Resaca de La Palma St Park, 6/27/25

I've been spending more of my time lately on the west end of the Rio Grande Valley so today I decided to head east to Resaca de la Palma State Park.  The butterfly garden was a bit dry but the Ebony Grove Trail looked good.  I got some of the area specialties and missed some.  This Band-celled Sister was oviposting on Randia rhagocarpa.

I had a few frustating glimpses of Boisduval's Yellow but finally got one ovipositing on Senna pendula.  I always suspected that was the host plant but this is my first time to get visual confirmation.

The third local specialty was Mazan's Scallopwing.  Only males today.

Female Mexican Bluewings were busy laying eggs on Vasey's Adelia.

A Marcellina Sulphur (southwestern version of Cloudless) oviposited on Senna pendula.

I rarely see the Eastern Cicada Killer Wasp so it was unusual to see at least a dozen today.  This giant wasp had staked out a territory right in front of the visitors center.

Here's today's list of twenty species.

• Giant Swallowtail 3
• Giant White 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 10
• Large Orange Sulphur 1
• Lyside Sulphur 6
• Boisduval's Yellow 2
• Little Yellow 3
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 2
• Clytie Ministreak 3
• Rounded Metalmark 1
• American Snout 1
• Phaon Crescent 1
• Band-celled Sister 1
• Mexican Bluewing 5
• Queen 2
• Mazans Scallopwing 3
• Sickle-winged Skipper 5
• White Checkered-Skipper 2
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 25
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 1

Ruddy Hairstreak at NBC, 2-12-25

I had stuff to do today but Mary Beth Stowe found a Mourning Cloak at the National Butterfly Center so I changed plans.  I never found it but as it turned out it was a good day to be there ahead of the approaching cold front.  The elbo bushes had quit blooming but white brush and baby bonnets took up the slack.  Pride of place (I like this old British term) goes to this sharp little Ruddy Hairstreak.  Males are easy to ID if you can see the orange upper wing surfce.  Females are dull above and identical to Muted Hairstreak.  The little guy was flashing orange!

Common Streaky Skippers have appeared out of nowhere.  I saw three today.

Mazan's Scallopwing is not common at the NBC.  Resaca de la Palma is a better place to find it.

My first Goatweed Leafwing for 2025.

This is most likely a female Orange Sulphur but I'm not sure how you could rule out Clouded Sulphur.  I like the pink overtones.

Texan Crescents were out.

The other note worthy event today was the return of the native bees.  Identification is a challenge but iNaturalist helps.  I think this is the Texas Nomad Bee, a kleptoparasite of some of the little Andrena mining bees.

Female Texas Agopostemn is hairy compared to the other green sweat bees.

And I haven't figured out this dark little sweat bee.  Not finding anything like it online.

Here's today's list of 35 species.

• Black Swallowtail 1
• Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 6
• Little Yellow 3
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 5
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Ruddy Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 2
• Western Pygmy-Blue 1
• Reakirt's Blue 4
• Fatal Metalmark 3
• American Snout 10
• Bordered Patch 1
• Texan Crescent 3
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Pearl Crescent 1
• Red Admiral 6
• White Peacock 1
• Mexican Bluewing 2
• Tropical Leafwing 5
• Goatweed Leafwing 1
• Mazans Scallopwing 1
• Funereal Duskywing 2
• White Checkered-Skipper 8
• Laviana White-Skipper 2
• Common Streaky-Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper 2
• Sachem 2
• Common Mellana 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 1

Good south wind at Progreso Lakes, 10/16/22

Our first cold front of the fall is due tomorrow and that usually sucks up warm wind from the south before it arrives.  So I made a conscious effort to run up a butterfly list for our Progreso Lakes yard today.  Our yard is also blooming nicely and combined with the southerly wind my expectations were high.  As it turned out, there were a lot of butterflies but not anything unusual.  I think it may take a few more fronts and a few more days of southerly wind to bring up the good stuff.

Butterfly of the day goes to a couple of Fawn-spotted Skippers.  Formerly common in our yard, this species was wiped out by last year's February freeze.  These are the first I've seen since then though they are still present in the Brownsville area.

Mimosa Skippers are a specialty of the mid and lower RGV.  They use the thorny pink flowered   

mimosas that line the ditches and resacas to as a host plant.  Today I had five which is pretty unusal.

The wind brought a Mazan's Scallopwing to the yard.  We only get one or two per year.

White-patched Skippers are finally showing after a long absense.

Dorantes Longtails have also just arrived.  It seems many butterflies time their reproduction to coincide with the fall flower season.

Soldiers have recently marched into the yard for the fall.

