During this amazing fall/winter butterfly season of 2025/25 I have been treated to seven lifer butterflies. It's been a long time since I've gotten that many in a season. And all have been found by other butterfly watchers. I am reminded of Blanche DuBois' line "Whoever you are... I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." Now mind you, though I did not find any of these lifers, I was first to properly identify several of them. And I have found some good ones that were lifers for others. So I've been sort of carrying my weight.
But yesterday I had a senior moment. I had refound the rare Black Hairstreak that has been around a few days at the National Butterfly Center and put it on the Discord alert. I knew a few people present who wanted to see it. But I accidentally entered "Black Crescent". I had Black Crescent on the brain. The day before I had found a very dark Pale-banded Crescent and had hoped it was a rare Black Crescent. Also there was a questionable recent report of a Black Crescent. Well, everyone came running. Peter DeGennaro excitedly asked "Where is it?" It took me a minute to realize my error. Billy Webber was racing over from the nearby Oleander Acres garden. "No Billy No! Black Haistreak" I typed on Discord. Everyone laughed and forgave me. But having just turned 70, I was feeling old and not enjoying the moment.
So today I went for one last day at the National Butterfly Center before the approaching cold front. The past two days had been very windy so we were all hoping something good had blown in from Mexico. I was at the blooming spring mistflower by the palapa looking for the reported Malicious Skipper, when I saw a large brightly colored butterfly only a couple of feet away. Bight orange and black tiger stripes like an Isabella Heliconian. But the black thorax was spotted with white... like a Queen or a Monarch. Tiger Mimic-Queen! This rare relative of the Monarch, a Heliconia mimic, has been seen few times in the RGV. I had a fun experience chasing one with Mark and Holly Salvato years ago at the NBC and I saw a second at Quinta Mazatlan. This one was a knockout. And it stayed all day, feeding on the spring mist flowers. Everyone got to see it.
Wow! That was a doosey! So I left the happy throng and went to the mist flower cross over to look for another Malicious Skipper and I spied a very colorful crescent. The bright white hind wing band with an extension on the submarginal spot screamed female Chestnut Crescent. I put out the word and the happy gang came thundering one more time.
And then things went back to just normal spectacular. Dennis Vollmar found this striking fresh Guatemalan Cracker. I tried hard to turn it into Variable but the double blue rings on the hind wing ocelli say Guatemalan.
I found a Zilpa Longtail but no one else got it.
Then there were the usual Malachites, Silver ad Pavon Emperors, Band-celled Sisters, etc that normally bring people runing but we're a little jaded this year. Glad to have a few days off with the cool front blasting through.
