National Butterfly Center, 11/16/24

It's prime butterfly season in the RGV and with strong SSE wind forecast ahead of a weak cold front, I put in a few hours at the National Butterfly Center.  Pretty good butterflies were on the wing but nothing super rare.  Best was another Blomfild's Beauty.  This one is a male.

Red Rim is annual in the Valley but usually is pretty rare.  Two today is a very uncommon occurance.

And both of the above on the same baitlog is pretty much unheard of.

There were three Marius Hairstreaks on the same Hamelia.

I like the angle on this Guava Skipper.  They have been more common than usual lately.

I couldn't turn down a Red-bordered Pixie.

After I had a couple of Curve-winged Metalmark sightings at Quinta Mazatlan while the dozen or more visiting butterfly watchers had seen none, Linda Cooper jokingly told me to find her one.  I didn't find one but she manged to find her own.

This beatup Band-celled sister has been around a few days.

Another woolly long-horned bee stole my attention.  Maybe someday I can ID it.

Today's list of 58 species.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 2
• Giant Swallowtail 5
• Florida White 1
• Southern Dogface 3
• Cloudless Sulphur 3
• Large Orange Sulphur 6
• Lyside Sulphur 2
• Little Yellow 5
• Marius Hairstreak 3
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 20
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Cassius Blue 2
• Ceraunus Blue 6
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• Curve-winged Metalmark 1
• American Snout 5
• Gulf Fritillary 3
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Zebra Heliconian 10
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 1
• Elada Checkerspot 2
• Texan Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Question Mark 1
• Red Admiral 2
• Common Buckeye 1
• White Peacock 2
• Mexican Bluewing 2
• Common Mestra 10
• Red Rim 2
• Tropical Leafwing 3
• Empress Leilia 2
• Tawny Emperor 15
• Carolina Satyr 1
• Queen 15
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 3
• Dorantes Longtail 3
• Brown Longtail 2
• Coyote Cloudywing 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 3
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Double-dotted Skipper 6
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 2
• Whirlabout 1
• Sachem 1
• Eufala Skipper 5
• Brazilian Skipper 3

Buckeye Trifecta at South Padre Island, 11/14/24

With a shift in the wind I thought I might be a good idea to run out to South Padre Island and look for late migrant passerine birds.  There were a few warblers at Sheepshead but not a many.  So I headed up island to the Convention Center to check it out.  As lunchtime was nearing I drove through the east parking lot with plans to drive out on the flats and watch shorebirds while eating lunch.  But a medium sized dark butterfly landed in front of me and I knew what it would be.  I've had Twintip Buckeye here before.

Then a similarly sized butterfly chased the Twintip Buckeye off and replaced it on the sand.  This was the more normal looking Common Buckeye that I had raised in Mason jars as a kid.  Walking out in the grass I found a second.

The north wind had blown in a lot lot of water so driving the flats would be messy.  I quickly ate my lunch and headed to the Convention Center where I saw a few warblers.  Then I walked out on the boardwalk with the hopes of finding Mangraove Buckeyes in the black mangroves.  I saw a distant one and then got lucky with a closer one on the mud under the mangroves.  And then it perched on one of the mangrove aerial roots.  Now that's a Mangrove Buckeye!

So three species of buckeyes?  What's up with that?  That certainly doesn't agree with what's in Glassberg's book.  Well buckeye systmatics have been messed up for a long time.  The fact that lepidopterists can't seem to play together doesn't help.  Nick Grishin has been doing a lot of analysis of butterfly DNA recently and published a paper that divides the North American buckeyes into seven species.  It's not an easy to read paper but I get more out of it every time I look at it.  So our old  Tropical Buckeye in the Valley is now Twintip Buckeye and our orange buckeyes out in the mangrove that everyone was ignoring is Mangrove Buckeye.  The western Common Buckeye is now Gray Buckeye and the southwestern "nigrofusia" is called Dark Buckeye I guess.  The eastern buckeye is still the Common Buckeye.  Florida has a different species of Mangrove Buckeye and the Mangrove Buckeye of the Pacific coast of Mexico was split off.  These buckeyes all look ifferent and should have been split long ago.  But what Nick Grishin is doing with splitting identical species and rearranging genera I'm not so excited about.

