Hermit Skipper and Caterpillars at Progreso Lakes, 9/28/20

South wind ahead of our second cold front of the fall brought our second ever Hermit Skipper to our Progreso Lkaes yard today.  This has been a good summer for Hermit Skippers with several in the Valley and some as far way as Uvalde County.

Yesterday the butterflies weren't doing too much so I switched to looking for caterpillars.  The one that got me started was this cool Forbe's Silkmoth caterpillar.

In the same Colima I found a Western Giant Swallowtail Caterpillar with more nearby on a smaller Colima.

The Gulf Fritillaries have been busy on our Corky-stemmed Passionvine.

I found this Orange-barred Sulphur ovipositing on a Senna pendula.

But the only caterpillars I could find were Cloudless Sulphurs.

There were even two Cloudless Sulphur Chrysalises.

And the Polydamas Swallowtails ae still at it.

It's rewarding to see my plants being put to good use.

Progreso Lakes, 9/24/20

Finally got a few different butterflies today in our Progreso Lakes yard so I thought I would write a post.  We've had north wind for the past several days because of Tropical Storm Beta but now it's shifting back around to the south east and so we get butterflies.  This Mexican Bluewing was ovipositing on our Vassey's Adelia.

Ovipositing was the theme today.  I've suspected we often have Boisduval's Yellow because of our Senna pendula.  This one was laying eggs.

This banged up Tropical Leafwing was ovipositing on Low Croton.

We get few Mazan's Scallopwing so this one was a treat.  She was also bopping around on some small plant and may have been laying eggs.

This Brown-banded Skipper is on a Coyotillo but not far from the Barbados Cherry host plant.

A lot of the butterflies have been really beat up lately like this Tailed Orange.

Been a while since we've had a Brazilian Skipper.

This Guava Skipper is about done for.

Quens were out in big numbers today.  At least fifty of them.

Here's today's list of 36 species.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Western Tiger Swallowtail 3
• Cloudless Sulphur 8
• Large Orange Sulphur 8
• Lyside Sulphur 3
• Boisduval's Yellow 1
• Tailed Orange 1
• Little Yellow 1
• Cassius Blue 3
• American Snout 5
• Gulf Fritillary 4
• Bordered Patch 5
• Pearl Crescent 1
• White Peacock 10
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Tropical Leafwing 2
• Queen 50
• Soldier 8
• Guava Skipper 1
• Brown Longtail 3
• Mazans Scallopwing 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 3
• Brown-banded Skipper 1
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Laviana White-Skipper 10
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 20
• Clouded Skipper 20
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Whirlabout 2
• Southern Broken-Dash 1
• Common Mellana 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 10
• Eufala Skipper 1
• Brazilian Skipper 1