Tiger Mimic-Queen at NBC, I'm finally the hero! 1/9/26

During this amazing fall/winter butterfly season of 2025/25 I have been treated to seven lifer butterflies.  It's been a long time since I've gotten that many in a season.  And all have been found by other butterfly watchers.  I am reminded of Blanche DuBois' line "Whoever you are...  I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."  Now mind you, though I did not find any of these lifers, I was first to properly identify several of them.  And I have found some good ones that were lifers for others.  So I've been sort of carrying my weight.

But yesterday I had a senior moment.  I had refound the rare Black Hairstreak that has been around a few days at the National Butterfly Center and put it on the Discord alert.  I knew a few people present who wanted to see it.  But I accidentally entered "Black Crescent".  I had Black Crescent on the brain.  The day before I had found a very dark Pale-banded Crescent and had hoped it was a rare Black Crescent.  Also there was a questionable recent report of a Black Crescent.   Well, everyone came running.  Peter DeGennaro excitedly asked "Where is it?"  It took me a minute to realize my error.  Billy Webber was racing over from the nearby Oleander Acres garden.  "No Billy No!  Black Hairstreak" I typed on Discord.  Everyone laughed and forgave me.  But having just turned 70, I was feeling old and not enjoying the moment.

So today I went for one last day at the National Butterfly Center before the approaching cold front.  The past two days had been very windy so we were all hoping something good had blown in from Mexico.  I was at the blooming spring mistflower by the palapa looking for the reported Malicious Skipper, when I saw a large brightly colored butterfly only a couple of feet away.  Bight orange and black tiger stripes like an Isabella Heliconian.  But the black thorax was spotted with white... like a Queen or a Monarch.  Tiger Mimic-Queen!  This rare relative of the Monarch, a Heliconia mimic, has been seen few times in the RGV.  I had a fun experience chasing one with Mark and Holly Salvato years ago at the NBC and I saw a second at Quinta Mazatlan.  This one was a knockout.  And it stayed all day, feeding on the spring mist flowers.  Everyone got to see it.

Wow!  That was a doosey!  So I left the happy throng and went to the mist flower cross over to look for another Malicious Skipper and I spied a very colorful crescent. The bright white hind wing band with an extension on the second spot spot screamed female Chestnut Crescent.  I put out the word and the happy gang came thundering one more time.

And then things went back to just normal spectacular.  Dennis Vollmar found this striking fresh Guatemalan Cracker.  I tried hard to turn it into Variable but the double blue rings on the hind wing ocelli say Guatemalan.

I found a Zilpa Longtail but no one else got it.

Then there were the usual Malachites, Silver and Pavon Emperors, Band-celled Sisters, etc that normally bring people runing but we're a little jaded this year.  Glad to have a few days off with the cool front blasting through.

Xmas Day Goodies at the NBC, 12/25/25

Merry Christmas.  The National Butterfly Center was officially closed today but Stephanie left the gate open for us hard core papillonistas (That's my new moniker for us butterfly watchers.)  Christmas time averages to about our coldest time of the year in the RGV but sunny and 85F was on tap for today.  Butterflies responded.  My best find was this Northern Faceted Skipper in the ditch on the exact same plumbago where I found one on Nov 29, 26 days ago.  My guess is it's the same bug.

Here's the one from 11/29/25.  It's less worn but that's about the only evidence it's the same indiviual.

Then John Rosford found this scruffy male Chestnut Crescent.  It's been a while since I've seen one.

A huge White Angled Sulphur toyed with us.  I evenutally caught an open winged shot.

Otherwise it was just the same bunch of great butterflies we've been seeing lately.  Like Silver and Pavon emperors.

And Band-celled Sister and Malachites.

Terry and I saw this mid-sized yellow flying floppily.  I yelled "We have to chase that one! " I was hoping for Dina or Salome Yellow.  We chased it a long way and eventually it took a brief rest.  Boisduval's Yellow is pretty uncommon at the NBC.

Mexican Bluewings are hard to come by this winter.

This brightly colored crescent got me thinking about more exotic Anthanassa but she was cavorting with a male Pale-banded.  So I guess that's what she is.

Well, I guess I should get out and find some more bugs.

