More Clench's Greenstreaks at NBC, 5/5/26

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  It was a warm, windy humid morning so I ran over to the National Butterfly Center to look for spring strays from the south.  It didn't take long before I found another Clench's Greenstreak.  This time it was on Low Croton in the front garden.  I figured it was Woody's from two days ago but examination of wear marks prove it to be a second.

The recent hot dry weather has really knocked down the blooms.  I found only one Clytie Ministreak.

Lots of Large Orange Sulphurs around with a bewildering array of females.  No two are alike,

Copulating Reakirt's Blues.

In the south gardn I was happy to find a couple of Pale-banded Crescents.  I thought they were done for the season.

Only one Mexican Crescent today.

I thought I would check out the balloon vine trellis for Silver-banded Hairstreaks.  The vine was blooming nicely but the only hairstreak was this surprise Red-lined Scrub-Hairstreak.  Actually it's not a surprise because they also use balloon vine as a host plant.

I wandered aroud the south garden some more after lunch.  I checked the Mexican Orchid and nothing but Large Orange Sulphurs.  Then a cursory check of the nearby Fiddlewoods.  And another Clench's Greenstreak!  Three in three days.

Huron Sachem and Marine Blue pushed the Big Board up to 53 species for still early May.  Pretty good.

By 2 PM it was getting too hot for humans.

Zapata Museum of History, 10/22/25

After my good day in Zapata last week I thought it was worth another effort.  Also I noticed I was second on iNaturalist on the list of butterflies for not often visited Zapata County.  Can't have that.  So I got a pretty early start and arrived at the butterfly garden  at the Zapata Museum of History at 9:30.  Queens were already out in force.

Got a photo of the Pipevine Swallowtail I missed last week.

Time to start digging through the skippers.  Lots of Huron Sachems.

I discovered the garden also goes behind the Museum.  Ocola Skippers have really invaded the Valley during the past few weeks.

And then an Ocola with the forewing extending back too far.  Purple-washed Skipper!  There were several, some even showing the extra spot.

And then another new one for my Zapata County list....  Turk's-Cap White-Skipper, a nice female which I don't see very often.

Back in the front was a fresh Skinner's (formerly Coyote) Cloudywing.

And a fresh Julia's Skipper.

And an Olive-clouded Skipper.  Very few records for these last two in Zapata County.

And then another trip to the back netted an Erichson's White-Skipper.  These are probably not rare up here.

38 species seems pretty good for that garden, almost half of them from the familiy Hesperiidae.  As Jeff Bryant said it was a skipperlicious day!

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Southern Dogface 6
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Orange-barred Sulphur 20
• Lyside Sulphur 20
• Little Yellow 2
• Sleepy Orange 2
• Gray Hairstreak 10
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 5
• Ceraunus Blue 10
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• American Snout 5
• Gulf Fritillary 15
• Theona Checkerspot 1
• Bordered Patch 3
• Elada Checkerspot 1
• Phaon Crescent 1
• Common Buckeye 1
• White Peacock 8
• Queen 80
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Coyote Cloudywing 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• White-patched Skipper 2
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 2
• Erichson's White-Skipper 1
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 25
• Fiery Skipper 40
• Whirlabout 1
• Sachem 25
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3
• Eufala Skipper 40
• Olive-clouded Skipper 1
• Ocola Skipper 8
• Purple-washed Skipper 5