Eating my bagel at lunchtime today I looked out the window and I saw two large, beautiful butterflies. I ran to get my camera and reached the garden in time to see three butterflies seemingly dancing with each other, but they flitted away before I could take a photo.

So here’s the Berkeley puzzle. What might they have been? I looked at Art Shapiro’s Butterfly Site and I think I have two possibilities: either the Lorquin’s Admiral (left) or Chalcedon Checkerspot (right) . Can anyone knowledgeable suggest which it was likely to be? They were large and the coloration was something like the photos above. Guidance would be welcome.

Photos by Roger Hall and Erik Runquist

Lance Knobel (Berkeleyside co-founder) has been a journalist for nearly 40 years. Much of his career was in business journalism. He was editor-in-chief of both Management Today, the leading business magazine...