West Coast Lady at NBC, 11/8/24

Shortly after the furor caused by the Mexican Crescent at the National Butterfly Center, Jack Cochran found a good looking West Coast Lady in the area across the levee known as the Back 70.  I had seen one back in 2011 and it was really hot and I didn't feel like going back over there, so I hoped it would spend the night and I gave it a try this morning.  And there it was.

I thought "Gee, where did this thing come from?"  Then later I was talking to Bob Yukich and he told me thay have them down in Mexico.  So this morning I checked out the map for Vanessa annabella on iNaturalist and sure enough there are records from as close as Monterrey, Mexico.  Meanwhile the Mexican Crescent spent the night.

There was other good stuff around but I was busy with bees.  This little golden fuzzy thing has me stumped.  I think it's some kind of a longhorn but I'm not finding any photos like it.

The adventures continue.

Mexican Crescent at National Butterfly Center, 11/7/24

A few days ago visiting butterfly watchers found an unusual looking crescent while wandering around the Roma birding overlook.  Valley butterfly guru Mike Rickard later identified it as a Mexican Crescent.  It's one of those typical spotted checkery Phyciodes species that can be so confusing.  I've never seen one.  All I know is it looks like a Phaon Crescent but the final pale spot on the subterminal row on the forewing lacks the black dot characteristic of Phaon and Pearl Crescents.

Well today I was taking it easy after putting in a hard day yesterday at the National Butterfly Center.  I was editing photos and getting caught up with this blog and iNaturalist stuff when the GroupMe dinged.  Bob Yukich had just found another Mexican Cresent at the butterfly center.  I raced right over and there was the gang from yesterday and a few more admiring Bob's find right in front of the visitors center.  All I had to do was get out of the jeep and walk a few feet.  I like it when they're easy!

Here a Phaon Crescent is excited by pheromones emitted by the female Mexican Crescent.

It was a lifer for everyone except maybe Mike Rickard who has fifty yeaars of butterfly experience in the RGV.  I was just happy to really see one and observe the field marks.  Strong southerly wind ahead of a weak cold front is expected tomorrow so maybe more good stuff is on the way.

National Butterfly Center, 11/6/24

Yesterday someone photographed a beat up Starred Skipper at the National Butterfly Center south of Mission, Texas.  This is a Mexican butterfly species I have never seen so I raced over this morning hoping for a lifer.  Lots of visiting butterfly watchers are in the Valley now as it is vagrant season and so far it's been pretty good.  So old butterfly friends and I spent a lot of time periodically checking the crucita patch in front of the restrooms.  It was good to see them though we never refound the Starred Skipper.

But all the eyes were sure able to find other good stuff, like this Blomfild's Beauty.  It's been a few years since I have seen this large showy Mexican species.  Sometimes they get friendly.

Nearby a Gray Cracker posed on a pale patch of fungus.  I'm not sure abouts its camouflage strategy.

The shady patches of white plumbago were popular.  This worn Two-bared Flasher spent the morning there.  It's going to take me a while to start calling it Qian's Flasher.

Other butterflies enjoying the plumbago included Coyote Cloudywing, Large Orange Sulphur and a White-striped Longtail.

Here's the obligatory Mexican Bluewing.

Up front a Marius Hairstreak was in the crucita.  It's been a good fall for them.

I have a lot more photos but you get the idea.  I saw 69 species of butterflies today but I felt like I left a few on the table.  I later found out Linda Cooper saw 76 species.  Things are flying!

