Meanwhile...... With the summer rain, Stephanie and the crew at the National Butterfly Center have the place looking great. Plants are lush and blooming and screaming for butterflies. The warm, humid wind has been blowing pretty hard from the southeast the past few days, feeding the Hill Country flooding, and I was hoping it might bring up some of our rare summertime swallowtails. Not super rare but this beat up Ornythion Swallowtail was appreciated. It's had a tough trip from Mexico!
Our usual Western Giant Swallowtails are supeficially similar but obviously a much brighter yellow. The marginal spots on the hind wing are also shaped differently.
My first butterfly of the day was this tasty Red-bordered Pixie. I saw two today and a couple more were reported last week. So they are back baby!
My other metalmark species for the day was a pair of Red-bordered Metalmarks.
Fiddlewoods were blooming nicely and attracting hairstreaks. Here are the common Gray Hairstreak, Dusky-blue Groundstreak and Clytie Ministreak.
Beewise I got a lifer today. This is the tiny Cobalt Small Carpenter Bee. I have probbly seen them in the past and passed them of as a metallic sweat bee. But thas bulbous abdomen is pretty distinct. I wish I had gotten better photos.
I think this guy is a bee also but I have some research to do. It looks familiar.
Thy've had a lot of rain in Mexico so it should be about time for the butterfly factories to send some beauties out way. I need to start a weekly survey of the park.
