After a couple of days of chasing little bugs though the mud, I decided I had enough. Nine species of tiger beetles with six lifers in the Willcox Playa was about as good as I could have hoped for. There were at least five more rare possibilities but I am not that dedicated. So what to do? With the dry spring and summer not a lot of butterflies were being reported in SE Arizona. So how about a run up through the White Mountains north of Morenci? I was going to do that last summer after visiting Mount Graham but it was so rainy I backed out. So I took off to the north on US 191, formerly known as US 666.
The White Mountains are home to some pretty good Arizona birds like Clark's Nutcrackers and Three-toed Woodpeckers and I made a few trips up there over thirty years ago. I drove up through the mining towns of Cliffton and Morenci. Looks like the copper mine has eaten a few moutains since my last time up there. I had forgotten how large it is. Makes the Bisbee mine look like a litte hole.
Beyond the mine US 191 snakes up into the White Mountains. It was very dry up there but occasional flowers were loaded with butterflies. My first stop at the Cherry Lodge picnic are yielded my first butterflies of the day. I didn't realize how sexually dimorphic the Two-tailed Swallowtail was. What a magnificent creature! Here's a male and female.
There were also several of the "Siva" subspecies of Juniper Hairstreak.
The next thirty miles took me through some extremely dry pinyon-juniper habitat without a single flower. Eventually as the road started to climb I started to see some flowers, mostly a weedy clover like thing. Quite a few Nais Metalmarks.

Just a few yards down the road I saw a car parked with several young guys with insect nets. I stopped and asked what they were finding. Turned out they were from Georgia and it was their first time in the area. One spastic semiautistic guy spit out some Latin names and it sounded like about the same as what I had been seeing. They quickly left. Don't know if they recognized me as a non-netter with my camera or they were in a hurry to get to the next spot. The spot they let was filled with flowers though tampled a bit by their netting activities. I don't hate netters but i don't like them. I understand collecting specimens for research. But grabbing a bunch of bugs and going home to ID them later seems a bit shallow. Anyway lots of pollinators came out to welcome my peaceful activity. Here's the expected Taxiles skipper.
And Pacuvious duskywing.
And then a lifer, Edward's skipperling. First Greenlee County record on iNat.
Bronze Roadside-Skipper with a little orange.
And Cassus roadside-Skipper with a lot of orange.
And then another lifer, Large Roadside-Skipper. They are a little larger than other
Amblycerta but not a lot. The pattern of the dots are diagnostic.
Dun skipper ws a surprise. First Greenlee County record on iNat.
And I got a lifer bee. Best I can figure this is the Montane Digger Bee, Anthophora montana.
A very striking diurnal moth that I haven't IDed yet. It's some kind of a Forester moth.
At about mile 218 I found a patch of Fendler's Coenothus that was loaded with butterflies. I took some pictures of the colorful Juniper Hairstreaks. After getting home and entering one of the photos into iNaturalist I got a surprise. Callophrys affinis ssp. apama? What the hell is that? A little searching turned up a small sub-photo for Bramble Hairstreak in Glassberg. Kaufman has also has it and calls it the "Canyon" subspecies of Bramble Hairstreak. Apparently the southwestern subspecies of Bramble Hairsteak was split off. Now it's called the Western Green Hairstreak. Oh and then I noticed that it lacks the typical "hair" of a hairstreak. Woops, I got a lifer despite myself.
Here's the "siva" Juniper Hairstreak.
And then a Thicket Hairstreak.
Lots of Nais Metalsmarks.
Another Large Roadside-skipper.
And then a bit down the road I found another small bunch of flowers. I got out of the jeep and spied a blooming pea with some small rusty butterflies with bright white spots. Wow! Four-spotted Skippering was a species I had been hoping to find.
A crescent like thing landed in front of me and I fired a couple of shots. My lifer Arachne Checkerspot!
A hummer working the flowers was a male Broad-tailed Hummingbird.
A turnoff by Hannagan Meadows gave me a lone dark satyr. What the heck is that? Well checking Glassberg I found it was a Small Wood-Nymph. Gee I should study the field guide once in a while. Another lifer!
Downd the road a ways I saw a ptch of flowers with butterflies. On iNat I found the flowers to be bluebells.
Ant there was a female Taxiles Skipper.
And then a big black and white one. Only my second ever Weidemeyer's Admiral.
My only Monarch of the trip.
And then a big bright fritillary. iNat's first choice is Northwestern Fritillary which ws split from Atlantis Fritillarty. This would be the White Mountains subspecies. We will see what the iNat people think.
And then a copper. Well I had not expected any coppers because I did no research for this part of the trip. Turns out to be the localized Ferris Suspecies of Ruddy Copper. I don't deserve all these lifers.
And finally a Comma. I just assumed it was the Satyr Comma I have seen in the Chiricahuas. But the AI of iNaturalist calls it a Hoary Comma. It is lacking a spot present onSatyr Comma. Another potential lifer!
Then a ways down the road as I followed Hannagan Creek I saw a few more flowers and made one last stop in the late afternoon. More Ferris Coppers and Four-spotted Skipperlings.
Well an unplanned drive through the White Mountains down old US 666 turned into one heck of a butterfly day with what looks to be nine lifers.