Ruby-spotted Swallowtail at NBC, 10/28/25

There have been a few Ruby-spotted Swallowtails reported around the Rio Grande Valley lately.  I have not seen one of these Mexican swallowtails in a few years so when Terry Mortier reported one yesterday on the Mexican orchid at the National Butterfly Center I thought I should run over to enjoy it.  I got over there about a half hour later and it was still nectaring on the same plant.

Below it another Mexican Crescent was feeding on the crucita.  The specific epithet is pallescens meaning pale.  The similar Phaon nearby is much darker.

Checking the bait logs there were several of the highly variable Tropical Leafwings.

Six Lantana Scrub-Hairstreaks may be an all time high for me.

I have been seeing Marius Harestreaks lately along the Retama Village Wall just north of Bentsen.  Nice to get one at the NBC in the same firebush where they spent last winter.

The buffy under wings of this crescent had be confused but the top looked like another Mexican Crescent.  I later found similarly buffy specimens on iNaturalist.

The temperature was tickling the underbelly of a hundred F so I decided I had enough.  I was just getting in the jeep when I though I heard someone yell.  I was too tired to worry about it but a minute later the Discord "bonged" and Linda Cooper was reporting another Ruby-spotted Swallowtail.  I ran over and got a few more shots of what proved to be the same butterfly as five hours earlier.

I told Linda I though I had heard someone yell.  She said when someone yells you need to come running.  I told her I couldn't tell if the voice was from outside or inside my head.  It was a good hot sweaty day.

Zapata Museum of History, 10/22/25

After my good day in Zapata last week I thought it was worth another effort.  Also I noticed I was second on iNaturalist on the list of butterflies for not often visited Zapata County.  Can't have that.  So I got a pretty early start and arrived at the butterfly garden  at the Zapata Museum of History at 9:30.  Queens were already out in force.

Got a photo of the Pipevine Swallowtail I missed last week.

Time to start digging through the skippers.  Lots of Huron Sachems.

I discovered the garden also goes behind the Museum.  Ocola Skippers have really invaded the Valley during the past few weeks.

And then an Ocola with the forewing extending back too far.  Purple-washed Skipper!  There were several, some even showing the extra spot.

And then another new one for my Zapata County list....  Turk's-Cap White-Skipper, a nice female which I don't see very often.

Back in the front was a fresh Skinner's (formerly Coyote) Cloudywing.

And a fresh Julia's Skipper.

And an Olive-clouded Skipper.  Very few records for these last two in Zapata County.

And then another trip to the back netted an Erichson's White-Skipper.  These are probably not rare up here.

38 species seems pretty good for that garden, almost half of them from the familiy Hesperiidae.  As Jeff Bryant said it was a skipperlicious day!

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Southern Dogface 6
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Orange-barred Sulphur 20
• Lyside Sulphur 20
• Little Yellow 2
• Sleepy Orange 2
• Gray Hairstreak 10
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 5
• Ceraunus Blue 10
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• American Snout 5
• Gulf Fritillary 15
• Theona Checkerspot 1
• Bordered Patch 3
• Elada Checkerspot 1
• Phaon Crescent 1
• Common Buckeye 1
• White Peacock 8
• Queen 80
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Coyote Cloudywing 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• White-patched Skipper 2
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 2
• Erichson's White-Skipper 1
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 25
• Fiery Skipper 40
• Whirlabout 1
• Sachem 25
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3
• Eufala Skipper 40
• Olive-clouded Skipper 1
• Ocola Skipper 8
• Purple-washed Skipper 5

National Butterfly Center, 10/16/25

Over five hours spent at the National Butterfly Center turned up 48 species.  Despite hot dry conditions, crucita is starting to bloom and butterfly numbers have really increased compared to five days ago.  This Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak is the first I've seen this year.

It's been a good fall for Brown-banded Skippers.

It's always a good sign when the Giant Whites are blowing up from Mexico.

My first Ocola Skipper for the fall.

Saw a couple of Lantana Scrub-Hairstreaks.

There were hundreds of Queens on the crucita.

.

And even a few Soldiers.

I liked this Red-bordered Metalmark.

I can't tell who she is eating.

