National Butterfly Center, 12/18/25

It was another fun filled warm December day at the National Butterfly Center.  Terry Mortier found another Blue-eyed Sailor in the sunken garden.  After seeing several this fall we didn't exactly run over to photograph it.  Eventually I got there and Terry pointed it out.  After a few frustrating minutes I finally got a decent shot and recognized something was wrong.  The two eye's were not surrounded by white.  And it had an extra band on top  Four-spotted Sailor!  This is actually a more uncomon species than the Blue-eyed which can breed locally.  I've seen a few through the years but it was a lifer for Terry and several others.

Nearby a Purple-washed Skipper was actually purple washed.

Here's a good looking female Common Mellana

Both male and female Silver Emperors.

It's hard to turn down a Malachite.

Several of us spend a good deal of time trying to get a decent shot of a nectaring male Orange-barred Sulphur.  We wanted a good dorsal flight shot.  But the butterfly, though right in front of us on a Mexican Olive, would only land for a second at a time.  So I would shoot in burst mode hoping for an open winged photo.  But, as the other day with the Red Rim, I was having trouple getting the color right.  So I fiddled with the settings and eventually I got a keeper.

Good day with 69 species.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 2
• Checkered White 4
• Great Southern White 1
• Giant White 6
• Orange Sulphur 1
• Southern Dogface 3
• Cloudless Sulphur 1
• Orange-barred Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 12
• Lyside Sulphur 8
• Tailed Orange 2
• Little Yellow 5
• Dainty Sulphur 1
• Marius Hairstreak 1
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 2
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Western Pygmy-Blue 1
• Cassius Blue 3
• Ceraunus Blue 12
• Reakirt's Blue 2
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Pixie 2
• Curve-winged Metalmark 1
• American Snout 40
• Gulf Fritillary 6
• Zebra Heliconian 6
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 2
• Texan Crescent 8
• Pale-banded Crescent 2
• Phaon Crescent 12
• American Lady 2
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 6
• Common Buckeye 2
• White Peacock 2
• Malachite 2
• Band-celled Sister 1
• Common Mestra 2
• Guatemalan Cracker 1
• Tropical Leafwing 6
• Empress Leilia 4
• Tawny Emperor 5
• Pavon Emperor 2
• Silver Emperor 2
• Monarch 6
• Queen 25
• Soldier 2
• White-striped Longtail 2
• Brown Longtail 3
• Two-barred Flasher 1
• Potrillo Skipper 2
• White Checkered-Skipper 8
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 2
• Laviana White-Skipper 4
• Clouded Skipper 10
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 2
• Whirlabout 2
• Sachem 1
• Common Mellana 2
• Eufala Skipper 2
• Purple-washed Skipper 5
• Four-spotted Sailor 1
• Mexican Crescent 2

National Butterfly Center, 12/7/25

The butterfly show continues at the National Butterfly Center south of Mission, Texas.  Cold fronts have been relatively mild with little rain and warm southerly winds send us more Mexican species.  The November visiting butterfly watchers have been replaced by a smaller but equally dedicated crew from across the country.  Nothing major on a warm Sunday.  This Guatemalan Cracker was new for the afternoon.

Another Silver Emperor was found during the morning.  This one was in better shape than the one I saw last week.

Two male Pavon Emperors were seen.

Giant and Florida Whites made a brief stop on the duranta.

Brazilian Skipper has a long proboscis which comes in handy when nectaring on tubular tropical flowers.  That thing is coiled up like a garden hose.

A female Orange-barred Sulphur stopped by for a brief sip.

The warm weather was flushed out by a cool front but is scheduled to return later in the week.  We are all waiting for the next mega rare butterfly.

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

Progreso Lakes yard, 8/31/20

We haven't had any rain for four weeks but hot southerly wind blew up some new butterflies today here at Progreso Lakes.  I saw this Orange-barred Sulphur for only a few seconds.  

This Florida White is first I've seen since Spring.

I caught a glimpse of our fourth Ornythion Swallowtail of the summer and latter found it perched in our brush patch out of the wind.

The much more common Western Giant Swallowtail is superficially similar and also brighter yellow.

Here's one of two White-striped Longtails.

I wonder if any of our Sickle-winged Skippers are laying eggs on our Colima.

This Common Mellana has been hanging around for about a week and picks a fight with every butterfly it sees.

This is only the third Mexican Bluewing I have seen in our yard.  It acted like it was laying eggs on our Vasey's Adelia.

It's been quite a while since we've had a Turk's-Cap White-Skipper.

There's a good chance of rain next wekend but it's gonna be tripple digits till then. 

• Ornythion Swallowtail 1
• Western Tiger Swallowtail 2
• Florida White 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 6
• Orange-barred Sulphur 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 10
• Lyside Sulphur 1
• Little Yellow 1
• Cassius Blue 6
• American Snout 50
• Bordered Patch 2
• White Peacock 2
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Common Mestra 1
• Tropical Leafwing 1
• Tawny Emperor 6
• Monarch 6
• White-striped Longtail 2
• Brown Longtail 1
• Sickle-winged Skipper 2
• White-patched Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 1
• Laviana White-Skipper 10
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 5
• Whirlabout 4
• Common Mellana 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 1

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.