Around the time of the American Revolution, some North American lepidopterists were paying more attention to butterflies than to tea and taxes.
As the redcoats and rebels squared off, the butterfly-chasers gathered their own army of specimens, including two new species in the genus Limenitis.
One was the White Admiral, a black butterfly with white stripes.
The Admiral lives mostly in today's Canada, where it's the official insect emblem of Quebec.
And further south in the soon-to-be USA, lepidopterists found a butterfly that was black and blue and brown with yellow/orange spots.
The lepidopterists named it the Red-Spotted Purple, which somehow stuck.
Today, the Purple is New York State's butterfly.
Neither insect's name seems totally spot on but the White Admiral is true to its title in one sense.
Like a commando in a combat zone, it uses stealth to survive.
Its white stripes break up its butterfly outline, making it harder for predators to target.
