Emperor, tabasco ...

* BTW .. DG's BugFiles is in need of an open-wing TOP view!
Please .. consider adding that beauty of a photo!?!

- Magpye

Tabasco,

Yes, at first I wondered about them being Tawnys because they were so dark compared to the ones we get here and thought perhaps ya'll had a different species of them up north. We get some called Empress Lelias too which are some hybrid of the emperors.

Still can't get over how dark the hind wings are on yours!

Would post a photo of the ones out here but my computer crashed and although I just bought a laptop I haven't been able to retrieve the information off the old computer.

~ Cat

Mags--I'll be sure to post the pic in bug files. thanks for reminding me.

TPP-- After you mentioned the Tawny E. I googled some more and found a scholarly article that gave quite a description and mentioned that there is a morph with plain dark tails and I think that's what I've got.

thanks for your interest. t.