2023 July 12

   Gordon Hart writes:   While Swallowtails and Lorquin’s Admirals continue, I saw my first of the year Woodland Skippers on Monday July 10, nectaring on Lavender. I believe this one is a male. [Gordon has noticed the androconia sex brand as well as the costal fold.]

Woodland Skipper Ochlodes sylvanoides (Lep.: Hesperiidae)
Gordon Hart

Jeremy Tatum shows two chrysalids:

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Mourning Cloak Nymphalis antiopa (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Jeremy Tatum

“Chrysalis” is the informal word we use for the pupa of a butterfly (not so often of a moth).  What is the plural of chrysalis?  You have three choices.  It is perfectly OK to use the normal English way of forming a plural: chrysalises.  Or you may use the Greek plural:  chrysalides  (four syllables, stress on the second.)  This is often used in writing, though I don’t often hear this version spoken.  The most usual plural used by butterfly enthusiasts (and the one I usually use) is chrysalids.  This isn’t quite English or quite Greek, and probably has little etymological justification – but it seems to have established itself as the usual spoken version.  There is no such word as chrysalid.