National Butterfly Center, 6/13/26

After a few days of editing photos I needed to get out and sweat so I ran over to the National Butterfly Center.  I was welcomed by this oddly marked Coyote (Skinner's) Cloudywing.  New for the June Big Board.  #77!

Only three species of hairstreaks today.  Here's a Dusky-blue Groundstreak.

Not a lot else going on in the front garden except for this Brazilian Skipper, my first for the year and #78 on the Big Board which is pretty good for June.

Again there were lots of Mexican Crescents around and no Vestas.  Something's going on.

In the back garden there were plenty of Mexican Bluewings.  Good to have them back in numbers.

Elada Checkerspots are back in their usual location around the restrooms.

And finally the Curve-winged Metamark show continues.  I saw seven today.

Supposed to be getting a good dose of rain in the next few days.  We can use it.

Today's list of 44 species.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 4
• Checkered White 3
• Great Southern White 20
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 15
• Lyside Sulphur 25
• Little Yellow 8
• Dainty Sulphur 3
• Western Pygmy-Blue 1
• Cassius Blue 6
• Ceraunus Blue 2
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Pixie 2
• Curve-winged Metalmark 7
• American Snout 2
• Gulf Fritillary 6
• Zebra Heliconian 1
• Bordered Patch 6
• Elada Checkerspot 10
• Texan Crescent 6
• Pale-banded Crescent 100
• Phaon Crescent 5
• White Peacock 4
• Mexican Bluewing 10
• Hackberry Emperor 1
• Queen 6
• Soldier 4
• White-striped Longtail 2
• Brown Longtail 6
• Coyote Cloudywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 12
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Double-dotted Skipper 4
• Southern Skipperling 5
• Whirlabout 6
• Southern Broken-Dash 8
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 4
• Eufala Skipper 5
• Brazilian Skipper 1
• Mexican Crescent 10

Northern Faceted Skipper at NBC, 1/4/25

I took the morning to do some photo editing and managed to finally clean my SD card.  But a weak front went through yesterday and sometimes those will shuffle the butterflies around and new stuff can pop up.  And Mark and Joanie Hubinger found an ultra rare One-spotted Prepona at Santa Ana NWR yesterday which was not refound.  But if one shows up so can another.  So I eventually wound up at the National Butterfly Center again for a fifth day in a row.  Got my first Great Purple Hairstreak for the year.

Still a few straggler Red-lined Scrub-Hairstreaks around.  I guess that's what this is.

Peggy found my first Caballo (Potrillo) Skipper for the year.

A couple of days ago Peggy found a rare Variegated Skipper in the azureum at the south cross over.  I was looking for it when I found this Skinner's (Coyote) Cloudywing.

And then I looked down and there was another Northern Faceted-Skipper (Malicious Skipper) right next to me.  Apparently it had been found earlier by Dennis Vollmar but I had not been watching the alerts.  With the recent Nick Grishin et al splits, everything seems to have two names these days.

More warm weather ahead for the next few days.

Gold-spotted Aguna at La Puerta, 6/24/25

This morning I ran back out to the La Puerta tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR to see if I could get better photos of the Exomalopsis birkmanni.  The poor ones I had gotten a few days ago were a first for iNaturalist for this tiny long-horned bee.  But the patch of white brush where I found them was about bloomed out and there wasn't much going one.  On the other hand, the Texas Lantana and Cenizo were blooming like crazy so there had to something out there.  Well I didn't see much but quality is better than quantity.  My first Gold-spotted Aguna for the year was a real surprise.  Glassberg has then catagorized as rare but I see one most years.

The same patch of lantana held a Coyote Cloudywing.  Nick Grishin's crew has moved the taxon into the genus Cecropterus and now considers the taxon as a subspecies of Skinner's Cloudywing, Cecropterus albociliatus  Ugh.  Not a popular decision for many of the old timers but it probably makes sense.

Cenizo, romantically refered to as Purple Sage, is the host plant for Theona Checkerspot.  I bet we have a lot of them in a few weeks.

These copulating Bombus bee flies were interesting.

Several Heartleaf  Hibiscus were blooming but I rarely see pollinators on them.

Here's the tiny Exomalopsis birkmanni as identified by Paula Cole, author of  Wild Bees of the National Butterfly Center.  I don't think they are very rare.

Ornythion Swallowtail at La Puerta, 6/20/25

The east and west ends of the Rio Grande Valley have been getting quite a bit of rain lately but it's been spotty in the mid Valley.  Butterfly numbers are still low after the dry hot spring but maybe things are starting to pick up.  I ran out to the La Puerta tract of the Lower Rio GrandeValley NWR yesterday to look for native bees and encountered a few good butterflies.  This ragged female Ornythion Swallowtail was my first of the year.  They use plants of the family Rutaceae like Colima and Barreta as a host as does the more common Western Giant Swallowtail so hopefull she will find some to her liking.

Here is the similar Western Giant Swallowtail.  The easiest field mark is the spot on the "tail" which is lacking on Ornythinon.  The first thing I usually notice is the more pale coloration of Ornythion.  The wing patterns are different also.

A Pipevine Swallowtail passed through.

