Rio Grande Valley Butterflies: East-Mexican Gemmed-Satyr, Fantastic Skipper at NBC, 12/23/25

Wednesday, December 24, 2025

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.