Rio Grande Valley Butterflies: Northern Faceted Skipper

Showing posts with label Northern Faceted Skipper. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 30, 2025

Finishing up 2025 at the NBC, 12/27-28/25

A cold front was scheduled to hit the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas on the 29th so I took advantage of the 85F warm weather at the National Butterfly Center. As had been the case lately, the park had plenty of good butterflies though nothing earth shattering. The Northern Faceted-Skipper (Malicious Skipper) in the ditch has been a lifer butterfly for most. I got my best shots of it.

Butterflies in the Family Nymphalidae have only four legs. But they are insects so where are the other two legs? The front pair of legs are reduced in size. In the case of this Pavon Emperor they are day glow green and flank the green proboscis.

I've seen more Red-lined Scrub-Hairstreaks this fall than I had in total the past twenty years.

Lots of Western Pygmy Blues lately.

Early on the 28th Ryan Rodriguez found a Clench's Greenstreak. Later in the day I thought I ad had found a second. But this scruffy bug turned out to be a Telea Hairstreak. The PM band is hard to see.

Here's a nice Marius Hairstreak. It has gray eyes as do other members of the Genus Rekoa.

One of the better Band-celled sister I've ever seen.

The 28th finished with this spectacular Ruby-spotted Swallowtail putting on a show.

Unfortunately for me I missed two fantastic butterflies. Kristy Baker has a fresh Guatemalan Leafwing in her yard. There are only a handful of records in the USA. The one I saw was pretty scruffy. At least eight people made the 40 mile drive to her yard and all missed it. The second fatastic butterfly was a Rusty-tipped Page found by Jim Snyder at Resaca de la Palma. He only got one shot of this large congener of the Malachite. Having butterflied a lot in the tropics he had seen many and had no idea it was so rare up here and reported it a little late.

It's 56F as I write this on the 30th. But we warm to the 80s again in a couple of days so there no reason we can't get some more of these rare butterflies.

Friday, December 26, 2025

Xmas Day Goodies at the NBC, 12/25/25

Merry Christmas. The National Butterfly Center was officially closed today but Stephanie left the gate open for us hard core papillonistas (That's my new moniker for us butterfly watchers.) Christmas time averages to about our coldest time of the year in the RGV but sunny and 85F was on tap for today. Butterflies responded. My best find was this Northern Faceted Skipper in the ditch on the exact same plumbago where I found one on Nov 29, 26 days ago. My guess is it's the same bug.

Here's the one from 11/29/25. It's less worn but that's about the only evidence it's the same indiviual.

Then John Rosford found this scruffy male Chestnut Crescent. It's been a while since I've seen one.

A huge White Angled Sulphur toyed with us. I evenutally caught an open winged shot.

Otherwise it was just the same bunch of great butterflies we've been seeing lately. Like Silver and Pavon emperors.

And Band-celled Sister and Malachites.

Terry and I saw this mid-sized yellow flying floppily. I yelled "We have to chase that one! " I was hoping for Dina or Salome Yellow. We chased it a long way and eventually it took a brief rest. Boisduval's Yellow is pretty uncommon at the NBC.

Mexican Bluewings are hard to come by this winter.

This brightly colored crescent got me thinking about more exotic Anthanassa but she was cavorting with a male Pale-banded. So I guess that's what she is.

Well, I guess I should get out and find some more bugs.

Sunday, November 30, 2025

Turquoise Longtail at NBC, 11/29/25

Friday morning sharp eyed Ryan Rodriguez got a brief look at a rare Turquoise Longtail in the Mexican orchid by the nursery. Thoughout the day hopeful butterfly watchers kept a vigil and eventually the Urbanus made another appearance. Several people got diagnostic photos but I arrived too late. I was taking a day off ahead of the warm windy Saturday that was forecast ahead of a incoming cold front. It cost me a lifer.

So my plan was to spend Saturday looking for good stuff blown in on the southerly wind. But before I could leave, the Discord sounded. The Turquoise Longtail was back! I raced over and got lucky this time.

This proved to be a fantastic day of very uncommon butterflies. In the immediate area of the orchid tree Curve-winged Metalmark, Caballo (formerly Poterillo) Skipper and Giant and Great Southern Whites were reported. Here's the metalmark.

Red-bordered pixies continue in large numbers.

Checking the nearby Coma tree, I spied a Marine Blue which put the NBC November list at an all time high of 139.

Then I decided to break from the crowd and run the bait logs. Not much exciting. So I decided to walk the ditch and found what I had hoped for... Malicious Skipper! Well, I guess it's not called that anymore. Synapte malitiosa as been split with the Caribbean nominate race retaining the old common moniker. Ours is the Northern Faceted Skipper, Synapte pecta. It's only the third I've ever seen, all self found. I put it out on the alert but no one else was able to refind it.

Farther north on the bait logs I foud a couple of female Pavon Emperor's.

And then in the sunken garden Ken Wilson found me a male.

Good to see a couple of Fawn-spotted Skippers. They were wiped out in the 2021 freeze.

Back to the south a Mazan's Scallopwing was reported in the little Gregg's Mistflower patch where the Red-spotted Patch was found a few days earlier.

Perusing the mistflowers I dug out an uncommon Erichson's White-skipper.

Back at the orchid tree, another Ruby-spotted Swallowtail put on a show.

Someone put a rare Spot-celled Sister on the Discord alert. Was it misidentified? All I found was a less rare female Silver Empror.

An uncommon Glazed Pellicia was on the blue Duranta.

A little later there was another report of a Spot-celled Sister. I ran over expecting to see the female Silver Emperor but no, it was a beautiful Spot-celled Sister. These used to be mega rare but we've had several this fall.