National Butterfly Center, 10/18/14

Yesterday Martin Reid found a rare Gilbert's Flasher at the National Butterfly Center.  I made a run over from Yturria Brush where I had spent the morning but was just a few minutes too late.  Louie found it again late in the afternoon so Honey and I ran over again this morning to look for it but no luck.  One of my first butterflies of the morning was my first Purple-washed Skipper of the season.

After a brief check of the front gardens we headed to the back to look for the flasher.  Two Glazed Pellicias showed up, differentiated by their wear.

There were several very orange Julia's Skippers.

The Red-bordered Pixies are starting to pop up.

This might be the first Hackberry Emperor I've seen at the NBC.  People say they used to be a lot more common.

I was pleased to able to get an under wing shot of this Funerial Duskywing.  The small white marks perpendicular to the white fringe are a good field mark when present.

I'm starting to find a few Dorantes Longtails.

Yesterday Mike Rickard found this nice Violet-banded Skipper at the NBC, my consolation for missing the Gilbert's Flasher.

Here's today's list of 53 species.  Not bad for a bit less than three hours and not covering all the park

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Southern Dogface 10
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 6
• Lyside Sulphur 5
• Little Yellow 6
• Sleepy Orange 3
• Dainty Sulphur 3
• Gray Hairstreak 4
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 4
• Western Pygmy-Blue 20
• Ceraunus Blue 6
• Reakirt's Blue 1
• Fatal Metalmark 3
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• American Snout 5
• Gulf Fritillary 6
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Zebra Heliconian 5
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Vesta Crescent 2
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Pearl Crescent 4
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 1
• White Peacock 3
• Hackberry Emperor 2
• Tawny Emperor 5
• Monarch 2
• Queen 500
• Soldier 1
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 2
• Glazed Pellicia 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 2
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 10
• Laviana White-Skipper 5
• Common Sootywing 1
• Julia's Skipper 5
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 20
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 20
• Whirlabout 1
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Sachem 4
• Common Mellana 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 6
• Purple-washed Skipper 1