Here's today's list of 51 species.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 5
• Cloudless Sulphur 8
• Large Orange Sulphur 4
• Lyside Sulphur 2
• Little Yellow 10
• Mimosa Yellow 2
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 2
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Western Pygmy-Blue 5
• Ceraunus Blue 6
• Rounded Metalmark 6
• Red-bordered Metalmark 10
• American Snout 200
• Gulf Fritillary 5
• Bordered Patch 10
• Pearl Crescent   1
• Vesta Crescent 5
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 1
• White Peacock 15
• Tawny Emperor 8
• Queen 50
• Soldier 5
• White-striped Longtail 3
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 8
• Mimosa Skipper 5
• Mazans Scallopwing 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 60
• White-patched Skipper 1
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 6
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 8
• Laviana White-Skipper 12
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Common Sootywing 2
• Julia's Skipper 3
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 2
• Clouded Skipper 50
• Double-dotted Skipper 4
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 6
• Whirlabout 6
• Southern Broken-Dash 10
• Common Mellana 10
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 6
• Eufala Skipper 8

Variegated Skipper at Progreso Lakes, 1/13/22

Butterflies have been absent at Progreso Lakes the past two cold cloudy days but today the sun popped out and warmed temps to the 70's and the butterflies were back.  A real surprise was this rare Variegated Skipper.  These tiny jewels rarely wander up from Mexico.  It was only my second for the United States and first for our yard, butterfly #139.

After being a rare visitor to our yard for the first five years, Zebra Heliconians have been present daily for the past couple of weeks.  We had four today.

We've also had multiple Giant Whites daily.  Here's three in one shot.  They really like the blooming Dicliptera.

I thought this was an Orange-barred Sulphur when I photographed it.  Then I noticed it lacked any dark orange above so I started hoping it was a first record Apricot Sulphur.  But alas, it was just a big rambunctious Large Oange Sulphur.

Second best butterfly today was our third ever Band-celled Sister.

Last week we got our second ever Marine Blue.  These are much more common farther west.

We also had another Mazans Scallopwing last week.

Here's today's list.

Giant Swallowtail 1

• Giant White 3
• Orange Sulphur 1
• Southern Dogface 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Large Orange Sulphur 5
• Mexican Yellow 1
• Little Yellow 3
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• Reakirt's Blue 2
• Gulf Fritillary 8
• Zebra Heliconian 4
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Texan Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Red Admiral 2
• White Peacock 2
• Band-celled Sister 1
• Monarch 1
• Queen 3
• Soldier 1
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 5
• Variegated Skipper 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 6
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 20
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 10
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Sachem 1
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 5

Happy New Year from Progreso Lakes, 1/1/22

I looked out the window this New Years morning at 7:30 and the first butterfly I saw for 2022 was a Monarch.  I felt that might be a good omen.   And along with today's weather predicted to be very warm and breezy, that was enough to make me decide to stay in our Progreso Lakes yard today and run up a list.  Most interesting butterfly of the day was this Panoquina which seems to be a rare Hecebolus Skipper.  It has the forewing spot anterior to the big spot, it's rather golden colored, and lacks the row of hind wing spots and jutting fore wing of Purple-washed.  As such it is yard butterfly #138.

Then we had our second ever Curve-winged Metalmark.  These have been seen daily at the National Butterfly Center the past couple of weeks.

And then there were the Pierids, thirteen species in total including this big stonking female Orange-barred Sulphur.

And a Florida White.

And four Giant Whites.

And the first Mexican Yellows we've had in a while.

The were a couple of Boisduval's Yellows, one of which was last seen heading into my big Senna patch.

And late in the afternoon I found this sharp Common Mestra and beat up Mazans Scallopwing.

Here's our New Year's Day list of 48 species!

• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Florida White 1
• Checkered White 2
• Great Southern White 1
• Giant White 4
• Orange Sulphur 1
• Southern Dogface 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 8
• Orange-barred Sulphur 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 10
• Boisduval's Yellow 1
• Mexican Yellow 2
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Reakirt's Blue 2
• Curve-winged Metalmark 2
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 6
• Zebra Heliconian 1
• Texan Crescent 3
• Pale-banded Crescent 3
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 2
• White Peacock 3
• Common Mestra 2
• Tawny Emperor 1
• Carolina Satyr 4
• Monarch 3
• Queen 10
• Soldier 4
• Long-tailed Skipper 2
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 6
• Mazans Scallopwing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 20
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 25
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Whirlabout 5
• Sachem 1
• Common Mellana 2
• Eufala Skipper 8
• Hecebolus Skipper 1
• Purple-washed Skipper 2