After spending the winter butterflying the Rio Grande Valley, Terry Mortier has been working his way home with time spent in east Texas. His recent posts on the NABA Facebook group included a number of east Texas butterfly species I have never seen. So I made a run up to Jasper to see what I could find. Checking iNaturalist I saw Terry found a number of species around Indian Mounds camp ground east of Hemphill in eastern Sabine county. One species I really wanted was the Lace-winged Roadside-skipper. This well marked small skipper uses giant cane as a host plant, something I was not seeing as I explored the area. The dry conditions with not much blooming was making for a slow morning.
As I approched the campground I saw a dirt track leading off CR 83 signed with an arrow pointing to Butler Point. As I drove this road through the pines I started to see a few flowers and butterflies which were mostly common Carolina Satyrs and Little Wood Satyrs. And then I saw a larger satyr; my lifer Creole Pearly Eye!
Then I saw another satyr that seemed larger than the Carolina Satyrs and flew differently. It was the first of several Gemmed Satyrs. My only previous Gemmed Satyr was one yeras ago at Resaca de la Palma.
As I walked the dirt track a little skipper popped up. It sat on a leaf facing me but at enough of an angle that I scould see some pattern on its wings. I fired the camera and couldn't believe what I saw. It was a striking Lace-winged Roadside-Skipper. I saw several later on and then noticed the bamboo growing in the area.
A flash of orange was a beat up Goatweed Leafwing.
A tiny rusty colored butterfly drifted down from the pine above and landed on the road. Pine Elfin was a lifer for me just a year ago near Livingston, TX.
Then I saw another larger satyr. This one turned out to be a Southern Pearly Eye. My only other one was with Tom Pendleton back in 2011 when we made a dragonfly run to Boykin Springs.
A dark grass skipper proved to be a Dun skipper.
A beat up Red-banded Hairstreak.
Then I saw a medium sized dark brown butterfly with coppery band on the forewing and a flash of white below. My first though was Silver-spotted SKipper. I quickly shot a photo and was happy to get my lifer Hoary Edge. That was another one I really wanted.
I returned to CR 83 and headed toward Indian Mounds camp ground. At an intersection a cloudywing bounced from flower to flower. I shot a few photos and assumed it was the usual Northern Cloudywing. But after I returned home, I entered it into iNaturalist and AI's first choice was confused Cloudywing. According to Glassberg, Confused Cloudywing can be lightly marked like a Northern but has a more distinct white eye line. The jury is still out on this one but I'm hoping for a lifer Confused cloudywing. It sure looks like some of the photos on BOA.
After a good afternoon I blew off the campground and headed into Hemphill for some dinner. The next morning I was torn between going to Boykin Springs where I didn't really have any target species although I knew habitat would be good or spending another day to the east along the Sabine River. I chose the later hoping to come across a Twin-spot Skipper even though iNat only showd two records for Texas for this southern skipper. I was intrigued by a location on the map shown as the Wild Azalia Canyon Trail. Turned out the trail had been overgrown for years and the surrounding area had been heavily logged. And it was really dry. After an uneventful morning I stopped at a small stream crossing for lunch. I got an American Lady.
And then another Dun Skipper.
And then another small dark skipper. What the hell. It reminded me of a Eufala Skipper but lacked the bold eyebrow. Julia's skipper? Are they up here? I took some shots and uon returning home I spent some time with the books. Turns out I had completely forgotten about Swarthy Skipper, another Nastra species like Julia's. Another lifer!
At this point I decided to run over to Martin Dies State Park and feed the mosquitos, I soon came across a Red-spotted Admiral.
And Little Wood Satyr.
I was sure this black caterpillar was a butterfly but I was wrong. It's an Eastern Buck Moth.
I probably should have spent another day but I wasn't feeling well so I headed on back to the RGV. I don't particularly care for the east Texas piney woods. I always feel some local is going to come up behind me with a shot gun and ask me to "squeel like a pig." But there's a few more butterflies I need over there so I guess I'll go back some day.
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