Finishing up 2025 at the NBC, 12/27-28/25

 A cold front was scheduled to hit the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas on the 29th so I took advantage of the 85F warm weather at the National Butterfly Center.  As had been the case lately, the park had plenty of good butterflies though nothing earth shattering.  The Northern Faceted-Skipper (Malicious Skipper) in the ditch has been a lifer butterfly for most.  I got my best shots of it.

Butterflies in the Family Nymphalidae have only four legs.  But they are insects so where are the other two legs?  The front pair of legs are reduced in size.  In the case of this Pavon Emperor they are day glow green and flank the green proboscis.

I've seen more Red-lined Scrub-Hairstreaks this fall than I had in total the past twenty years.

Lots of Western Pygmy Blues lately.

Early on the 28th Ryan Rodriguez found a Clench's Greenstreak.  Later in the day I thought I ad had found a second.  But this scruffy bug turned out to be a Telea Hairstreak.  The PM band is hard to see.

Here's a nice Marius Hairstreak.  It has gray eyes as do other members of the Genus Rekoa.

One of the better Band-celled sister I've ever seen.

The 28th finished with this spectacular Ruby-spotted Swallowtail putting on a show.

Unfortunately for me I missed two fantastic butterflies.  Kristy Baker has a fresh Guatemalan Leafwing in her yard.  There are only a handful of records in the USA.  The one I saw was pretty scruffy.  At least eight people made the 40 mile drive to her yard and all missed it.  The second fatastic butterfly was a Rusty-tipped Page found by Jim Snyder at Resaca de la Palma.  He only got one shot of this large congener of the Malachite.  Having butterflied a lot in the tropics he had seen many and had no idea it was so rare up here and reported it a little late.

It's 56F as I write this on the 30th.  But we warm to the 80s again in a couple of days so there no reason we can't get some more of these rare butterflies.

Xmas Day Goodies at the NBC, 12/25/25

Merry Christmas.  The National Butterfly Center was officially closed today but Stephanie left the gate open for us hard core papillonistas (That's my new moniker for us butterfly watchers.)  Christmas time averages to about our coldest time of the year in the RGV but sunny and 85F was on tap for today.  Butterflies responded.  My best find was this Northern Faceted Skipper in the ditch on the exact same plumbago where I found one on Nov 29, 26 days ago.  My guess is it's the same bug.

Here's the one from 11/29/25.  It's less worn but that's about the only evidence it's the same indiviual.

Then John Rosford found this scruffy male Chestnut Crescent.  It's been a while since I've seen one.

A huge White Angled Sulphur toyed with us.  I evenutally caught an open winged shot.

Otherwise it was just the same bunch of great butterflies we've been seeing lately.  Like Silver and Pavon emperors.

And Band-celled Sister and Malachites.

Terry and I saw this mid-sized yellow flying floppily.  I yelled "We have to chase that one! " I was hoping for Dina or Salome Yellow.  We chased it a long way and eventually it took a brief rest.  Boisduval's Yellow is pretty uncommon at the NBC.

Mexican Bluewings are hard to come by this winter.

This brightly colored crescent got me thinking about more exotic Anthanassa but she was cavorting with a male Pale-banded.  So I guess that's what she is.

Well, I guess I should get out and find some more bugs.

East-Mexican Gemmed-Satyr, Fantastic Skipper at NBC, 12/23/25

Damn!  What a day!  

I didn't sleep well last night and wasn't sure what I was going to do today.  I finally decided I would just go to the Natioal Butterfly Center and look for Terry Mortier's Hoary Skipper.  It's been a few years since I've seen one.  Just as I was getting ready to leave the Discord bonged.  Terry had just found a Gemmed Satyr at the NBC.  Wow!  By Gemmed Satyr we mean Eastern Gemmed-Satyr.  I know Terry had seen a bunch of these in east Texas on his trip home to Wisconsin last summer.  There are a few RGV records.  I saw one years ago at Resaca de la Palma in Cameron County.  It would be a new species for my Hidalgo County list.

As I made the short drive over my mind speculated.  We are getting a lot of good butterflies from the south lately.  And there are other species of Gemmed-Satyr not far away in the mountains of Mexico.  Hmmm...  I parked and ran into the visitors center and ran out the back to the Hackberry Trail where I could see several people.  As I approched Terry said "You don't have to run.  It's just sitting there."  I quickly spotted the satyr eight feet away in the grass and fired a few shots.  Yup, I was right.  This was not an Eastern Gemmed-Satyr.  I told the group "I think we have a first US record."  More people showed up.  Stephanie came running with Glassberg's "Butterflies of Mexico".  

Discussion of the ID followed that continued on Discord, even into the night.  Glassberg says East-Mexican Gemmed-Satyr, Cyllopsis dospassosi, a species he predicted to occur in the RGV in an article in American Butterflies back in 2022.  But it does not have the strong dark blocking on the wing bands shown in his field guide.  But it has some.  Others were in the Cyllopsis nayarit camp.  And even Cyllopsis psuedopaphredo was getting votes.  Problem is these are all hard to identify, little known butterflies.  I posted on iNaturalist and Monterrey butterfly expert Ignacio Rodrigues agreed with dospassosi.  Needless to say this was another great lifer butterfly.

Meanwhile....  Normally rare Pavon Emperos were all over the place.  Ryan Rodriguez saw a dozen.  I saw seven.

This really bright female Pale-banded Crescent had me thinking about Black Crescent.

