Special thanks to Dottie Lamolinara, Bill Supulski and John Rosford for the money, time and sweat they invested in replanting much of the badly aged butterfly garden at the park. I hope the Bentsen staff takes good care of it. The butterflies sure like it!
Next good bug was a Ruddy Hairstreak that I wasn't sure about till I got home and checked the photos. The orange color of the upper wing surface is visible through the worn wings making it a male Ruddy.
A Brown-banded Skipper was hanging out around some Barbados cherry, the host plant for its caterpillar.
Just another Banded Peacock. After not seeing any last year, they are all over the place this spring.
Yesterday at Santa Ana NWR I saw 35 Red-bordered Metalmarks on the blooming soapberry trees. Only a couple were seen at Bentsen today.
Other good bugs seen but not photographed included Malachite, Zilpa Longtail and a Two-barred Flasher. Woops, I guess I left a couple of them off the list.
- Pipevine Swallowtail 1
- Giant Swallowtail 1
- Great Southern White 2
- Lyside Sulphur 6
- Little Yellow 2
- Gray Hairstreak 8
- Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 8
- Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 1
- Ruddy Hairstreak 1
- Dusky-blue Groundstreak 6
- Reakirt's Blue 2
- Red-bordered Metalmark 2
- American Snout 8
- Gulf Fritillary 2
- Zebra Heliconian 1
- Bordered Patch 10
- Texan Crescent 5
- Pale-banded Crescent 1
- Vesta Crescent 10
- Phaon Crescent 10
- Pearl Crescent 3
- Red Admiral 1
- White Peacock 1
- Banded Peacock 2
- Common Mestra 1
- Tawny Emperor 10
- Queen 2
- Zilpa Longtail 1
- Glassy-winged Skipper 1
- Sickle-winged Skipper 5
- Brown-banded Skipper 1
- White Checkered-Skipper 6
- Tropical Checkered-Skipper 3
- Laviana White-Skipper 6
- Common Sootywing 2
- Fawn-spotted Skipper 2
- Clouded Skipper 10
- Southern Skipperling 1
- Common Mellana 2
- Celia's Roadside-Skipper 4
- Eufala Skipper 5
