Violet-patched Skipper, Hecebolus Skipper at NBC, 11/16/14

This morning was kind of cool and drippy but Honey and I decided to head over to the National Butterfly Center anyway.  Glad we did as we had a heck of a day.  Best butterfly goes to my first Violet-patched Skipper.  When I saw this tiny skipper with bold wing markings I first thought Nysa Roadside-Skipper.  But when I got my camera on it and saw the red coloration and two toned body I knew I had something good. This is a butterfly I've wanted to see for a long time.

An equally good butterfly was my first Hecebolus Skipper found by my guru Mike Rickard.  Mike and Ginny had found another in the same area recently.  The spot above and anterior to the big arrow on the dorsal surface is the key field mark.

Mike and I spent quite a while searching the blooming chomonque before I pulled out this sharp Marius Hairstreak.

Even without the stellar three butterflies above it was still a pretty good day.  We got the two Chioides longtails, White-striped and Zilpa.

A couple of Purple-washed Skippers were nice.  Everyone was having a difficult time today keeping the names Violet-banded, Violet-patched and Purple-washed straight.

A nice Texas Powdered-Skipper

A swell Silver-banded Hairstreak.

And a bucket of Red-bordered Pixies.

And I almost forgot the Great Purple Hairstreak.

Here's our list of 60 species for today at the NBC.

• Checkered White 1
• Southern Dogface 4
• Cloudless Sulphur 3
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Little Yellow 6
• Sleepy Orange 3
• Dainty Sulphur 3
• Great Purple Hairstreak 1
• Marius Hairstreak 1
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 6
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 12
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 10
• Western Pygmy-Blue 2
• Ceraunus Blue 10
• Reakirt's Blue 1
• Fatal Metalmark 5
• Red-bordered Pixie 10
• American Snout 50
• Gulf Fritillary 10
• Zebra Heliconian 4
• Variegated Fritillary 2
• Bordered Patch 4
• Elada Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 3
• Phaon Crescent 8
• Pearl Crescent 1
• American Lady 1
• Painted Lady 3
• Red Admiral 8
• Common Buckeye 3
• White Peacock 6
• Tropical Leafwing 1
• Tawny Emperor 50
• Monarch 5
• Queen 500
• Soldier 10
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Zilpa Longtail 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Brown Longtail 5
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 2
• White-patched Skipper 2
• Funereal Duskywing 5
• White Checkered-Skipper 20
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Violet-patched Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 5
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 40
• Southern Skipperling 6
• Fiery Skipper 15
• Southern Broken-Dash 3
• Sachem 10
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 8
• Hecebolus Skipper 1
• Purple-washed Skipper 2