Broken Silverdrop at the National Butterfly Center, 6/30/15

A few days ago Dottie Lamolinara found a rare Broken Silverdrop in her yard.  As is often the case when a rare butterfly appears, a second was found by Mike Rickard yesterday at the National Butterfly Center.  As it was found in a blooming Tenaza tree I hope it might hang around.  So despite a line of showers approaching I headed over to the NBC and luckily found the Epargyreus exadeus after about an hour in the same tree.  I got a few photos and then it was gone.

I saw a couple of Long-tailed Skippers but I could not find anything about them to make them not proteus. Seems like no two are alike.

No doubt about this White-striped Longail.  

Mexican Fritillary used to be an almost daily butterfly but not anymore.  This sorry specimen was my first for the year.

But there's no shortage of Gulf Frits.

Julia's Skipper is usually outnumbered by the somewhat similar Eufala Skipper.  Notice the lack of a big eyebrow.  They can vary in color from tan to brassy to pale orange,

We are reaching the point in the year when the Reakirt's Blues seem to magically be replaced by Ceraunus Blues at the NBC.

Clytie Ministreaks are showing up too.

48 species today in 3.5 hours

• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Great Southern White 6
• Large Orange Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 1
• Little Yellow 3
• Mimosa Yellow 2
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 15
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Red-banded Hairstreak 8
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• American Snout 3
• Gulf Fritillary 5
• Zebra Heliconian 2
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 25
• Texan Crescent 1
• Pale-banded Crescent 2
• Phaon Crescent 6
• Pearl Crescent 8
• White Peacock 1
• Banded Peacock 4
• Hackberry Emperor 50
• Carolina Satyr 1
• Monarch 1
• Queen 80
• Soldier 5
• Broken Silverdrop 1
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 2
• Brown Longtail 20
• Two-barred Flasher 2
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 2
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper20
• Laviana White-Skipper 10
• Common Sootywing 4
• Julia's Skipper 2
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 20
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Southern Broken-Dash 5
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 2