Curious with few facts

While in the garden today I noticed a beautiful butterfly on a penstemon...One I have never noticed before. It was a bout 2 inches mostly black but with white and orange...It had little orange ends on the antennae, and an orange crest on a black head...I noticed she was laying yellow eggs. I ran into the house to get the camera, got distracted, and when I got back she was gone...Anyone want to take a gander as to the vairety? hahaha..I wonder if the caterpillers will eat my penstemon? Oops...hahaha...location: Monterey Bay California

Here is a good place to start sudhira:
http://davesgarden.com/bf/browse/order.php?bid=161

Butterflies and Moths of North America for Monterey County California:
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/map?dc=1083&_dcc=1&si=5
Scroll down and you will find a list to click on their names and see pictures of butterflies documented in your county.

See if that helps and get back to us. When the eggs hatch try to get a pic of the cats too. Don't worry about your pemstemon, you can always buy more of that.

:-)
Deb

Could it be an Edith's Checkered spot? They will use Penstemon as a larval host.

http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=1752&chosen_state=06*California

Thanks for the info..so far I do not see it on the list...the orange on this little girl was intense,and the little orange crest on the head was pretty cool..

I'll get photos of the babies.

She came back today...very elusive only a slight landing on some erigeron...here is the type of butterfly I found laying eggs on a penstemon...The eggs have not hatched yet I took a picture of them...any guess as to what type of butterfly this is?

Here are the eggs

sudhira~

http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=1751&chosen_state=06*California
Looks just like a Chalcedon Variable Checkerspot...sudhira

:-Deb

Great little clutch of eggs there to, sudhira!
Here is an articles/sites with a little more information>

http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/butterfly/Euphydryas/chalcedona
http://bugguide.net/node/view/25353
http://www.registryofnaturehabitats.org/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/ut/166.htm

Deb! That's it, you rock...such a beautiful little thing it is!!

Thanks a million~&~

Suhira~
You are very welcome!

Keep us posted!

:-Deb

Debnes, you nailed that one!! Too bad we don't have that beauty down here.
Sudhira, you need to go to the bug files link here and add your egg clutch! That is a nice picture!
http://davesgarden.com/bf/go/497/