Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Fitzgaertner's Flat at Bentsen, National Butterfly Center, 6/10/15

Yesterday Mike Rickard found a Fitzgaertner's Flat at Bentsen Rio Grande State Park.  This crepuscular skipper has been seen around the visitor's center in years past and Mike knew another might be found there this butterfly filled spring.  I race over last night and got to see it and went over again today hoping for better photos.  Turned out there were two present this afternoon, hanging out by the bathrooms.  I had to use the flash so I'm not sure how accurate the colors are.



This morning I prowled around the National Butterfly Center hoping for something good.  A Ruddy Daggerwing briefly showed for a poor photo.  The brush holley, where we had several of both daggerwings a  few years ago, was in bloom so this may be the place to look for them.


Besides lots of bees and Tawny Emperors, the best butterfly in the brush holley was the long-staying male Silver Emperor.


Nearby on the fiddlewood was a Pavon Emperor which was less worn than the one seen a few days ago.



This cloudywing is probably a Coyote Cloudywing but the bulge on the hind wing made me think it could be a Jalapus.  But I could not get a diagnostic look at it.




A Ruby-spotted Swallowtail cruised by a few times but this was the best I could do.


Here's the list.
  • Black Swallowtail 4
  • Giant Swallowtail 1
  • Ruby-spotted Swallowtail 1
  • Great Southern White 10
  • Large Orange Sulphur 4
  • Lyside Sulphur 3
  • Little Yellow 2
  • Gray Hairstreak 3
  • Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 6
  • Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 1
  • Dusky-blue Groundstreak 10
  • Red-bordered Metalmark 2
  • American Snout 8
  • Gulf Fritillary 2
  • Zebra Heliconian 1
  • Elada Crescent 1
  • Texan Crescent 5
  • Vesta Crescent 1
  • Phaon Crescent 25
  • Pearl Crescent 1
  • Question Mark 1
  • Red Admiral 2
  • White Peacock 1
  • Mexican Bluewing 1
  • Ruddy Daggerwing 1
  • Tropical Leafwing 2
  • Tawny Emperor 200
  • Pavon Emperor 1
  • Silver Emperor 1
  • Queen 40
  • Brown Longtail 2
  • Coyote Cloudywing 1
  • Fritzgaertner's Flat 2
  • Falcate Skipper 1
  • Sickle-winged Skipper 2
  • Brown-banded Skipper 1
  • White Checkered-Skipper 2
  • Tropical Checkered-Skipper10
  • Laviana White-Skipper 6
  • Common Sootywing 1
  • Fawn-spotted Skipper 2
  • Clouded Skipper 3
  • Fiery Skipper 1
  • Whirlabout 1
  • Celia's Roadside-Skipper 1