West Texas Bug Trip, Part 2, 8/18-18/26

Well after cleaning up on my wanted tiger beetles, it was time to switch to butterflies.  In particular I wanted to look for a few of the Amblycertes roadside-skippers.  So once again I headed over to Balmorhea and down TX 17.  Since conditions were pretty dry I was just planning on hitting any flower patches I could find.  About halfway to Fort Davis I found a few flowers but mostly common butterflies.  I did see a few Dottled Roadside-Skippers.

And my only Nysa Roadside-Skipper for the trip.

And this really cool Rainbow Grashopper.

Probably best was this Ericrocis oil-digger cuckoo bee.

Not a lot else going one.  When I reached Fort Davis I turned onto TX 118 toward the high country. I was diapponted to find so few flowers.  I stopped at the scenic view picnic area for lunch. Few butterflies here also.  Best critter was a Crevice Spiny Lizard.

I made it up to the McDonald Observatory visitors center a little after noon and was happy to see the field by the parking lot with patches of some little Verbena like purple flowers.  And butterflies!  Sleepy Oranges are not too exciting.

But there were also some grasskippers.  It seems no two Huron Sachems are patterned alike but the shape and chevron of spots are constant..

There were more Dotted Roadside-Skippers.  Mostly well worn.

And then a funky colored grass skipper.  The greenish-golden underside of Slaty Roadside-Skipper is pretty distinct.  My only lifer butterfly for the trip.  I saw several.

I was hoping for Oslar's or Simius but the only other roadside-skippers I saw were Bronzed.

It was starting to cloud up so I raced up to the LE Wood roadside rest area but I was just getting started when the sky let loose with a real summer monsoon thunderstorm.  So I fought through the rain back to Balmorhea and ate another nice diner at Cueva de Oso.  Afterwards I ran over to Lake Balmorhea to check out the birds only to find the lake extremely low with few birds.  But checkig out the shoreline I found it seething with Ocellated Tiger Beetles.

I made my way along the damn and spied a gull on the far SW shore.  I raced over and caught a fleeting view of this immature Ring-billed Gull.

I got out the scope and started walking along the shore, checking out the distant Western and Clark's Grebes.  Then I noticed more Ocellated Tiger Beetles.  So why couldn't there be a few other species?  Since there weren't many birds I started sifting through the bugs and darned if I didn't find the first iNaturalist record of Thin-lined Tiger Beetle for Reeves County.  Must of been 8 to 10 of them.

The sun was starting to set and more tiger beetles popped out.  I was hoping to find Black Sky Tiger Beetle here as Tripp Davenport had found a couple years ago.  I got one.

I saw a piece of cardborad and turned it over hoping for a surprise.  Two Carolina Metallic Tiger Beetles shot out.  I chased one down for a photo.

And lastly I dug out both red and green morphs of the newly described Johnson's Tiger Beetle.

The next moring I decided I had accomplished my goals so I headed for home, taking the southern route through Sanderson and Del Rio.  I made a check of the Pecos River under the big bridge on US 90.  I always look here for Dotted Checkerspots.  The host Rock Penstemon was blooming but no butterfly.

Now that the water is a little higher in the Pecos River, Border Patrol has improvised a boat launch.  There I found my eighth species of tiger beetle for the trip; Punctured Tiger Beetle.

My timing was perfect as the high pressure system moved and now it's excruciatlingly hot out there in west Texas.  Hope fall comes soon.

Poling's Hairstreaks in Davis Mountains, 7/18/22

They've been reporting a lot of great butterflies lately in southeastern Arizona but I'm holding off going out there till the Chiricahua Whites are out.  So I decided to just make a run out to west Texas instead and it paid off with three lifers.  All of the following were seen along TX 188 just below the McDonald Observatory or along its entrance road.  

Recent summer rain was evident as there was a little green along TX 118 as I left Fort Davis and as I climber toward the McDonald Observatory I started to see a few flowers.  I stopped at one patch and almost ran over a Northern Cloudywing.  There were a half dozen in the area.

Then a tiny skipper landed just in front of me and I could see a yellowish head.  I first thought of Golden-headed Scallopwing but it flew and landed again and I could see it was one of my most wanted butterflies, Orange-headed Roadside-Skipper.  I later found a second.

Wow that was nice!  As I watched Northern Cloudywings in a white blooming bush, I noticed a couple of small skippers.  One was a Common Sootywing.  I took lots of photos hoping it ws a Mexican Sootywing but it wasn't.

The other was a Cassus Skipper, a butterfly I've only seen a couple of times.

A paler more grizzled skipper landed on the rockface and I guess it was a Bronze Roadside-Skipper.  I've seen that one before also.

Then I saw one more tiny skipper and I fired away and was lucky to get this poor image of my lifer Dotted Roadside-Skipper.

I scrambled around on the rocky hillside and saw little.  So I made my way along the highway back to my car and saw a hairstreak on a tiny milkweed that was growing on the edge of the pavement.  It was odd colored, more greenish than the common Gray Hairstreaks I had seen earlier.  This was a new one for me.  I was hoping it was a rare Poling's Hairstreak.  It was more brightly colored than the dingy specimen in Glassberg's book but the markings were right.

A bit later I found a second on another milkweed.

And then there was a Juniper Hairstreak on the same plant.  It seems to be pretty much like the Siva subspecies though the subterminal band on the hind wing is a little wavy.

Driving up the park road toward the telescopes I saw a few flowers near the water tanks.  One held four Poling's Hairstreaks.  According to Glassber's book they should be gone by now.

And a Tiny Checlerspot.

Walking around the area I found a Marine Blue.

And a couple more Poling's Hairstreaks.

I then ran up the the Lawrence E Wood picnic area but didn't see anything different.  It was getting late to I decided to overnight in Alpine.  My plan ws to go to Big Bend but with the daytime high predicted to be 110, I just headed for home with three lifers including an amazing ten Poling's Hairstreaks.  Good enough.

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• Two-tailed Swallowtail 1
• Southern Dogface 2
• Lyside Sulphur 1
• Poling's Hairstreak 10
• Juniper Hairstreak 2
• Gray Hairstreak 2
• Marine Blue 1
• Reakirt's Blue 12
• Variegated Fritillary 2
• Tiny Checkerspot 1
• California Sister 1
• Red Satyr 1
• Northern Cloudywing 8
• Common Checkered-Skipper 3
• Common Sootywing 2
• Cassus Roadside-Skipper 1
• Bronze Roadside-Skipper 1
• Dotted Roadside-Skipper 2
• Orange-headed Roadside-Skipper 2