Another Mexican Crescent, Zapata, 10/13/25

I was going to stay home and work on stuff but it was a pretty day so what the heck.  I decided to run up to Falcon State Park and check the butterfly garden.  Well it was really disappointng.  Two weeks ago it was looking lush with lots of stuff blooming.  But in the interim there has been no rain with daily highs pushing 100F so things were looking a little fried with few butterflies.  Best thing I could scrounge up was this White-patched Skipper.

And a very intriguing Coelioxys cuckoo bee.  I'm still working on it.  Maybe zapotecus?

Little going on at the lake shore.  I had forgotten it was Columbus Day so there were more than the usual number of people fishing and few birds.  The only tiger beetles were the common Ocellated.

What to do?  It was only noon.  How about a run up to Zapata and check the city park?  Last time I was there I found some blooming wire weed and the trail usually has a few birds.  As it turned out it was also dry with nothing blooming.  This Clouded (Marcellina) Sulphur was about it.  But it was a new Zapata County butterfly for me.  Not saying much.

Hmmm....  Maybe I should just head home and check the river at Salineno on the way.  So as I left the park and pulled onto US 83 I found it...  the butterfly garden at the Zapata Museum of History.  I have vague memories of meeting someone somewhere...  maybe it was at the National Butterfly Center... who was going to work on a butterfly garden for the city of Zapata.  I had forgotten about that.

Well it was kind of a funky little garden, between the Museum and the highway, with a strange assemblage of native and exotic plants.  But it was well watered and blooming and had more butterflies than I had seen all day.  Lots of Queens.

So I started picking through things and building a list.  All common stuff like Fiery Skippers.

And Southern Dogface.

And then I fod a pretty good one.  My first Tailed Sulphur for Zapata County and my first for the fall.  The summer form doesn't have much of a tail on the wings.

And then a Mexican Fritillary.

There was other common stuff and then I foud a good one, Brown-banded Skipper.  As I expected it was a first record for Zapata County on iNaturalist.

I added a few more common butterflies to the day list like Funereal Duskywing and Huron Sachem.

All of these butterflies were in front of the Museum next to the highway.  So I walked around to the side of the building where they had a few more plants.  And there was my first Phaon Crescent of the day.  I fired a few shots.  Something's wrong.  It just didn't seem right.  Woops.  The tell tale spot was missing.  It was another Mexican Cresent!  And it was a beauty.

I put the word out on the Discord butterfly alert and Berry Nall soon replied.  He had been seeing Mexican Crescents all summer in Roma and Rio Grande City.  He asked if there was any Tridax around.  I answered yes.  He responded that all the local comunities with Tridax procumbens in disturbed areas probably have a population of Mexican Crescents.

So this begs the question "How long have these butterflies been here?"  They look like common Phaon Crescents so they could have been missed.  We just started seeing them last year with the Indiana Gang's discovery of them at the NBC and Javi Gonzalez's find in Rio Grande City.  Anyway it's nice to have them in the Valley.

Every time I head the name "Tridax" I think it sounds like something from Star Trek.

"Bones, give him a shot of Tridax."

"Jim, we don't know what Tridax will do to that green Vulcan blood."

25 species today at the Zapata Museum of History.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Southern Dogface 8
• Cloudless Sulphur 3
• Large Orange Sulphur 3
• Lyside Sulphur 6
• Tailed Orange 2
• Little Yellow 3
• Sleepy Orange 3
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Ceraunus Blue 6
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 4
• Mexican Fritillary 2
• Theona Checkerspot 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Queen 20
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• Brown-banded Skipper 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Fiery Skipper 20
• Sachem 2
• Eufala Skipper 3
• Mexican Crescent 1

Guatemalan Cracker at NBC, 8/24/25

Yesterday Tom Forwood found a Gautemalan Cracker at the National Butterfly Center.  Tom is the new Superintendent at nearby Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park and is a fine naturalist.  I ran over and Alex told me where to look.  It took about a minute to find the Guatemalan Cracker in the row of Retama trees where it was feeding on sap.  The common name comes from the specific epithet guatemalena.  Many butterfly common names are Anglicizations of the the Latin name.

The Brown-banded Skipper was still hanging out by the old visitors center.

Long-tailed skippers are finally showing after a long absense.  Here's White-striped Longtail,  Long-tailed Skipper and Brown Longtail.

This Red-bordered Pixie was not doing a very good of hiding under this leaf.  Many of the brightly colored tropical metalmarks can be found hiding under leaves,

Finally a White Peacock after months without seeing one.

Mexican Fritillaries were out.

I guess this is just a Common Mellana.  It was down in the "ditch" in the shade, atypical of where I usually see it up in the flowers.  But nothing else in the Mexican guide seems to fit.

Last butterfly of the day was this fresh Mournful Duskywing.

The Valley has gotten some rain this past weeks and it's cooled off a tiny bit.  It feels like fall!

• Pipevine Swallowtail 3
• Giant Swallowtail 5
• Southern Dogface 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 15
• Lyside Sulphur 10
• Little Yellow 5
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Ceraunus Blue 8
• Fatal Metalmark 2
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• American Snout 10
• Gulf Fritillary 8
• Mexican Fritillary 3
• Bordered Patch 10
• Phaon Crescent 20
• White Peacock 1
• Mexican Bluewing 8
• Guatemalan Cracker 1
• Tropical Leafwing 8
• Tawny Emperor 15
• Queen 8
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Brown Longtail 5
• Brown-banded Skipper 1
• White-patched Skipper 1
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 6
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 20
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Whirlabout 2
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Common Mellana 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 6
• Eufala Skipper 5

Progreso Lakes, 6/14/23

I was sitting on the back porch this morning and thinking about going to the NABA Butterfly Center in Mission.  A lot of good stuff was seen there yesterday.  And then a Dingy Purplewing landed on the hummingbird feeder so I just stayed in the yard.