A Marius Hairstreak was ovipositing on Mexican Caesalpinnia.  They seem to not be too picky about host plants.

Then there was this hairstreak in the front garden.  I called it a Red-lined Scrub-Hairstreak and people were happy to see it.  But now I'm wondering if it's not the uber rare Bromiliad Scrub-Hairstreak.  All these rare butterflies have me suspicious of everything!

Curve-winged Metalmark?  This fall it's just a trash bug.

Then in the afternnoon I ran into botanist/birder Zach Johnson and we talked a bit.  A friend of his wandered up and casually mentioned there was was a Fantastic Skipper in front of the visitors center.  ????  "You shittin' me?"  He said that's what they're calling it.  I was by the big bird's nest at the time, a couple hundred yards away.  But I dug down deep and ran all the way, huffing and puffing by the time I got to the visitors center.  I ran through the building for the second time today.  Out front everyone was photographing something low by the duranta.

Fantastic Skipper is a butterfly I've been wanting to see for a long time.  Twenty years ago American Birding Association pioneer and birding guru Benton Basham got me into butterflies when he showed me a Mexican Silverspot at Santa Ana NWR.  (I already knew Benton from when I found him his lifer Crescent-chested Warbler in Patagonia, AZ a decade previously.)  I remember him showing me his business card which featured a photo of a Fantastic Skipper.  He had recently found the first record for the United States.  Maybe there's been one since then.  I don't know.  It's a first for the RGV on iNat.

Then there was another amazing Isabella Heliconian.  At least half a dozen for the park this year.

I made my way to the back garden one last time and finally found Terry's Hoary Skipper.

That's enough.  Two amazing lifer butterflies in one day!  And five this fall!  I don't think we're finished either.

Only 60 species today.

• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Checkered White 2
• Orange Sulphur 1
• Southern Dogface 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 5
• Lyside Sulphur 10
• Little Yellow 5
• Marius Hairstreak 1
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 3
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Red-lined Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 6
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 4
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 4
• Western Pygmy-Blue 2
• Cassius Blue 1
• Ceraunus Blue 10
• Reakirt's Blue 1
• Fatal Metalmark 2
• Red-bordered Pixie 5
• Curve-winged Metalmark 2
• American Snout 10
• Gulf Fritillary 5
• Isabella's Heliconian 1
• Zebra Heliconian 3
• Bordered Patch 2
• Elada Checkerspot 1
• Texan Crescent 8
• Pale-banded Crescent 3
• Phaon Crescent 6
• American Lady 1
• Red Admiral 8
• White Peacock 3
• Band-celled Sister 1
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Common Mestra 1
• Red Rim 2
• Tropical Leafwing 2
• Empress Leilia 1
• Tawny Emperor 1
• Pavon Emperor 7
• Monarch 4
• Queen 40
• Soldier 1
• East-Mexican Gemmed-Satyr  1

• White-striped Longtail 2
• Brown Longtail 1
• Hoary Skipper 1
• Funereal Duskywing 2
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Laviana White-Skipper 8
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Fiery Skipper 3
• Southern Broken-Dash 4
• Common Mellana 3
• Eufala Skipper 5
• Purple-washed Skipper 5
• Fantastic Skipper   1
• Mexican Crescent 2

Black Hairstreak at National Butterfly Center, 12/21/15

I took it easy this morning, thinking about where I might go today.  Chris Balboni had a pretty good report from Yturria Brush.  Or maybe I'll stay home and watch football.  It was warm and yesterday had a good south wind so I decided to just go over to the National Butterfly Center.  As I passed the front garden I noticed a Mallow Scrub Hairstreak and though maybe it'll be a good hairstreak day.

I checked in. and proceeded to the sunken garden.  Lantana Scrub-Hairstreaks continue.

I was disappointed to see little on the brush holly that was blooming so heavily just a couple of days ago.  They bloom out fast.  So I checked the blooming fiddlewoods and got a Dusky-blue Groundstreak.

It was getting close to luch time so I started to wander back to the visitor's center and noticed Chris Balboni and Ryan Shaw looking at the litte brush holly.  I yelled "What you got?"  Ryan shouted "Some weird hairstreak."  

I ran over and recognized it immediately.  Black Hairstreak!  I had been waiting for this Mexican visitor since I missed the last one ten years ago.  It just sat there feeding on the few brush holly flowers that were left on the plant.  I guess I had missed it just a few minutes earlier.  What a cool hairstreak.  The photos in the book didn't do it justice.  RGV lifer #230.

After lunch I found a Great Purple Hairstreak up high in the chomonque.

And then I found a Clytie Ministreak in a nearby fiddlewood.  This one is a beauty.

Finally John Rosford found my seventh hairstreak for the day, Marius Haistreak.  I missed common Gray and Silver-banded Hairstreaks. 

He also got me a lifer hemipteran which I haven't IDed yet.

Mimosa Skipper is uncommon at the NBC but easier to find at Santa Ana and Resaca de la Palma where the host Black Mimosa is more common.

Some visitng birders from my old stomping grounds at New Mexico State were happy to see a Red Rim.

There have been several reports of Mexican Silverspot in the Valley lately and people wanted to see one.  Jon McIntyre found this one today by the corky-steed passionvine where they have oviposited in the past.

Wow!  What a good day!  A big fresh Malachite wished me "Adios" as I left.

No cold weather in the forecast.  Dry and 80's.  More good stuff on the way.