Here's today's list of 48 species.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Giant White 1
• Southern Dogface 25
• Cloudless Sulphur 4
• Large Orange Sulphur 50
• Lyside Sulphur 10
• Little Yellow 5
• Gray Hairstreak 10
• Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Ceraunus Blue 30
• American Snout 80
• Gulf Fritillary 15
• Mexican Fritillary 3
• Bordered Patch 25
• Elada Checkerspot 1
• Phaon Crescent 25
• Red Admiral 1
• Common Buckeye 1
• White Peacock 3
• Mexican Bluewing 2
• Tropical Leafwing 3
• Empress Leilia 2
• Tawny Emperor 60
• Queen 300
• Soldier 5
• White-striped Longtail 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 5
• Brown-banded Skipper 1
• White-patched Skipper 8
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 10
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Laviana White-Skipper 20
• Clouded Skipper 60
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 5
• Fiery Skipper 30
• Whirlabout 6
• Southern Broken-Dash 3
• Sachem 5
• Common Mellana 5
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 15
• Eufala Skipper 20
• Ocola Skipper 2
• Mexican Crescent 1

Another Mexican Crescent, Zapata, 10/13/25

I was going to stay home and work on stuff but it was a pretty day so what the heck.  I decided to run up to Falcon State Park and check the butterfly garden.  Well it was really disappointng.  Two weeks ago it was looking lush with lots of stuff blooming.  But in the interim there has been no rain with daily highs pushing 100F so things were looking a little fried with few butterflies.  Best thing I could scrounge up was this White-patched Skipper.

And a very intriguing Coelioxys cuckoo bee.  I'm still working on it.  Maybe zapotecus?

Little going on at the lake shore.  I had forgotten it was Columbus Day so there were more than the usual number of people fishing and few birds.  The only tiger beetles were the common Ocellated.

What to do?  It was only noon.  How about a run up to Zapata and check the city park?  Last time I was there I found some blooming wire weed and the trail usually has a few birds.  As it turned out it was also dry with nothing blooming.  This Clouded (Marcellina) Sulphur was about it.  But it was a new Zapata County butterfly for me.  Not saying much.

Hmmm....  Maybe I should just head home and check the river at Salineno on the way.  So as I left the park and pulled onto US 83 I found it...  the butterfly garden at the Zapata Museum of History.  I have vague memories of meeting someone somewhere...  maybe it was at the National Butterfly Center... who was going to work on a butterfly garden for the city of Zapata.  I had forgotten about that.

Well it was kind of a funky little garden, between the Museum and the highway, with a strange assemblage of native and exotic plants.  But it was well watered and blooming and had more butterflies than I had seen all day.  Lots of Queens.

So I started picking through things and building a list.  All common stuff like Fiery Skippers.

And Southern Dogface.

And then I fod a pretty good one.  My first Tailed Sulphur for Zapata County and my first for the fall.  The summer form doesn't have much of a tail on the wings.

And then a Mexican Fritillary.

There was other common stuff and then I foud a good one, Brown-banded Skipper.  As I expected it was a first record for Zapata County on iNaturalist.

I added a few more common butterflies to the day list like Funereal Duskywing and Huron Sachem.

All of these butterflies were in front of the Museum next to the highway.  So I walked around to the side of the building where they had a few more plants.  And there was my first Phaon Crescent of the day.  I fired a few shots.  Something's wrong.  It just didn't seem right.  Woops.  The tell tale spot was missing.  It was another Mexican Cresent!  And it was a beauty.

I put the word out on the Discord butterfly alert and Berry Nall soon replied.  He had been seeing Mexican Crescents all summer in Roma and Rio Grande City.  He asked if there was any Tridax around.  I answered yes.  He responded that all the local comunities with Tridax procumbens in disturbed areas probably have a population of Mexican Crescents.

So this begs the question "How long have these butterflies been here?"  They look like common Phaon Crescents so they could have been missed.  We just started seeing them last year with the Indiana Gang's discovery of them at the NBC and Javi Gonzalez's find in Rio Grande City.  Anyway it's nice to have them in the Valley.

Every time I head the name "Tridax" I think it sounds like something from Star Trek.

"Bones, give him a shot of Tridax."

"Jim, we don't know what Tridax will do to that green Vulcan blood."

25 species today at the Zapata Museum of History.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Southern Dogface 8
• Cloudless Sulphur 3
• Large Orange Sulphur 3
• Lyside Sulphur 6
• Tailed Orange 2
• Little Yellow 3
• Sleepy Orange 3
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Ceraunus Blue 6
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 4
• Mexican Fritillary 2
• Theona Checkerspot 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Queen 20
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• Brown-banded Skipper 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Fiery Skipper 20
• Sachem 2
• Eufala Skipper 3
• Mexican Crescent 1