National Butterfly Center, 1/11/13

Finally a warm day with some southerly winds so I headed over to the National Butterfly Center to see if any juicy stuff had blown in.  I took the 1.4 extender off my camera and lo and behold the images are a bit sharper.  Nothing super rare but this Barred Yellow Eurema daira was a first for me.

You need to pick through the Little Yellows for a Mimosa Yellow Eurema nise.

Mexican Yellow Eurema mexicana is occasional in the RGV.

The rare Guatemalan Cracker Hamadryas guatemalena was glued to it's usual hackberry where it has been frequently found for the past few months.

A colorful Cloudless Sulphur Phoebis sennae. 

A perky Cassius Blue Leptotes cassius.

Just a Gray Hairstreak Strymon melinus.

And his equally common cousin, the Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak Strymon istapa.

Not your typical Common Mestra Mestra amymone.

Malicious Skipper at NBC, 12/31/12

This Synapte skipper at the National Butterfly Center had us doing research to try to turn it into salenus but it seems to be the expected malitiosa.

Other good stuff included Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak Strymon rufofusca.

And a well worn Curve-winged Metalmark Emesis emesia.

Black Swallowtail isn't something we see every day in the RGV.

Aquamarine Hairstreak, Guatemalan Leafwing at NBC, 12/25/12

Aquamarine Hairstreak Oenomaus ortygnus

Pearly-gray Hairstreak Siderus tephraeus

We identified this as Clench's Greenstreak Cyanophrys miserabilis based on the brown frons and black eyes.

Oange-barred Sulphur Phoebis philea

Pavon Emperor Doxocopa pavon

Hoary Skipper at Frontera Audubon Thicket, 12/25/12

The best bug of the day was Mike Rickard's Anaea forreri. Here's a link to his photo.