Vicroy's Ministreak and lots more at NBC, 2/18/25

One last warm breezy day before four cold days means the National Butterfly Center has the the potential to be hopping.  Bug of the day goes to this Vicroy's Ministreak found by Jeff Bryant, only the second I've ever seen.  BOA refers to it as Pebbly Ministreak.  Long though of as a varient of Gray Ministreak, the green eyes and pebbly scales are quite distinctive.  Jeff Glassberg described the new species and named it after his wife who passed away a few years ago, Ministrymon janevicroy.

Jeff Bryant also found this worn Mexican Crescent, the first one to be found since the freeze.

Chris Balboni found this female Silver Emperor, it's been years since I've seen one.

Two Mourning Cloaks would normally been the major find.  One was really fresh.  And one not so much.

Lots of Common Streaky-Skippers around lately.

My first Double-dotted Skipper since the freeze.

Desert Checkered-Skippers were out today.

The requisite Mexican Bluewing photo.

Here's today's list of 43 species which is pretty amazing for February.  The NBC list for the month is up to 73.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Orange Sulphur 1
• Southern Dogface 3
• Lyside Sulphur 12
• Little Yellow 3
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Gray Hairstreak 5
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 3
• Western Pygmy-Blue 3
• Ceraunus Blue 3
• Reakirt's Blue 5
• American Snout 20
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 2
• Texan Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Mexican Crescent  1
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Mourning Cloak 2
• American Lady 1
• Red Admiral 5
• Mexican Bluewing 2
• Tropical Leafwing 5
• Silver Emperor 1
• Queen 1
• Funereal Duskywing 6
• White Checkered-Skipper 20
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 2
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Common Streaky-Skipper 5
• Clouded Skipper 1
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper 5
• Whirlabout 1
• Sachem 1
• Common Mellana 1
• Nysa Roadside-Skipper 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 2
• Vicroy's Ministreak 1
• 
  

Mourning Cloak at NBC, 2/15/25

Four days ago Javi Gonzalez glimpsed a Mourning Cloak at the National Butterfly Center.  Unaware of that sighting Mary Beth Stowe photographed one the next day which I searched for but failed to find.  Now three days later Terry Mortier photographed what is probably the same one while I was eating my lunch at the NBC in the south parking lot.  After seeing the alert on Discord, I wolfed down a few more bites and went running.

To the north, Mouning Cloaks are famous for being a harbinger of spring, often emerging on cold sunny days even while snow is on the ground.  They occur from Canada south to the highlands of Mexico.  Caterpillars feed on willows.  This is only the third I've ever seen in the Rio Grande Valley, the previous two on 11/15/11 and 11/20/12.  So this is my first for spring (Yes I realize it's winter but it's spring down here.)  Not sure what this Mourning Cloak thought about the 92F today!

Ruddy Hairstreak at NBC, 2-12-25

I had stuff to do today but Mary Beth Stowe found a Mourning Cloak at the National Butterfly Center so I changed plans.  I never found it but as it turned out it was a good day to be there ahead of the approaching cold front.  The elbo bushes had quit blooming but white brush and baby bonnets took up the slack.  Pride of place (I like this old British term) goes to this sharp little Ruddy Hairstreak.  Males are easy to ID if you can see the orange upper wing surfce.  Females are dull above and identical to Muted Hairstreak.  The little guy was flashing orange!

Common Streaky Skippers have appeared out of nowhere.  I saw three today.

Mazan's Scallopwing is not common at the NBC.  Resaca de la Palma is a better place to find it.

My first Goatweed Leafwing for 2025.

This is most likely a female Orange Sulphur but I'm not sure how you could rule out Clouded Sulphur.  I like the pink overtones.

Texan Crescents were out.

The other note worthy event today was the return of the native bees.  Identification is a challenge but iNaturalist helps.  I think this is the Texas Nomad Bee, a kleptoparasite of some of the little Andrena mining bees.

Female Texas Agopostemn is hairy compared to the other green sweat bees.

And I haven't figured out this dark little sweat bee.  Not finding anything like it online.

Here's today's list of 35 species.

• Black Swallowtail 1
• Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 6
• Little Yellow 3
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 5
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Ruddy Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 2
• Western Pygmy-Blue 1
• Reakirt's Blue 4
• Fatal Metalmark 3
• American Snout 10
• Bordered Patch 1
• Texan Crescent 3
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Pearl Crescent 1
• Red Admiral 6
• White Peacock 1
• Mexican Bluewing 2
• Tropical Leafwing 5
• Goatweed Leafwing 1
• Mazans Scallopwing 1
• Funereal Duskywing 2
• White Checkered-Skipper 8
• Laviana White-Skipper 2
• Common Streaky-Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper 2
• Sachem 2
• Common Mellana 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 1

Angled Leafwing at National Butterfly Center, 2-9-25

We had a very hard freeze in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas in mid January with temperatures dropping to the mid twenties and staying below freezing for ten hours.  Two weeks ago I went over to the National Butterfly Center and found most plants heavily damaged.  A couple of hours turned up only four species of butterflies.  A return yesterday after a couple of weeks of warm weather found things looking much better.  Despite the very dry conditions, plants are leafing out as they do in February down here.  White Brush and Elbo Bush were blooming and attracting butterflies.  Best of my 25 species was this fresh Angled Leafwing.  I wonder if it's an offspring from the ones we had last November.