While I was photographing the Ornythion a young fellow with a camera approached.  It was the first time I've ever encountered anyone at La Puerta.  He said he lived just a few minutes away and then he described a blueish butterfly in a bush with white flowers. Wow it sounded like a great Purple Hairstreak in a White Brush.  He led me down the trail a short distance and there it was.  A bit scruffy but my first of the summer.

This Coyote Cloudywing looks like it's fresh out of the chrysalis.  Like so many its hind wing is folded a bit giving it the "stub tailed" appearance of a Jalapus Cloudywing.  I wish there ws a better field mark.

Beewise there were plenty of Protoxaea gloriosa out.  This one was guarding its territory.

They've also been getting rainin the butterfly producing country to the south.  Maybe it will be a good summer.

National Butterfly Center, 11/6/24

Yesterday someone photographed a beat up Starred Skipper at the National Butterfly Center south of Mission, Texas.  This is a Mexican butterfly species I have never seen so I raced over this morning hoping for a lifer.  Lots of visiting butterfly watchers are in the Valley now as it is vagrant season and so far it's been pretty good.  So old butterfly friends and I spent a lot of time periodically checking the crucita patch in front of the restrooms.  It was good to see them though we never refound the Starred Skipper.

But all the eyes were sure able to find other good stuff, like this Blomfild's Beauty.  It's been a few years since I have seen this large showy Mexican species.  Sometimes they get friendly.

Nearby a Gray Cracker posed on a pale patch of fungus.  I'm not sure abouts its camouflage strategy.

The shady patches of white plumbago were popular.  This worn Two-bared Flasher spent the morning there.  It's going to take me a while to start calling it Qian's Flasher.

Other butterflies enjoying the plumbago included Coyote Cloudywing, Large Orange Sulphur and a White-striped Longtail.

Here's the obligatory Mexican Bluewing.

Up front a Marius Hairstreak was in the crucita.  It's been a good fall for them.

I have a lot more photos but you get the idea.  I saw 69 species of butterflies today but I felt like I left a few on the table.  I later found out Linda Cooper saw 76 species.  Things are flying!

• Pipevine Swallowtail 12
• Giant Swallowtail 8
• Checkered White 5
• Orange Sulphur 3
• Southern Dogface 10
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Large Orange Sulphur 25
• Lyside Sulphur 5
• Tailed Orange 3
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Dainty Sulphur 3
• Marius Hairstreak 1
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 4
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 10
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Ceraunus Blue 8
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• American Snout 20
• Gulf Fritillary 3
• Zebra Heliconian 6
• Variegated Fritillary 2
• Mexican Fritillary 3
• Bordered Patch 2
• Elada Checkerspot 5
• Texan Crescent 2
• Phaon Crescent 8
• Pearl Crescent 2
• Question Mark 2
• Red Admiral 1
• Common Buckeye 2
• White Peacock 5
• Common Mestra 5
• Gray Cracker 1
• Blomfild's Beauty 1
• Tropical Leafwing 10
• Hackberry Emperor 2
• Empress Leilia 2
• Tawny Emperor 100
• Carolina Satyr 2
• Queen 40
• Soldier 1
• White-striped Longtail 3
• Zilpa Longtail 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 4
• Dorantes Longtail 3
• Brown Longtail 3
• Two-barred Flasher 1
• Coyote Cloudywing 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 4
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 12
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 3
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 1
• Laviana White-Skipper 8
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 10
• Double-dotted Skipper 15
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 50
• Whirlabout 3
• Sachem 20
• Common Mellana 5
• Eufala Skipper 8
• Brazilian Skipper 1
• Purple-washed Skipper 1

National Butterfly Center, 3/17/22

Warm weather is pretty much back to stay and butterflies were in good supply at the National Butterfly Center today despite a lack of rain.  Several present were species that are normally more common in the arid brush country west of here like this Common Streaky Skipper.

And this Texas Powdered Skipper.

Coyote Cloudywing is also much more common west of here.  I tried to turn them into Jalapus Cloudywings but I couldn't get enough of a tail on the wings.

Butterfly of the day was probably this fresh Great Purple Hairstreak, another brush country specialist.

This list of 48 species is exceptionally large for early spring.  Hope we get some rain but none is forecast anytime soon. 

• Pipevine Swallowtail 2
• Black Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Checkered White 3
• Orange Sulphur 2
• Southern Dogface 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 1
• Little Yellow 3
• Sleepy Orange 2
• Great Purple Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 2
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 6
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• American Snout 5
• Zebra Heliconian 1
• Bordered Patch 3
• Texan Crescent 10
• Vesta Crescent 2
• Phaon Crescent 12
• Painted Lady 3
• Red Admiral 10
• White Peacock 1
• Mexican Bluewing 4
• Carolina Satyr 6
• Monarch 1
• Queen 4
• Brown Longtail 3
• Coyote Cloudywing 2
• Mimosa Skipper 1
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 2
• White-patched Skipper 1
• Mournful Duskywing 2
• Funereal Duskywing 6
• White Checkered-Skipper 10
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 15
• Laviana White-Skipper 12
• Common Streaky-Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 8
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 10
• Whirlabout 6
• Southern Broken-Dash 3
• Sachem 1
• Common Mellana 2
• Eufala Skipper 3