I looked out the window this New Years morning at 7:30 and the first butterfly I saw for 2022 was a Monarch. I felt that might be a good omen. And along with today's weather predicted to be very warm and breezy, that was enough to make me decide to stay in our Progreso Lakes yard today and run up a list. Most interesting butterfly of the day was this Panoquina which seems to be a rare Hecebolus Skipper. It has the forewing spot anterior to the big spot, it's rather golden colored, and lacks the row of hind wing spots and jutting fore wing of Purple-washed. As such it is yard butterfly #138.
Then we had our second ever Curve-winged Metalmark. These have been seen daily at the National Butterfly Center the past couple of weeks.
And then there were the Pierids, thirteen species in total including this big stonking female Orange-barred Sulphur.
And a Florida White.
And four Giant Whites.
And the first Mexican Yellows we've had in a while.
The were a couple of Boisduval's Yellows, one of which was last seen heading into my big Senna patch.
And late in the afternoon I found this sharp Common Mestra and beat up Mazans Scallopwing.
Here's our New Year's Day list of 48 species!
- Giant Swallowtail 1
- Florida White 1
- Checkered White 2
- Great Southern White 1
- Giant White 4
- Orange Sulphur 1
- Southern Dogface 1
- Cloudless Sulphur 8
- Orange-barred Sulphur 1
- Large Orange Sulphur 10
- Boisduval's Yellow 1
- Mexican Yellow 2
- Little Yellow 5
- Mimosa Yellow 1
- Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
- Reakirt's Blue 2
- Curve-winged Metalmark 2
- American Snout 1
- Gulf Fritillary 6
- Zebra Heliconian 1
- Texan Crescent 3
- Pale-banded Crescent 3
- Painted Lady 1
- Red Admiral 2
- White Peacock 3
- Common Mestra 2
- Tawny Emperor 1
- Carolina Satyr 4
- Monarch 3
- Queen 10
- Soldier 4
- Long-tailed Skipper 2
- Dorantes Longtail 1
- Brown Longtail 6
- Mazans Scallopwing 1
- White Checkered-Skipper 5
- Tropical Checkered-Skipper 20
- Laviana White-Skipper 6
- Julia's Skipper 1
- Clouded Skipper 25
- Southern Skipperling 3
- Fiery Skipper 1
- Whirlabout 5
- Sachem 1
- Common Mellana 2
- Eufala Skipper 8
- Hecebolus Skipper 1
- Purple-washed Skipper 2
