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

Zapata Museum of History, 10/22/25

After my good day in Zapata last week I thought it was worth another effort.  Also I noticed I was second on iNaturalist on the list of butterflies for not often visited Zapata County.  Can't have that.  So I got a pretty early start and arrived at the butterfly garden  at the Zapata Museum of History at 9:30.  Queens were already out in force.

Got a photo of the Pipevine Swallowtail I missed last week.

Time to start digging through the skippers.  Lots of Huron Sachems.

I discovered the garden also goes behind the Museum.  Ocola Skippers have really invaded the Valley during the past few weeks.

And then an Ocola with the forewing extending back too far.  Purple-washed Skipper!  There were several, some even showing the extra spot.

And then another new one for my Zapata County list....  Turk's-Cap White-Skipper, a nice female which I don't see very often.

Back in the front was a fresh Skinner's (formerly Coyote) Cloudywing.

And a fresh Julia's Skipper.

And an Olive-clouded Skipper.  Very few records for these last two in Zapata County.

And then another trip to the back netted an Erichson's White-Skipper.  These are probably not rare up here.

38 species seems pretty good for that garden, almost half of them from the familiy Hesperiidae.  As Jeff Bryant said it was a skipperlicious day!

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Southern Dogface 6
• Cloudless Sulphur 5
• Orange-barred Sulphur 20
• Lyside Sulphur 20
• Little Yellow 2
• Sleepy Orange 2
• Gray Hairstreak 10
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 5
• Ceraunus Blue 10
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• American Snout 5
• Gulf Fritillary 15
• Theona Checkerspot 1
• Bordered Patch 3
• Elada Checkerspot 1
• Phaon Crescent 1
• Common Buckeye 1
• White Peacock 8
• Queen 80
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Coyote Cloudywing 2
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• White-patched Skipper 2
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 2
• Erichson's White-Skipper 1
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 25
• Fiery Skipper 40
• Whirlabout 1
• Sachem 25
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3
• Eufala Skipper 40
• Olive-clouded Skipper 1
• Ocola Skipper 8
• Purple-washed Skipper 5

Natonal Butterfly Center, 5/1/24

It's been really dry this spring but there were still lots of butterflies at the National Butterfly Center.  But it's going to get really hot and number's will probably crash if we don't get rain soon.  Nothing really exciting today.  This Julia's Skipper had a contrasting ray on one side but it's not a Pale-rayed Skipper.

Elada Checkerspots were out in force.

As were Bordered Patches.

A good looking Funereal Duskywing.

The requisite Mexican Bluewings.

It's been a good spring for Long-tailed Skippers.

It's not very purple but I think this is a Purple-washed Skipper.  I forgot to put it on my list.

44 species is a pretty good haul for this time of year.

• Black Swallowtail 1
• Giant Swallowtail 3
• Checkered White 20
• Great Southern White 8
• Large Orange Sulphur 5
• Lyside Sulphur 20
• Little Yellow 8
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Dainty Sulphur 2
• Gray Hairstreak 4
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 8
• Cassius Blue 1
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• Reakirt's Blue 20
• Rounded Metalmark 1
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Zebra Heliconian 1
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Mexican Fritillary 2
• Bordered Patch 12
• Elada Checkerspot 8
• Texan Crescent 12
• Phaon Crescent 10
• Pearl Crescent 1
• Common Buckeye 1
• Mexican Bluewing 8
• Common Mestra 1
• Empress Leilia 2
• Tawny Emperor 20
• Queen 10
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 10
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 20
• Laviana White-Skipper 10
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 8
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 1
• Eufala Skipper 2

Butterfly #150 at Progreso Lakes, 12/8/23

Well, I see that I haven't posted anything since June.  Well maybe that's because we had 90 days of at least 100F and no rain over the ensuing four months.  The harsh summer and fall decimated butterfly populations here in the Rio Grande Valley.  But in last couple of monts we've had a few showers and things are looking better.  The Texas Butterfly Festival had OK numbers of butterflies but really low diversity.  Crucita was late blooming but showers and cooler weather have kept blooms on much later than usual.  Our garden at Progreso Lakes looks pretty good now.

So yesterday I was making the rounds, hoping for some thing different, when I spied this striped long-tailed masterpiece.  Finally our first Many-banded Daggerwing and butterfly species #150 for our yard!  It was the species I thought was most overdue for our yard considering we've already had several Ruddy Daggerwings.

Red-bordered Pixies have made a strong someback.  They are a favorite in our yard for visiting butterfly watchers.

I put our word about the Many-banded Daggerwing and visiting butterfly watchers rushed over but it was present for only a minute and never refound.  But in turn they manged to turn up other good stuff like this Boisduval's Yellow.  I haven'st seen one in our yard since spring.

They also found this Purple-washed Skipper which is maybe the first I've seen this year.

Our bair station has had Red Admirals, Tawny Emperors and finally an Empress Leilia.

There is no shortage of Queens.

Here's a list of 47 species of butterflies seen in our yard over the past two days .

• Giant White 1
• Southern Dogface 1
• Cloudless Sulphur 8
• Large Orange Sulphur 4
• Lyside Sulphur 4
• Boisduval's Yellow 1
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Sleepy Orange 2
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Clytie Ministreak 1
• Fatal Metalmark 1
• Rounded Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• Red-bordered Pixie 4
• American Snout 50
• Gulf Fritillary 2
• Bordered Patch 2
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Pearl Crescent 2
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 5
• Common Mestra 1
• Many-banded Daggerwing 1
• Empress Leilia 1
• Tawny Emperor 3
• Monarch 1
• Queen 25
• Soldier 6
• Guava Skipper 1
• Brown Longtail 5
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 6
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 3
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Common Sootywing 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 5
• Whirlabout 4
• Sachem 2
• Common Mellana 3
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 1
• Eufala Skipper 8
• Purple-washed Skipper 1