Definite Patch on Brushline Rd, 10-24-24

I spent yesterday checking out the Teniente Tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR in western Willacy County.  A week ago I checked out CR 30 and found there were still some flowers up there but road improvement cramped my style.  A constant progression of large trucks hauling caliche raised dust and interferred with my peaceful bug watching.  So I returned yesterday and found things much more peaceful.  Problem was that no rain and daily temperatures in the 90s had fried most of the flowers and not much was going on.  There were quite a few Desert Checkered-Skippers and two Erichson's White-Skippers were nice but other than that it was just a few common species.

So I ran over to CR 20 and found more flowers but fewer butterflies.  What to do?  Well I decied to drive over to Brushline Road and go up to Sal del Rey and look for tiger beetles.  Then I remebered a patch of crucita a half mile up Brushline and there I hit the jackpot.  This Definite Patch is the first I've seen in Hidalgo County.  Glassberg shows them ocurring thoughout south Texas and across the Transpecos but I've only seen them at a couple of spots on Cameron County.  I think this is my 221st species for the county.

Not far away was another Erichson's White-Skipper.

And the uncommon Turk's-Cap White-Skipper.

A Desert Checkered-Skipper showed the plain under hind wing with it characteristic dots.

Dorantes and White-striped Longtails.

It's been a good fall for White-patched Skippers.

This pale Sickle-winged Skipper caused me to think about Pale Sicklewing.

Dainty Sulphurs are always more common in the brush country.

I like this photo from earlier in the afternoon.  A Cloudless Sulphur and Southern Dogface well sucking at salt on the western end of La Sal Vieja where it crosses CR 30.

The day ended with tiger beetles at Sal del Rey.  Last week I found five species on the damp sand where water overflows from the freshwater cienega.  Today it was only three species; salt loving White-cloaked and Cream-edged Tiger Beetles

                                     

and the mud loving S-banded Tiger Beetle.

If we don't get rain soon it will be hard to find anything up there.