Harvester AND GOATWEED LEAFWING
Harvesters are uncommon butterflies. My only local sighting in the Dayton area (the individual above and at left) was at Siebenthaler Fen on July 6, 2014.
The butterfly at left is even less common than the Harvester. This is a Goatweed Leafwing, a rare southern stray to Ohio. I photographed this Goatweed Leafwing at Cox Arboretum on April 14, 2017. Interestingly, a few days later I had my earliest ever sighting of a Monarch butterfly. I suspect that the warm, southerly winds that blew the Monarchs into town early also brought this Goatweed Leafwing up from the south.
The Harvester is the only butterfly in North America with carnivorous larvae. Its caterpillars eat woolly aphids.
Goatweed Leafwings are well-camouflaged amongst dead leaves ... until they open their beautiful red-orange wings. This individual was very skittish and kept landing on the ground briefly and then flying away into the trees. It required almost an hour of patient stalking before I got these few photos. But I would have waited all afternoon if necessary for the rare opportunity to see a Goatweed Leafwing!
I have also seen Harvesters at Hocking Hills (eastern Ohio) and Otto Armleder Park near Cincinnati. The individual at left was found at Otto Armleder on August 19, 2023. I was down there hunting for clubtails, but this Harvester was a nice bonus for making the long drive.