Thursday, October 19, 2017

National Butterfly Center, 10/17/17

I've been busy and have not got around to posting about the fun day I had at the National Butterfly Center with the Yukichs from Canada, Mike Rickard, John Rosford, Ken Wilson and Dave Hanson.  My goal was to see the Mercurial Skipper that had been present the two days before.  But alas, it was not meant to be and Mercurial Skipper continues as my nemesis butterfly (along with Emerald Aguna).  But we had a great day, finding some pretty good butterflies for each other.  Best
was my second ever Hermit Skipper.



Ken Wilson found this worn Gold-spotted Aguna.  It just barely had enough filed marks to be identifiable.


This Evan's Skipper wasn't much better.


And this Zilpa Longtail generated some debate.


I should write some more but I'm worn out.  Our list for the day held 65 species of which I saw all but four I think.

  • Pipevine Swallowtail 2
  • Giant Swallowtail 1
  • Florida White 2
  • Giant White 1
  • Southern Dogface 4
  • Yellow Angled-Sulphur 1
  • Cloudless Sulphur 2
  • Large Orange Sulphur 8
  • Lyside Sulphur 20
  • Tailed Orange 4
  • Little Yellow 5
  • Sleepy Orange 3
  • Dainty Sulphur 1
  • Marius Hairstreak 1
  • Gray Hairstreak 12
  • Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 4
  • Ceraunus Blue 10
  • Red-bordered Metalmark 1
  • American Snout 25
  • Gulf Fritillary 15
  • Julia Heliconian 2
  • Zebra Heliconian 1
  • Variegated Fritillary 1
  • Mexican Fritillary 3
  • Bordered Patch 4
  • Phaon Crescent 10
  • Question Mark 1
  • Painted Lady 6
  • Common Buckeye 5
  • White Peacock 2
  • Mexican Bluewing 4
  • Common Mestra 1
  • Ruddy Daggerwing 2
  • Tropical Leafwing 1
  • Tawny Emperor 30
  • Carolina Satyr 2
  • Monarch 6
  • Queen 300
  • Soldier 10
  • Zilpa Longtail 1
  • Gold-spotted Aguna 1
  • Long-tailed Skipper 1
  • Dorantes Longtail 1
  • Brown Longtail 10
  • Sickle-winged Skipper 1
  • Hermit Skipper 1
  • Brown-banded Skipper 2
  • White-patched Skipper 2
  • Mournful Duskywing 1
  • Funereal Duskywing 1
  • White Checkered-Skipper 15
  • Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
  • Laviana White-Skipper 20
  • Fawn-spotted Skipper 5
  • Clouded Skipper 30
  • Southern Skipperling 5
  • Fiery Skipper 80
  • Whirlabout 15
  • Southern Broken-Dash 15
  • Sachem 40
  • Common Mellana 10
  • Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3
  • Eufala Skipper 10
  • Purple-washed Skipper 2
  • Evans' Skipper 1