Chestnut Crescent, Band-celled Sister at Progreso Lakes, 12/12/20

I spent the morning looking at birds in our Progreso Lakes yard.  After lunch I switched over to butterflies and scored a good one with this female Chestnut Crescent which was yard butterfly #128.  I've seen a few over at Estero so it wasn't a big surprise but it's still a great butterfly for the yard.

A bit later I finally found a long overdue Band-celled Sister which was near a little Crucillo which is the host plant.  Would be neat if it layed some eggs.  Yard butterfly #129.

There were two female Florida Whites.  Here's the photogenic one.

It's interesting that we had strong southerly wind yesterday morning which may account for these different butterflies.  I don't know if this Boisduval's Yellow was blown in or if it hatched out on our Senna.

Here's an unusually marked Soldier.

First Reakirt's Blue of the season.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Florida White 2
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 4
• Lyside Sulphur 5
• Boisduval's Yellow 1
• Little Yellow 5
• Dainty Sulphur 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 5
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 3
• Reakirt's Blue 1
• Red-bordered Pixie 6
• American Snout 2
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Texan Crescent 1
• Chestnut Crescent 1
• White Peacock 3
• Band-celled Sister 1
• Common Mestra 1
• Tawny Emperor 2
• Monarch 3
• Queen 10
• Soldier 5
• Brown Longtail 5
• Sickle-winged Skipper 2
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 5
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 3
• Eufala Skipper 2

Variegated Skipper at Estero, 3/1/17

Yesterday Michael Delasantro found a Variegated Skipper at Estero Llano Grande State Park.  I've seen this beautiful skipper in Panama but I've missed the few that we've had in the Rio Grande Valley so I really wanted to find this butterfly.  I arrived at Estero at 10 AM and ran into Rick and May Snider at their bait log. The Variegated Skipper had not been seen yesterday after the initial sighting and Rick was happy to accompany me to the rear of the Tropical Zone where it had been found.

We looked around for over an hour and saw some pretty good stuff but no Variegated Skipper.  It was getting cloudy and the butterflies were getting scarce when a Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet called.  Well we wandered off in search of that and then we wandered over to the hummingbird feeder were Rick had seen four species of hummers earlier in the morning.  And near there he wanted to check out a patch of azureum and he commented about how it was nice that Ruben had mowed around the patch to make it more accessible.  And then what should magically appear before our eyes?  None other than the Variegated Skipper.  After getting home I checked on Google Earth and found it was 257 yards from the azureum bush where it was originally found.    Amazing!

Well it flew while we were trying to get the word out on our phones.  In the process of searching we came across this female Chestnut Crescent.  No one gets excited anymore this spring when they come across one of these rare butterflies.  They are all over the place.

Nearby May pointed out a Band-celled Sister.

Earlier in the morning Rick and I saw this Brown-banded Skipper in the rear of the Tropical Zone.

Celia's Roadside-Skippers are common in the shady Tropical Zone.

Near Rick and May's bair log we had a pair of copulating Southern Broken-Dashes.  The golden females give me problems.  They can look a lot like a Common Mellana.

Red-bordered Metalmarks must be on of the easiest butterflies to photograph and they move in slow motion while meticulously searching for every little bit of nectar on a flower.

This Western Pygmy-Blue out in the parking lot was about the largest I've ever seen.

Somedays it takes skill and some days you just get lucky.  We were sure lucky today.

Angled Leafwings at National Butterfly Center, 2/11/17

Lorna Graham found an Angled Leafwing yesterday afternoon at the National Butterfly Center and no one else got to see it.  The only ones I have ever seen were back in  Dec. 2012.  But not to worry as the butterfly was refound today.

And for good measure I found another one shortly thereafter.  It's amazing how often rare butterflies show up in multiples.

It's been awhile since I've seen a Common Streaky-Skipper at the NBC.

Prior to last week I had only seen three Chestnut Crescents.  Now I've seen four in four days.  With both sexes being seen, I wonder if they will leave any caterpillars behind.

My afternoon started with this Band-celled Sister.

And yet another Double-dotted Skipper.

Celia's Roadside-Skipper are starting to appear again.

The winter form of South Texas Satyr has really tiny occelli.

NABA Sightings won't allow me to copy and past my list for the day so you have to go there now to see it.

https://sightings.naba.org/