Broad-banded Swallowtail at National Butterfly Center, 6/17/22

Things have been pretty slow at home lately so I made a run over to the National Butterfly Center south of Mission to see what might be about.  They've gotten more rain than we have at Progreso Lakes and butterflies were numerous.  I finished the afternoon with 39 species which is pretty good for June.  While trying to get a photo of the Western Giant Swallowtails in the Mexican orchid bush, I accidentally got an Ornythion Swallowtail.  But a second look at the photo showed an extra spot near the band on the fore wing.  And the band was too wide and too yellow.  It was a male Broad-banded Swallowtail, my third ever.

A short time later an Ornythion Swallowtail popped into the same bush.  Not as rare as a Broad-banded but still my first for the year.

Earlier Mick Rickard found a Giant White in the same bush.

This Curve-winged Metalmark was also a first for the year.

Gee, I'm going to have to spend more time over there.

• Black Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 5
• Ornythion Swallowtail 1
• Broad-banded Swallowtail 1
• Checkered White 10
• Giant White 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 8
• Lyside Sulphur 50
• Little Yellow 6
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Cassius Blue 2
• Ceraunus Blue 4
• Reakirt's Blue 8
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• Curve-winged Metalmark 1
• American Snout 500
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 6
• Texan Crescent 6
• Pale-banded Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 8
• Question Mark 1
• White Peacock 6
• Mexican Bluewing 2
• Tawny Emperor 150
• Queen 60
• Brown Longtail 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 8
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 20
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Clouded Skipper 3
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Whirlabout 2
• Southern Broken-Dash 1
• Common Mellana 2
• Eufala Skipper 1

Broad-banded Swallowtail at Progreso Lakes, 8/8/21

 Butterflies are still trying to recover from this Spring's record freeze.  However we received a lot of rain in June and July and things are looking good.  Now we're finally back to the hot breezy weather we expect this time of year that can blow in some good butterflies.  This morning I stepped out onto the back porch ready to do some yard work when I glimpsed a brightly patterned butterfly in our brush patch.  It was nectaring on our red Salvia but staying fairly low.  All I could think of was maybe some king of a Nymphallid.  I grabbed the camera and ran over and discovered it was a smallish swallowtail with black wings with a broad yellow band.  I instantly recognized it a a male Broad-banded Swallowtail, the first male I've ever seen.  I got a few photos over the next couple of minutes and then it was gone.  We had a female last summer that paled in comparison to this much better looking butterfly.

Notice how much more narrow the bands are on our common Western Giant Swallowtail.

Three days ago I caught an orange flash in our brush patch that seemed a little off for our regular Gulf Fritillaries.  A minutes later I was not surprised to find this scruffy Ruddy Daggerwing on the blooming Tenaza, the third ever for our yard.

Hot, windy and dry is the forecast for the coming week so maybe some more good butterflies will blow in.

Broad-banded Swallowtail at Progreso Lakes, 6-29-20

The SE wind has really ramped up the past two days and with all the rain down in Mexico for the last month, I've been expecting some good butterflies to blow to the north.  We've already had two Falcate Skippers!  So after being busy in the house this morning, I decided to make rounds of the yard and the first thing I saw was the Polydamas Swallowtail hanging out of the wind below a papaya tree.  I got up close and started taking photos and noticed it had a semicircle of red spots on the under side of the hind wing but lacked the red spots on its body.  Then I got a view a subterminal band of blue spots on the upper side of the hind wing and I was confused.  Female Ornythion?  Time to run inside and check the book.  Even better.......female Broad-banded Swallowtail!  It's been a while since one has been reported in the RGV and I don't even remember ever chasing after one.  Valley lifer #214 and yard butterfly #122.

Here's the Polydamas Swallowtail I saw yesterday.

And a Western Giant Swallowtail just for fun.

I think Broad-banded Swallowtail was much more common in the past.  I'm hoping the female oviposited on some of the members of the family Rutaceae growing in our yard like Texas Torchwood and Colima before the wind carried it away.