National Butterfly Center, 11/18/25

The Texas Butterfly Festival has come and gone but new butterfly watchers are arriving in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas almost daily.  The assemblage of amatuer lepidopteristsa and warm south wind from Mexico results in lots of butterflies being seen in the RGV.  Last I saw yesterday the running species count for the month of November at the National Butterfly Center was at 125.  Amazing!  There have been no new records or mega finds but lots of good stuff is being found by those out plying the trails.

I've been taking it easy and trying not to get burned out.  Consequently I have missed a lot of the good stuff but I'm not complaining.  Here's a little of what I've seen the past few days starting with yesterday's Guatemalan Cracker.

I ran over yesterday hoping for the Hoary Skipper but I missed it.  So I had to glean from left over Glazed Pellicia, White-patched Skipper and Red-bordered Pixies.

Finally we are seeing a few Julia's Skippers.

The male Silver emperor was putting on a show.  Where's the blue?  You just have to change your angle!  Blue coloration of birds and butterflies are often caused by by microscopic structural reflections and not blue pigment.

Malachites are occuring daily.

I pointed visiting birders to this Guava Skipper.  They were grateful.

Mexican Bluewings have been in short supply.

But not the rare Mexican Crescent.

Here's the morning Ruby-spotted Swallowtail.  We have seen nearly a dozen this fall.

As I was leaving one more butterfly caught my eye.  Woops.  Look at those antennae.  This is the diurnal White-tipped Black Moth.

With good wind and good observers in the field, we're bound to get something remarkable in the coming weeks.

Good day at the NBC, 12/28/24

Took a day off to rest and get caught up on photos and work on the blog and stuff.  Yesterday was quite a day at the National Butterfly Center south of Mission, Texas.  I didn't find a lot of great stuff on my own but I manged to survive on the spoils of Mak and Holly Salvato's expertise and efforts.  Their best find was this Spot-celled Sister of which there are not many recordgs for the RGV.  I think it's my fourth.

There were also two of the similar but more common Band-celled sister.

Earlier in the day Mark found a Yellow Angled-Sulphur.  It was distant but that allowed my to fire away multiple exposures to get flight shots.

A short while later Mark called "White Angled-Sulphur!"  I thought it was a female and asked him how he made the ID.  But it was a male.

It took me a while but I eventually found Mark's Glazed Pellicia.

The Gray Cracker continued on its usual trunk.  It did fly into the bait log and allowed a closer shot.

Mark and Holly also found this cool Pale-spotted Leafwing.  Been quite a few this fall.  I crawled down under it and got some interesting shots before it returned to the bait.  I like that hooked fore wing.

More interesting flight shots included Florida White, Tailed Orange and a White-striped Longtail.

Here's the obligatory Mexican Bluewing and REd-bordered Pixie.

That's enough.  Here's the list of 64 species.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 2
• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Florida White 4
• Great Southern White 3
• Southern Dogface 3
• White Angled-Sulphur 1
• Yellow Angled-Sulphur 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 4
• Large Orange Sulphur 15
• Statira Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 10
• Mexican Yellow 1
• Tailed Orange 5
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Marius Hairstreak 4
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 2
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 12
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 4
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Cassius Blue 2
• Ceraunus Blue 20
• Reakirt's Blue 2
• Red-bordered Pixie 5
• American Snout 12
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Zebra Heliconian 8
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Texan Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Question Mark 1
• Red Admiral 8
• White Peacock 2
• Band-celled Sister 2
• Spot-celled Sister 1
• Mexican Bluewing 4
• Common Mestra 8
• Gray Cracker 1
• Pale-spotted Leafwing 1
• Tawny Emperor 1
• Monarch 6
• Queen 25
• Soldier 2
• White-striped Longtail 3
• Long-tailed Skipper 2
• Dorantes Longtail 3
• Brown Longtail 2
• Glazed Pellicia 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 3
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Laviana White-Skipper 10
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 5
• Whirlabout 2
• Sachem 8
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 4

National Butterfly Center, 10/25/16

Spent a warm afternoon at the National Butterfly Center sorting through the hordes of butterflies.  This sharp Gold-spotted Aguna was the prize of the day.

