Polydamas Madness at Progreso Lakes, 7/16/20

Last year I had lots of Polydamas Swallowtail caterpillars on the Giant Dutchman's Pipevine in our yard at Progreso Lakes but I saw few fresh adults.  So this year I've been collecting a few fat cats to raise safely away from predators.  This morning one that was running a little late finally emerged.

This is the second one that's eclosed in captivity but they seem to be doing pretty good on their own this year.  I saw five at once today with several ovipositing.

The same female Ornythion Swallowtail from two days ago was back.

Big lazy Western Giant Swallowtail.

Still two Yellow Angled-Sulphurs.  That makes 14 straight days.

Butterfly numbers are way down which seems to correlate well with mosquitos.  I didn't get a single bite.  Nice to see a Mimosa Skipper.

I've left a lot of the Wireweeds to grow this year.  They really attract a lot of butterflies in the Fall with their purple aster like flowers.  I think they are also a host for Pearl Crescent which I saw in the yard today.

Chance of rain the next few days.  We could sure use some.

Hoary Skipper at Santa Ana NWR, 5-31-16

After having visited Santa Ana NWR each of the past three days for birds and butterflies, today I had to make it four days in a row after Javi Gonzalez found a fresh Hoary Skipper yesterday.  I spent nearly four hours looking for it, had given up and was leaving when guess what I found?  Only it wasn't Javi's Hoary.  It was a different one.  So with the beat up one he found a couple of weeks ago that makes three of this pretty rare bug at Santa Ana.  It was only the second one I have ever seen.

Three days ago I took a hot afternoon walk at Santa Ana hoping to find something good over there and I did.  This East-Mexican White-Skipper was on the tour road just past the canopy walk.

Other stuff I saw along the tour road included Common Mestra and Mimosa Skipper.

Then Sunday morning visiting birders found a Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher at the refuge so I ran over and failed to see it but did see this Two-barred Flasher.

There were at least a half dozen Pale-banded Crescents.

Yesterday I went back again to give the Sulphur-belly another shot when I found this Banded Peacock.

This is proving to be a good summer for Mexican Bluewing.  They have been hard to find the past couple of years.

Then today I went back for the Hoary Skipper.  While looking for it I found an ovipositing Brown-banded Skipper.  Barbados Cherry is the host plant.

After searching for a couple of hours, I walked up the tour road and checked out the Willow Lakes area.  A large number of the granjeno (spiny hackberry) bushes were completely stripped of leaves.  Upon closer inspection I discovered the culprits, American Snout caterpillars.

Walking back to the visitors center I found a Pearl Crescent which has been in short supply lately.

So here's a compound list from the past four visits to Santa Ana NWR.

• Giant Swallowtail 6
• Checkered White 1
• Great Southern White 8
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 8
• Lyside Sulphur 20
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 5
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 8
• Clytie Ministreak 15
• Western Pygmy-Blue 1
• Cassius Blue 4
• Reakirt's Blue 4
• Rounded Metalmark 3
• American Snout 50
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Zebra Heliconian 2
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 3
• Elada Crescent 2
• Texan Crescent 8
• Pale-banded Crescent 6
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Pearl Crescent 1
• White Peacock 3
• Banded Peacock 1
• Red-spotted Admiral 1
• Mexican Bluewing 6
• Common Mestra 4
• Tawny Emperor 10
• Carolina Satyr 5
• Monarch 10
• White-striped Longtail 2
• Brown Longtail 6
• Two-barred Flasher 1
• Mimosa Skipper 3
• Mazans Scallopwing 1
• Hoary Skipper 1
• Brown-banded Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper15
• Laviana White-Skipper 20
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 5
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 5
• Clouded Skipper 5
• Whirlabout 5
• Southern Broken-Dash 10
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 10
• Eufala Skipper 3
• East Mexican White-Skipper 1

East Mexican White-Skipper at Santa Ana NWR, 10/29/14

Yesterday someone found an Emerald Aguna at Santa Ana NWR so I headed out that way late this morning.  Didn't have any luck finding it but still saw some good bugs.  I walked the tour road to check the area past Bobcat Trail where I had seen East-Mexican White-Skipper last year.  It took a bit of searching but I eventually found one a bit farther down the road.

Earlier in the morning I found this Violet-banded Skipper in the blooming crucita near the trail head.  This is the first time I've ever seen one with its wings open.

Even though it doesn't look like one, all the marks point toward Pearl Crescent.

And then there were several Long-tailed Skippers.  This first one looks pretty normal.

But this one I'm not so sure about.  It looks a lot like esmeraldus but when I really find one that's not proteus I think I'll know it.

Saw a couple of Mimosa Yellows today.

Mike Rickard found this Great Southern White, the first I've seen in Hidalgo County in quite a while.  I have a difficult time saying "Great Southern White" with using my Foghorn Leghorn voice.  Love those blue knobs.

I don't feel like doing a list so here's an American Snout for consolation.  A real teat!

Overnight arrival!, 10/14/14

Lately we've had plenty of butterflies in our little garden but diversity was low and it was hard to see ten species in a day.  The recent cool front has changed all that and today our yard was invaded by 38 species of butterflies.  Best bug today was probably this Sickle-winged Skipper.

This is the first Pearl Crescent I've photographed in our yard.

I wondered why this Whirlabout was so big till I figured out it was a Sachem.

A big juicy Monarch stopped by for a rest.

A very colorful Gray Hairsteak.

There was sure plenty of romantic action on display.  Here's a Cassius Blue with a Ceraunus Blue, two Vesta Crescents and two Fiery Skippers.

Here's the list for today.

• Giant Swallowtail 1
• Checkered White 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 4
• Large Orange Sulphur 3
• Lyside Sulphur 12
• Little Yellow 4
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Dainty Sulphur 1
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Western Pygmy-Blue 2
• Cassius Blue 2
• Ceraunus Blue 10
• American Snout 5
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Elada Crescent 2
• Vesta Crescent 5
• Phaon Crescent 3
• Pearl Crescent 1
• White Peacock 1
• Monarch 1
• Queen 120
• Soldier 1
• Guava Skipper 1
• Brown Longtail 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 3
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 15
• Laviana White-Skipper 2
• Clouded Skipper 4
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 20
• Whirlabout 3
• Southern Broken-Dash 3
• Sachem 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 1
• Eufala Skipper 3