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
• 
  

Progreso Lakes yard, 6/1/23

Well the species score in our yard today at Progreso Lakes, Texas was Birds 27 Butterflies 37.  Nothing exciting but the butterflies kicked the birds asses.  This oddly marked Double-dotted Skipper got my attention today.  I tried to turn it into some new Mexican Species but it's not.  Not only are the dots variable, so is the white at the base of the atenna clubs.

Boisduval's Yellows showed nicely.

White Peacocks have popped out.

Had Mimosa and Little Yellows side by side but my camera could not get focused on them both in the same shot..

First Turk's-Cap White-Skipper I've seen in a while.  Females are pretty uncommon in my experience.

Here today's list of 37 species.

• Giant Swallowtail 4
• Great Southern White 2
• Cloudless Sulphur 6
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 2
• Boisduval's Yellow 3
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 2
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Ceraunus Blue 5
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 6
• Bordered Patch 1
• Texan Crescent 12
• Vesta Crescent 4
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Pearl Crescent 3
• White Peacock 5
• Queen 4
• Brown Longtail 5
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 15
• Laviana White-Skipper 4
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 5
• Double-dotted Skipper 5
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Whirlabout 8
• Southern Broken-Dash 6
• Sachem 1
• Common Mellana 3
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 4
• Eufala Skipper 3

Gold-spotted Aguna at Progreso Lakes, 5/25/23

Spring bird migration is nearing an end so it's getting time to start keeping an eye on the butterflies.  This spring has been reasonably wet so far and temperatures aren't getting much above 90F so my yard is looking pretty good with lots of flowers.  Butterflies have been a little slow but today they really picked up.  After a nap this afternoon, I went to the back porch and checked the blooming duranta through my binocs.  There semed to be a tailess White-striped Longtail working the flowers but the white stripe didn't look quite right.  I grabbed my camera and ran after it.  Turned out to be a Gold-spotted Aguna.  We have had several through the years.

Earlier in the day we did have a White-striped Longtail.

Absent for a few weeks, it was nice to see our Double-dotted Skippers back in the yard.

Our other yard specialty is also doing better lately.  Boisduval's Yellows seem to finally come back after the big freeze of 2021.

This Whirlabout is coiled up to strike.

Lots of wild dill ahs produced plenty of Black Swallowtails this spring.

Here's today's list of 33 species.  As long as out temps stay mild I'm expecting some good stuff in the coming weeks.

Black Swallowtail 1

Giant Swallowtail 4

• Great Southern White 2
• Cloudless Sulphur 4
• Large Orange Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 6
• Boisduval's Yellow 3
• Little Yellow 2
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Gulf Fritillary 6
• Bordered Patch 2
• Texan Crescent 6
• Vesta Crescent 3
• White Peacock 3
• Carolina Satyr 3
• Queen 5
• Guava Skipper 1
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Gold-spotted Aguna 1
• Brown Longtail 4
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 8
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 4
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Whirlabout 6
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Common Mellana 3
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3
• Eufala Skipper 2

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

Progreso Lakes yard, 6/24/20

Most of the rain seems to be going around our yard at Progreso Lakes but were still getting butterflies.  About every day I check the Giant Dutchman's Pipe for Polydamas Swallowtail caterpillars and find none.  Today I noticed an adult female ovipositing and counted 15 cats.  Some were big.  Don't know how I missed them.

New for the yard this year was this tiny Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak.  Bet we start seeing a lot more now.

Our Gulf Fritillaries are also laying egss.  I wonder if this big fresh one hatched in our yard.

Am I crazy or is that a lot of dots?  The correct Seinfeld response is "That's a lot of dots."  Double-dotted Skippers can have variable numbers of spots.  Here's a freak and a more normal one.

Our other yard specialty, Boisduval's Yellow, fluttered about the brush patch today.

Ten Soldiers was a one day high for the yard.

And there were a dozen Queens.

And even a Monarch.  It's been a while.

We have two more shots at some rain and then it gets dry next week.