Pacific Spiketail

Invertebrates > Dragonflies

The Pacific Spiketail (Cordulegaster dorsalis) is a colossal, powerful mountain dragonfly that patrols the clear, rushing mountain torrents and cascading creeks of the western cordillera. Wielding immense, glowing turquoise-green compound eyes and a long, dagger-like...

California Laurel Borer

Invertebrates > Beetles

The California Laurel Borer (Rosalia funebris), widely celebrated as the Banded Alder Borer, is universally acclaimed as one of the most spectacularly patterned beetles in North America. Flaunting high-contrast, zebra-like bands of stark velvety jet-black and clean...

Western Bumblebee

Invertebrates > Bees & Wasps

The Western Bumblebee (Bombus occidentalis) is an iconic, fuzzy native pollinator historically ubiquitous throughout the western wilderness of North America. Renowned for its distinctive, snowy-white tail and industrious buzz-pollination behavior, this cold-adapted...

Pale Swallowtail

Invertebrates > Butterflies & Moths

The Pale Swallowtail (Papilio eurymedon), also known as the Pallid Swallowtail, is a breathtaking, ghostly-pale swallowtail butterfly native to the montane conifer forests and rocky canyons of the American West. Easily distinguished from its brilliant yellow tiger...

Lorquin’s Admiral

Invertebrates > Butterflies

Lorquin’s Admiral (Limenitis lorquini) is a dashing, pugnacious brush-footed butterfly named in honor of 19th-century French California naturalist Pierre Joseph Michel Lorquin. Instantly distinguished by its velvety chocolate-black wings slashed with a bold...