Tawny Crescent 
Phyciodes batesii maconensis

Tawny Crescent (Phyciodes batesii maconensis), the southern Appalachian race, is one of our rarest butterflies. It is restricted to Rabun and Towns counties in NE Georgia and to seven adjacent counties in North Carolina. It was discovered in Rabun County by John Symmes on May 26, 1957 with no other Georgia reports until Pierre Howard discovered a colony in Towns County on May 23, 2010. The sole known hostplant is wavy-leaved aster (Aster undulatus), a plant that prefers dry open habitat and is often found on dry forest road banks. It also occurs on high rocky ridges at elevations over 3500 feet and at elevations as low as 2500 feet. Its colonies occupy small areas near the host plants, and it nectars nearby. There is one brood from late April to mid-May at lower elevations. At higher elevations, the flight dates can be a bit later. The flight period was once thought have been mid-May into June, but the flight date seems to have advanced recently, with adults on the wing in warmer years by the end of April and with the flight probably ending by late May. Early Date: 25 April (Rabun County); Late Date: 29 May (high elevation) (Rabun County). Conservation status: Designated by NCGR as G3- very rare or local throughout its range or found locally in a restricted range (21 to 100 occurrences) and threatened throughout its range; a “Species of Federal Concern.” For unknown reasons, it has disappeared from most of its eastern range, but it is still holding on in the Southern Appalachian region.