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
• 
  

Banded Patches at Yturria Brush, 6/6/23

Today was supposed to be the last "coolish" day before temps ramp up to the upper 90's and above.  So I decided to make a run up to Falcon State Park before it gets super hot.  With all the spring rain I was hoping to find some good stuff, maybe even a Banded Patch.  As I passed through La Joya, I wondered if I should check out the Yturria Brush Unit of the Lower Rio Grande NWR.  Last time I was there the entrance trail was grown up and it was really dry.  I pulled into the parking area and checked the start of the trail.  It was lush and I was welcomed by a Texas Powdered-Skipper.

Lots of blooming stuff but I was a little early and it was still cool.  The entrance trail was still overgrown and it was a thorny proposition getting to the main track that goes north.  There were a few Lyside Sulphurs and lots of Empres Leilias.

A late Eastern Kingbird was nice as was an immature singing Varied Bunting but butterflies were disappointing,  I made it to the lush monte about a mile up,  The vegetation along the track had been cleared by Refuge staff, probably at the bidding of Border Patrol and all of the good butterfly plants were chopped down.  Not good.  I walked a couple hundred more yards and I saw a dark patchy checkerspotty looking thing.  Wow!  It was a Banded Patch.

And then I found two more.

I started back towards the monte and found a very frest Banded Patch.  Unfortunately the camera wouldn't give me a sharp focus.

The walk back to the car turned up a few Desrt Checkered-Skippers.

And all three Fritillaries; Gulf, Variegated and Mexican.  Here's the Mexican Fritillary.

So the brush country is started to turn out some butterflies after the spring rain.  But 100 degree days with no rain are starting next week so We'll see how long the butterflies last.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 3
• Giant Swallowtail 3
• Checkered White 2
• Great Southern White 1
• Southern Dogface 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 20
• Little Yellow 4
• Sleepy Orange 5
• Dainty Sulphur 12
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Reakirt's Blue 1
• American Snout 2
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Theona Checkerspot 8
• Banded Patch 4
• Texan Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 1
• Pearl Crescent 1
• American Lady 1
• White Peacock 1
• Common Mestra 2
• Tropical Leafwing 1
• Empress Leilia 40
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 3
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 4

 

Teniente Tract of Lower Rio Grande NWR, 10/21/22

This afternoon I ran up to the Teniente Tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR  to do a little scouting for the upcoming Texas Butterfly Festival.  It's pretty dry up there with absolutely no crucita or lantana blooming.  But they had enough rain so that the silver croton and some little yellow composite were common though getting a little dry.  I did much better than expected getting all the specialties for the area.  I found two Red-crescent Scrub Hairstreaks on CR30 and then ten more on CR20 without looking very hard.

Six Erichson's White-Skippers were an all time high for me.

Saw at least three of the recently split Twintip Buckeyes.

The other expected specialty for the area is Desert Checkered-Skipper.  I saw 8 to 10 of them.

There were equal numbers of White Checkered-Skippers,

And even a Tropical Checkere-Skipper to complete the trifecta.

Turk's-Cap White-Skipper is another specialty of the area.

Earlier in the day I found the first Zebra Heliconian of the fall in our yard at Progreso Lakes.

The list of 32 species is by far the most I've ever seen up there.  It's drying up quickly so I hope they can hold on for the Festival.

Pipevine Swallowtail 1

• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Southern Dogface 10
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Little Yellow 2
• Dainty Sulphur 5
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak 12
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 5
• Western Pygmy-Blue 50
• Ceraunus Blue 5
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• American Snout 8
• Gulf Fritillary 4
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Common Buckeye 1
• Tropical Buckeye 1
• White Peacock 1
• Common Mestra 1
• Queen 8
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 2
• White Checkered-Skipper 8
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 1
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 8
• Erichson's White-Skipper 6
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 2
• Julia's Skipper 2
• Whirlabout 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 1
• Eufala Skipper 5

Two More New Butterflies at Progreso Lakes, 10/29/21

With the Texas Butterfly Festival coming up, today I was joined at Progreso Lakes by Linda Cooper, Barbara Volkle, Steve Moore, Sarab Seth and Jon McIntyre.  The extra eyes helped run today's tally to 56 species.  New for the yard was this sharp Desert Checkered-Skipper.  Butterfly #134!

Later Barbara, Steve and I saw this Violet-banded Skipper for just a couple of seconds.  I was able to fire off one shot as it took off.  The dark band and wing spot are visible on our yard butterfly #135.  We could not relocate it.

We found another Mexican Yellow.

Jon found the first Texan Cresent I've seen in our yard in a long time.

We had three Purple-washed Skippers.

Several more Double-dotted Skippers.

Here's a Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak.

And the male Mexican Bluewing showed off the best ever.

Wind was still coming from the north today.  Hoping for more exotic stuff when it switches back around to the south.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Checkered White 1
• Great Southern White 2
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Large Orange Sulphur 8
• Lyside Sulphur 3
• Mexican Yellow 1
• Little Yellow 8
• Sleepy Orange 3
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 4
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Western Pygmy-Blue 6
• Ceraunus Blue 4
• Reakirt's Blue 2
• American Snout 2
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Texan Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Question Mark 2
• Red Admiral 1
• Common Buckeye 1
• White Peacock 6
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Common Mestra 1
• Tawny Emperor 10
• Carolina Satyr 2
• Monarch 3
• Queen 50
• Soldier 10
• White-striped Longtail 4
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Dorantes Longtail 2
• Brown Longtail 25
• Mimosa Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 8
• Mournful Duskywing 2
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 8
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 6
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 1
• Laviana White-Skipper 8
• Clouded Skipper 25
• Double-dotted Skipper 3
• Southern Skipperling 6
• Fiery Skipper 25
• Whirlabout 10
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 8
• Ocola Skipper 1
• Purple-washed Skipper 2
• Violet-banded Skipper 1