Marius Hairstreak is always a treat.  They've had a few in the area lately.

Glazed Pellicias are around in good numbers just like last fall.

Saw three Tropical Buckeyes today.

And lots of regular Common Buckeyes.

Here are some tailed skippers.  White-striped, Dorantes and Long-tailed.

I liked this well marked Soldier.

Wish this spider would pick on the snouts instead of the Gulf Fritillaries.

So a pretty good day with 56 species.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 10
• Giant Swallowtail 6
• Southern Dogface 12
• Cloudless Sulphur 6
• Large Orange Sulphur 10
• Lyside Sulphur lots
• Tailed Orange 2
• Little Yellow 8
• Marius Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 12
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 5
• Cassius Blue 1
• Ceraunus Blue 10
• American Snout lots
• Gulf Fritillary 10
• Zebra Heliconian 1
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Theona Checkerspot 1
• Bordered Patch 5
• Crimson Patch 8
• Pale-banded Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 4
• Painted Lady 1
• Common Buckeye 12
• Tropical Buckeye 3
• White Peacock 12
• Mexican Bluewing 4
• Common Mestra 5
• Tawny Emperor lots
• Monarch 1
• Queen lots
• Soldier 12
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Gold-spotted Aguna 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Dorantes Longtail 2
• Brown Longtail 8
• Glazed Pellicia 3
• White-patched Skipper 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 8
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 2
• Laviana White-Skipper lots
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 10
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper lots
• Whirlabout 12
• Southern Broken-Dash 6
• Sachem lots
• Common Mellana 5
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 10
• Ocola Skipper lots
• Purple-washed Skipper 1

National Butterfly Center, 10/20/16

I've been birding a lot this year and then it was super hot and dry during the summer so I've neglected my butterfly duties.  But with the Texas Butterfly Festival coming up I thought I had better get over to the National Butterfly Center and put in a little practice.  Wow, have they added to the gardens!  And everything was in bloom and loaded with butterflies.  Nothing super rare today but plenty to see once I waded through the thousands of American Snouts, Lyside and Large Orange Sulphurs, Queens and Fiery Skippers.  Best was the Curve-winged Metalmark that has been present a few days.

This Two-barred Flasher was a nice one.

Glazed Pellicia was common last fall and I saw two of them today.

It was nice to see a few Mexican Fritillaries for a change.

Julia Heliconians have been reported all over Texas this year.

As have Crimson Patches.

I can't resist a sharp Gulf Fritillary.

Tails on Tailed Oranges varied from short to long.

This Giant Toad had found itself a perch next to one of the butterfly bait logs.

Toad licking is all the rage these days.

Here's today's list of 57 species.

Pipevine Swallowtail 5

• Giant Swallowtail 5
• Southern Dogface 6
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Large Orange Sulphur lots
• Lyside Sulphur lots
• Tailed Orange 4
• Little Yellow 5
• Sleepy Orange 2
• Gray Hairstreak 6
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Cassius Blue 1
• Ceraunus Blue 5
• Fatal Metalmark 2
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• Curve-winged Metalmark 1
• American Snout lots
• Gulf Fritillary 10
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Mexican Fritillary 3
• Theona Checkerspot 1
• Crimson Patch 5
• Pale-banded Crescent 3
• Phaon Crescent 12
• Common Buckeye 4
• White Peacock 10
• Mexican Bluewing 6
• Common Mestra 1
• Tropical Leafwing 3
• Tawny Emperor lots
• Monarch 2
• Queen lots
• Soldier 4
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Dorantes Longtail 3
• Brown Longtail 4
• Two-barred Flasher 1
• Glazed Pellicia 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 3
• White-patched Skipper 5
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 3
• Laviana White-Skipper 15
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 8
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper lots
• Whirlabout 15
• Southern Broken-Dash 6
• Sachem 6
• Common Mellana 12
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 4
• Eufala Skipper 6
• Ocola Skipper 10