Calico Pennant

Here's (presumably) a Calico Pennant that I met back in June. It's got a lot of Calico Pennant characteristics:

  1. A black abdomen with red marks on it.
  2. A reddish face.
  3. Mostly veiny wings with light red stigmas near the end of the wings.
  4. And maybe most important, near the base of the rear wings there is an amber spot surrounded by a darker brown spot.

But it does have a couple characteristics I don't usually see in a Calico Pennant. Mostly I would have expected to see brown areas at the end of each wing. The almost complete absence of these brown spots is unusual in a Calico. Normally I'd wonder if this was a young Calico, and the wing ends would brown up as it gets older, but a young Calico is supposed to have a yellow face. 

So while I'm fairly sure this is a Calico Pennant, I have to admit that this isn't quite a classic look for them.

June 17, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve
Photo 141958221, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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