• Pipevine Swallowtail 12
• Giant Swallowtail 8
• Checkered White 5
• Orange Sulphur 3
• Southern Dogface 10
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Large Orange Sulphur 25
• Lyside Sulphur 5
• Tailed Orange 3
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Dainty Sulphur 3
• Marius Hairstreak 1
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 4
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 10
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Ceraunus Blue 8
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• American Snout 20
• Gulf Fritillary 3
• Zebra Heliconian 6
• Variegated Fritillary 2
• Mexican Fritillary 3
• Bordered Patch 2
• Elada Checkerspot 5
• Texan Crescent 2
• Phaon Crescent 8
• Pearl Crescent 2
• Question Mark 2
• Red Admiral 1
• Common Buckeye 2
• White Peacock 5
• Common Mestra 5
• Gray Cracker 1
• Blomfild's Beauty 1
• Tropical Leafwing 10
• Hackberry Emperor 2
• Empress Leilia 2
• Tawny Emperor 100
• Carolina Satyr 2
• Queen 40
• Soldier 1
• White-striped Longtail 3
• Zilpa Longtail 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 4
• Dorantes Longtail 3
• Brown Longtail 3
• Two-barred Flasher 1
• Coyote Cloudywing 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 4
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 12
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 3
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 1
• Laviana White-Skipper 8
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 10
• Double-dotted Skipper 15
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 50
• Whirlabout 3
• Sachem 20
• Common Mellana 5
• Eufala Skipper 8
• Brazilian Skipper 1
• Purple-washed Skipper 1

Quinta Mazatlan, 10/29/24

An impromtu run over to Quinta Mazatlan turned into a pretty darn good butterfly day.  The private garden just outside the entrance gave up its usual Mexican Fritillary.

The crucita by the entrace to the beautiful old visitor's center hosted a worn Julia.  It is often called the Julia Heliconian but it is not a Heliconius.

After checking in I hit the little garden just outside and things started getting good.  I have never seen so many Pale-banded Crescents.  They have been hard to find this year.

A male Red-borded Metalmark showed off his scarlet underwings.

Then I found a good one.  This is the first Potrillo Skipper I have seen this year.  The usual spot at the Old Cemetery at Santa Ana NWR has failed to produce any.  Nick Grishin's new name is Caballo Skipper.  Hard to keep up with all the new splits from the recent DNA work.  

And then a Giant White made a brief appearance.

I checked the plumbago patch where the Mexican Violetear hung out a few years ago and found this sharp Two-barred Flasher.  Nick Grishin has split this one off and is calling it Qian's Flasher.

Lots of Mourful Duskywings around, each one different.

A walk back to the Ebony Grove Turned up a massive patch of crucita.  McAllen had some heavy rain in August that other local spots missed.  Here I found both Long-tailed Skipper and Brown Longtail.

Good grass skipper diversity nectaring on the crucita.  Here are Ocola, Sachem and Fiery Skippers.

A return to the little garden by the visitors center gave me my best butterfly.  Curve-winged Metalmark has been nonexistent in the RGV this year.

One last loop around the park turned up a Silver-banded Hairstreaak.

Finally, after seeing a half dozen during the day, I got a decent Zebra Heliconian shot back at the private garden where I started.  This really is a Heliconius (for now) but some call it the Zebra Longwing.  In the birding world, The American Ornithological Society does a good job of keeping bird names uniform in the New World.  But lepidopterists are a petty, divided bunch with a frustrating lack of uniformity in common names and even species recognition.  Oh well.....

Here's today list of 44 species

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 6
• Giant White 1
• Southern Dogface 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 3
• Large Orange Sulphur 6
• Lyside Sulphur 1
• Little Yellow 3
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Cassius Blue 1
• Red-bordered Metalmark 2
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• Curve-winged Metalmark 1
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Zebra Heliconian 5
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 3
• Texan Crescent 1
• Pale-banded Crescent 25
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Pearl Crescent 1
• White Peacock 5
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Common Mestra 4
• Tawny Emperor 2
• Queen 5
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Brown Longtail 2
• Two-barred Flasher 1
• Potrillo Skipper 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 8
• Mournful Duskywing 8
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 2
• Laviana White-Skipper 4
• Clouded Skipper 3
• Fiery Skipper 15
• Whirlabout 2
• Sachem 5
• Eufala Skipper 3
• Ocola Skipper 6
• Purple-washed Skipper 1