A little later something orange buzzed by the Ficus elastica.  I've read that Ficus species are the host plant for Ruddy Daggerwings.  We've had several in that tree.

First Tailed Orange of the year.  This is the summer form.

A Sleepy Orange was ovipositing on the Senna pendula.

While a Mexican Fritillary did the same on the Turnera.  They are supposed to have some pretty cool caterpillars.

Boisduval's Yellows are present daily along with Double-dotted Skippers.

It's always nice to get a Question Mark.

Here's today's list.

• Giant Swallowtail 4
• Great Southern White 4
• Cloudless Sulphur 10
• Large Orange Sulphur 5
• Lyside Sulphur 1
• Boisduval's Yellow 2
• Tailed Orange 1
• Little Yellow 5
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• American Snout 6
• Gulf Fritillary 6
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 3
• Vesta Crescent 2
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Pearl Crescent 3
• American Lady 1
• White Peacock 5
• Dingy Purplewing 1
• Ruddy Daggerwing 1
• Tawny Emperor 2
• Queen 5
• Brown Longtail 6
• Sickle-winged Skipper 2
• Mournful Duskywing 2
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 8
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 8
• Double-dotted Skipper 5
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Whirlabout 3
• Southern Broken-Dash 3
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3
• Eufala Skipper 1

Banded Patches at Yturria Brush, 6/6/23

Today was supposed to be the last "coolish" day before temps ramp up to the upper 90's and above.  So I decided to make a run up to Falcon State Park before it gets super hot.  With all the spring rain I was hoping to find some good stuff, maybe even a Banded Patch.  As I passed through La Joya, I wondered if I should check out the Yturria Brush Unit of the Lower Rio Grande NWR.  Last time I was there the entrance trail was grown up and it was really dry.  I pulled into the parking area and checked the start of the trail.  It was lush and I was welcomed by a Texas Powdered-Skipper.

Lots of blooming stuff but I was a little early and it was still cool.  The entrance trail was still overgrown and it was a thorny proposition getting to the main track that goes north.  There were a few Lyside Sulphurs and lots of Empres Leilias.

A late Eastern Kingbird was nice as was an immature singing Varied Bunting but butterflies were disappointing,  I made it to the lush monte about a mile up,  The vegetation along the track had been cleared by Refuge staff, probably at the bidding of Border Patrol and all of the good butterfly plants were chopped down.  Not good.  I walked a couple hundred more yards and I saw a dark patchy checkerspotty looking thing.  Wow!  It was a Banded Patch.

And then I found two more.

I started back towards the monte and found a very frest Banded Patch.  Unfortunately the camera wouldn't give me a sharp focus.

The walk back to the car turned up a few Desrt Checkered-Skippers.

And all three Fritillaries; Gulf, Variegated and Mexican.  Here's the Mexican Fritillary.

So the brush country is started to turn out some butterflies after the spring rain.  But 100 degree days with no rain are starting next week so We'll see how long the butterflies last.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 3
• Giant Swallowtail 3
• Checkered White 2
• Great Southern White 1
• Southern Dogface 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 20
• Little Yellow 4
• Sleepy Orange 5
• Dainty Sulphur 12
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Reakirt's Blue 1
• American Snout 2
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Theona Checkerspot 8
• Banded Patch 4
• Texan Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 1
• Pearl Crescent 1
• American Lady 1
• White Peacock 1
• Common Mestra 2
• Tropical Leafwing 1
• Empress Leilia 40
• Texas Powdered-Skipper 3
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 4

 

Tailed Aguna at Progreso Lakes, 10/25/21

My goal today was to get out and do some scouting for the Texas Butterfly Festival.  But as usual I needed to check out our yard first.  My reward was our first Tailed Aguna at Progreso Lakes.  Yard butterfly #133 was the third I have found on my own of this species, the other two being years ago at Estero and the Hidalgo Pumphouse.

The other good find was this fresh male Mexican Bluewing which was just a few feet from the female who has been hanging out in our brush patch.  Maybe they will get "busy".  The female has more extensive white spotting on the forewing.

Been a while since I've seen a Painted Lady.

I finally got out of the yard and did some scouting up in the brush country north of TX 186.  Not many flowers out there but there were a few clumps of Crucita on Brushline Rd and some blooming Coma.  Best find was a couple of Erichson's White-Skippers.

And a few Turk's Cap White-Skippers.

Found a few Desert Checkered-Skippers on CR 30 just over in Willacy County but the few floweres had few butterflies.

And also a Mexican Fritillary.  Notice this one and the one above are both perched onthe nasty grass burs which take some of the fun out of CR 30.

Here's my yard list for the morning.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Elada Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 1
• Painted Lady 1
• White Peacock 3
• Tawny Emperor 3
• Queen 20
• Soldier 5
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Tailed Aguna 1
• Brown Longtail 3
• Mimosa Skipper 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 2
• Laviana White-Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 8
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Fiery Skipper 3
• Whirlabout 2
• Common Mellana 1
• Eufala Skipper 2
• Ocola Skipper 1