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.

Santa Ana NWR, 8/4/24

We had quite a bit of rain a couple of weeks ago so I ran over to Santa Ana NWR yesterday to check out the conditions.  In particular I wanted to check out the lakes and see if they had any water and maybe some dragonflies.  Turns out there is no surface water at all.  The thirsty ground soaked up all the rain so things actually look pretty lush despite the ponds all being dry.  Unfortuanately the refuge staff had mowed the dry Willow Lakes complex to prepare for the fall waterfowl season and in the process wiped out the balloon vines which had produce a good crop of lovely Silver-banded Hairstreaks earlier in the summer.  I couldn't find any so heres a photo from June14.

There was a nice patch of frog fruit which attracted a bunch of Phaon Cresents and this Julia's Skipper.

I've recently gotten adicted to iNaturalist and to native bees in particular.  I've yet to work out an ID on these little green sweat bees.  The blooming flower head is only about 5 mm wide.

So I wandered back over to the tour road and found the Tenaza were blooming.  For some reason they always all bloom on the same day and are only open a couple of days.  They were loaded with butterflies, mostly American Snouts, but I did mange to pick out a good one.  I am guessing this is the first Gold-spotted Aguna to be seen in the US this year.

Also nectering on the fluffy Tenaza blooms were White-striped and Brown Longtails.  They have been hard to find this year.

Also high in the Tenaza were Large Orange Sulphurs and Soldiers.

Mimosa Skippers are usually found on the ground.  They use the thorny pink mimosas that grow in area ditches as a host plant.  It's unusual to see one up in the Tenaza.

It was getting hot so I returned to the old manager's residence area and checked out the only blooming white lantana.  There were several Common Mestras.

And this metalmark looking somewhat in between a Fatal and a Rounded.  I'm guessing it's a Rounded.

Earlier I had noticed activity in the butterfly garden at the entrance to the parking lot.  So afer cooling down and having some lunch I checked it out.  A medium sized yellow with a boyant flight had me thinking of Dina Yellow but it was the more common Boisduval's Yellow which is actually pretty uncommon at Santa Ana.  I think this is the lightly makred summer form.

Well that was nice.  A few Phaon Crescents bounced around the non native flowers (I can't remember the name) by the entrance kiosk and one was a little larger.  This beat up Pale-banded Cresent is my first of the year.

So things are starting to pick up as the summer progresses.  Unfortunately we have a week of 100 degrees temperatures ahead with no rain.  Maybe that little low pressure brewing in the Caribbean can help us out.

Gold-spotted Aguna at Progreso Lakes, 5/25/23

Spring bird migration is nearing an end so it's getting time to start keeping an eye on the butterflies.  This spring has been reasonably wet so far and temperatures aren't getting much above 90F so my yard is looking pretty good with lots of flowers.  Butterflies have been a little slow but today they really picked up.  After a nap this afternoon, I went to the back porch and checked the blooming duranta through my binocs.  There semed to be a tailess White-striped Longtail working the flowers but the white stripe didn't look quite right.  I grabbed my camera and ran after it.  Turned out to be a Gold-spotted Aguna.  We have had several through the years.

Earlier in the day we did have a White-striped Longtail.

Absent for a few weeks, it was nice to see our Double-dotted Skippers back in the yard.

Our other yard specialty is also doing better lately.  Boisduval's Yellows seem to finally come back after the big freeze of 2021.

This Whirlabout is coiled up to strike.

Lots of wild dill ahs produced plenty of Black Swallowtails this spring.

Here's today's list of 33 species.  As long as out temps stay mild I'm expecting some good stuff in the coming weeks.

