I arrived at the National Butterfly Center at about 11 AM and there was Buck and Linda Cooper from Florida so that means it Texas Butterfly Festival time. So good to see them. And so good to see this one too, right out in front.
Marianna led us to the back 70 acres where I'll be leading a trip for the Festival. There was tons of blooming crucita along the river. This big beautiful rare Ornythion Swallowtail paid us a brief visit and was then gone.
And for the past few years even more rare than Ornythion, this Polydamas Swallowtail was a nice surprise.
A couple of Silver-banded Hairstreaks were in the balloon vine.
Tailed Orange is a south Texas specialty that has exploded in numbers in recent days.
Otherwise it was mostly a bunch of grass skippers including a Purple-washed. After lunch I went back up to the front gardens looking for the Glazed Pellicia and Evan's Skippers that had been seen during the morning when I got word of a Tropical Parula back in the lower garden. Got it!
- Pipevine Swallowtail 6
- Polydamas Swallowtail 1
- Giant Swallowtail 3
- Ornythion Swallowtail 1
- Southern Dogface 4
- Cloudless Sulphur x
- Large Orange Sulphur x
- Lyside Sulphur 6
- Tailed Orange 5
- Little Yellow 1
- Mimosa Yellow 3
- Dainty Sulphur 1
- Silver-banded Hairstreak 2
- Gray Hairstreak 2
- Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
- Ceraunus Blue 2
- Red-bordered Pixie 1
- American Snout 2
- Gulf Fritillary 2
- Variegated Fritillary 1
- Bordered Patch 2
- Painted Lady 2
- Red Admiral 2
- White Peacock 1
- Tawny Emperor 20
- Monarch 6
- Queen 300
- Soldier 4
- White-striped Longtail 1
- Long-tailed Skipper 1
- Brown Longtail 3
- Glazed Pellicia 1
- Funereal Duskywing 1
- White Checkered-Skipper 4
- Tropical Checkered-Skipper 2
- Laviana White-Skipper 6
- Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
- Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
- Clouded Skipper 8
- Fiery Skipper x
- Whirlabout x
- Southern Broken-Dash x
- Sachem 2
- Common Mellana 3
- Celia's Roadside-Skipper 1
- Eufala Skipper 4
- Ocola Skipper 6
- Purple-washed Skipper 1