Tropical Leafwings were also out.

I found five pecies of hairstreaks but missed the Lacey's seen the day before. Here's a Silver-banded Hairstreak.

This Clytie Ministreak was lacking the red pigments making me wonder if it was something more exotic.  Nothing from Mexico in the field guide matched it.  It's just a weird Clytie.

Here's a more normal winter form Clytie.

The Dusky-blue Goundstreaks were looking sharp.

Even the common Gray Hairstreaks were nice to see after the recent freeze.

Orange Sulphur is always one of the first spring butterflies across Texas.

So spring is on the way and things are looking up.

• Orange Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 5
• Little Yellow 5
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 6
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 5
• Clytie Ministreak 4
• Ceraunus Blue 3
• Reakirt's Blue 6
• Fatal Metalmark 5
• American Snout 20
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Red Admiral 6
• Mexican Bluewing 2
• Tropical Leafwing 6
• Angled Leafwing 1
• Brown Longtail 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Laviana White-Skipper 2
• Common Sootywing 1
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 1

Last Butterflies before the Freeze at NBC, 1/18/25

The strongest cold front of the winter is scheduled to blast in tomorrrow and the butterflies at the National Butterfly Center were out enjoying one last glorious warm day.  The wind was from the south yesterday however today it had already switched from the north and despite that, the temperature was still in the 80's.  Now sure of the effect of this on the species composition of butterflies.  There were no real Mexican rarities but a few local uncommon species were out, some pretty fresh.  Best was this Caballo (formerly Potrillo) Skipper.

A White-patched Skipper was close by.

And later a Texas Powdered-Skipper popped up in the same Azureum patch.

And with it a fresh Marius Hairstreak.  It was a lifer for visiting butterflier Jeff Pavlik who I notice is a couple butterflies ahead of me on eButterfly.  But I recently discovered a few Australian lifers while putting bugs into iNaturalist so maybe I can get back ahead.

Here's a good looking Dusky-blue Groundstreak.

And the humble but still sharp looking Gray Hairstreak.

John Rosford found the bug of the day.  I have yet to ID this litle lady beetle but I'm pretty sure it's a lifer.

35 species is pretty good for mid January.  In a couple of days there won't be any and then we start the slow build up into spring.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 2
• Southern Dogface 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 6
• Little Yellow 5
• Sleepy Orange 2
• Marius Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Ceraunus Blue 4
• Reakirt's Blue 1
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• American Snout 10
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Texan Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 4
• Red Admiral 4
• White Peacock 3
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Monarch 2
• Queen 4
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 2
• Potrillo Skipper 1
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 1
• White-patched Skipper 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 2
• Laviana White-Skipper 5
• Clouded Skipper 4
• Fiery Skipper 3
• Sachem 2
• Eufala Skipper 6

Happyy New Year from the NBC! 1/1/25

Weather was forecast to be cloudy, cool and drippy so I wasn't sure how to spend this New Years Day.  I wanted to get up early and go birding but the idiot neighbors celebrated in idiot fashin last night and the neighborhood sounded like a war zone.  Hope no one got hit by celebratory gun fire.  But the morning was bright and warmer than I expected so I ran over to the National Butterfly Center.  The sun would pop out periodically and the butterflie activity would pick up.  Best butterfly for the new year was this handsome Falcate Skipper.

Jon Rosford has become quite the insect photographer.  He called me over to show me a caterpillar feeding on the Texas Lantana.  He knew it was a hairstreak and thought maybe a Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak.  Well I've never seen a hairstreak caterpillar so I was happy to get some shots.  After getting home I checked out photos on the BOA site and it didn't quite seem to match to me.  So I thought "How about Marius Hairstreak?"  Photos seemed to match.  I entered the photos into iNaturalist and Marius Hairstreak was the AI driven conclusion also.

Here's an adult Marius Hairstrak.  They have been fairly common this fall/winter.  I saw one just like it at Quinta Mazatlan yesterday.

On the lantana with the Marius cat was this Olive-clouded Skipper.  The second image is one I photographed yesterday at Quinta.  I like the red evil eye!

Quite few butterflies were on the wing but nothing else rare.  I may enter a list later.