Black Swallowtail 1

Giant Swallowtail 4

• Great Southern White 2
• Cloudless Sulphur 4
• Large Orange Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 6
• Boisduval's Yellow 3
• Little Yellow 2
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Gulf Fritillary 6
• Bordered Patch 2
• Texan Crescent 6
• Vesta Crescent 3
• White Peacock 3
• Carolina Satyr 3
• Queen 5
• Guava Skipper 1
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Gold-spotted Aguna 1
• Brown Longtail 4
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 8
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 4
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Whirlabout 6
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Common Mellana 3
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3
• Eufala Skipper 2

An Invasion of Gold-spotted Agunas, 8/3/20

On August 2 Ernest Herrera found a Gold-spotted Aguna at his home near Mission.  We usually get one or two every year in the Rio Grande Valley but they're still pretty rare and always a nice surprise.  So I was shocked the next day to find three of them in our yard!  We had one previously a couple of years ago.  What's even more amazing is that on the 4th, Ernest found two more at Quinta Mazatlan in McAllen.  And then Juan Chavez found two more at his home in Edinberg.  Obviously Gold-spotted Agunas are breeding somewhere not very far away.  I bet more of them show up.  Here's some photos from our yard.

The first two were in our blooming Tenaza.  But then I found another large skipper in the Duranta that didn't seem to have a white band.  I was hoping for Broken Silverdrop.  But after looking at the photos, the white band was just worn and it was a third Gold-spotted Aguna.

Well that made for a pretty good day but that's not all.  There was a Brown-banded Skipper laying eggs on a Barbados cherry; first one for the year.

And then this beat up Ruddy Daggerwing dropped in.  I wonder if it was the same one from last week.

The day started with this female Yellow Angled Sulphur.

These two Tropical Leafwings were getting chummy.

The day before on 8/2/20 we had this nice fat female Orang-barred Sulphfur laying eggs on the Senna.

And to get all caught up, yesterday 8/5 our brush patch was briefly visited by this fresh Zebra Heliconian.  They are pretty common but it was only our second.  I think they probably just blow through and I miss them.

National Butterfly Center, 10/17/17

I've been busy and have not got around to posting about the fun day I had at the National Butterfly Center with the Yukichs from Canada, Mike Rickard, John Rosford, Ken Wilson and Dave Hanson.  My goal was to see the Mercurial Skipper that had been present the two days before.  But alas, it was not meant to be and Mercurial Skipper continues as my nemesis butterfly (along with Emerald Aguna).  But we had a great day, finding some pretty good butterflies for each other.  Best
was my second ever Hermit Skipper.

Ken Wilson found this worn Gold-spotted Aguna.  It just barely had enough filed marks to be identifiable.

This Evan's Skipper wasn't much better.

And this Zilpa Longtail generated some debate.

I should write some more but I'm worn out.  Our list for the day held 65 species of which I saw all but four I think.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 2
• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Florida White 2
• Giant White 1
• Southern Dogface 4
• Yellow Angled-Sulphur 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 8
• Lyside Sulphur 20
• Tailed Orange 4
• Little Yellow 5
• Sleepy Orange 3
• Dainty Sulphur 1
• Marius Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 12
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 4
• Ceraunus Blue 10
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• American Snout 25
• Gulf Fritillary 15
• Julia Heliconian 2
• Zebra Heliconian 1
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Mexican Fritillary 3
• Bordered Patch 4
• Phaon Crescent 10
• Question Mark 1
• Painted Lady 6
• Common Buckeye 5
• White Peacock 2
• Mexican Bluewing 4
• Common Mestra 1
• Ruddy Daggerwing 2
• Tropical Leafwing 1
• Tawny Emperor 30
• Carolina Satyr 2
• Monarch 6
• Queen 300
• Soldier 10
• Zilpa Longtail 1
• Gold-spotted Aguna 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 10
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• Hermit Skipper 1
• Brown-banded Skipper 2
• White-patched Skipper 2
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 15
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Laviana White-Skipper 20
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 5
• Clouded Skipper 30
• Southern Skipperling 5
• Fiery Skipper 80
• Whirlabout 15
• Southern Broken-Dash 15
• Sachem 40
• Common Mellana 10
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3
• Eufala Skipper 10
• Purple-washed Skipper 2
• Evans' Skipper 1