After my big tiger beetle discovery of last week, I did a little research and came across a couple more possible rare RGV tiger beetles; Cazier's and Eastern Red-bellied Tiger Beetles. Both of these are found on limestone rocky outcrops which is not easy to find in the Valley. So I thought, why not go up to Falcon and check the rocky area below the picnic area? So I did just that and spent two hours wandering the rocky outcrops and finding a few butterflies but no tiger beetles. Then I realzied I had made a geological error. This is not limestone or our Valley equivalent caliche. This is sandstone! Woops. In the tiger beetle world it's all about substrate. But I did find this nice little Desert Checkered-Skipper.
There was a rather homely plant which I was not familiar with that was attracting butterflies. Well I'm glad I didn't investigate too closely. I discovered on iNaturalist that it's called "stinging serpent" and is very painful to the touch.
This Huron Sachem has a mouth full of stinging serpent.
Not the result I had hoped for but it was interesting couple of hours. So I moved onto the butterfly garden. A Black Swallowtail was a bit out of the ordinary.
