Great Day at the National Butterfly Center, 6/25/26

It's been normally hot and breezy for this time of year in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.  But a Gold-spotted Aguna and a Ruby-spotted Swallowtail were reported at the Nationaal butterfly Center so I thought I had better get myself over there before everything fries.

It was hot and nasty when I stepped out of the apartment but when I got over to the NBC and started sweating a bit with a nice breeze it was fine.  My first butterfly was a Clytie Ministreak.  There were lots of them.

I worked the front garden a while and saw only common stuff.  Then all of a sudden, at about 11am, the hairstreaks started to pop.  First there was a White Scrub-Hairstreak.  New for the month!

And then a Ruddy/Muted.  This one never opened it's wings although the probability it's a Ruddy is about 99%.

But this one flashed orange when it flew so it's a male Ruddy Hairstreak.

Then the usual Dusky-blue Groundstreaks and Mallow Scrub-hairstreaks.  And then the common for this summer but usually rare Clench's Greenstreak.

Peggy had joined me by this time and two more Clench's showed up.  We totaled six of them for the morning with six species of hairstreaks in this one little fiddlewood.  Nearby I found the first of three Marius Hairstreaks,

A bit later I showed Peggy a blooming crucillo and explained to her it was the host plant for Band-celled Sister.  A minute later I was shocked when she called one out.  I got my camera out and shot a photo.  The band was wrong.  Not a Band-celled Sister.  Then I realized the under wings were all wrong and it was not even a sister.  It was a female Silver Emperor.  Another new one for the month!  We  had so many last winter I was expecting we would see some this summer.  It was a pretty easy to make mistake on the blooming Randia rhagocarpa.

It was a really good morning with eight species of hairstreaks and a Silver Emperor.  I drove to the south garden, ate my lunch and made another try for a ten hairstreak day.  I failed on my last try a few weeks ago.  The Curve-winged Metalmarks are still plentiful.

And plenty of Mexican Bluewings.  I caught this one in the act laying an egg on the Vasey's Adelia.

Then I noticed the Brush Holly patch was blooming.  This is our spot for daggerwings during summer.  Today it was covered in American Snouts but I did mange to pull out another Silver emperor.

Then I saw a Tachytes species of wasp just sitting there on a leaf waiting for a photo.  So I took one.  Woops it's not a wasp at all but a damn Dipteran!  The antennae say fly as to the tiny green vestigal wings.  I haven't entered it into iNaturalist yet but I'm guessing this is a Tachytes mimic.  Look at those freaky eyes!

It was getting warm.  I walked over to the blooming Mexican Orchid and found it loaded with Lyside and Large Orange Sulphurs and Great American Whites.  But one of them had spots.  First Giant White for the month.

There were several Western Giant Swallowtails.

And then the one I was looking for, a fresh Ornythion Swallowtail.

So a pretty fantastic day with four new species for the Big Board briging the June total to a record 92 species.  53 species today is pretty incredible for this time of year.

• Giant Swallowtail 5
• Ornythion Swallowtail 1
• Checkered White 6
• Great Southern White 20
• Giant White 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 25
• Lyside Sulphur 40
• Little Yellow 6
• Dainty Sulphur 6
• Marius Hairstreak 3
• Clench's Greenstreak 6
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• White Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 66
• Ruddy Hairstreak 3
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 10
• Clytie Ministreak 15
• Cassius Blue 3
• Ceraunus Blue 5
• Reakirt's Blue 2
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• Curve-winged Metalmark 10
• American Snout 25
• Gulf Fritillary 4
• Mexican Fritillary 2
• Bordered Patch 12
• Texan Crescent 5
• Pale-banded Crescent 8
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Question Mark 3
• White Peacock 10
• Mexican Bluewing 12
• Tropical Leafwing 6
• Empress Leilia 1
• Tawny Emperor 12
• Silver Emperor 2
• Queen 5
• Soldier 5
• Brown Longtail 6
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 3
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 6
• Laviana White-Skipper 5
• Common Sootywing 2
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Double-dotted Skipper 2
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Whirlabout 8
• Southern Broken-Dash 5
• Common Mellana 1
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 10
• Eufala Skipper 5
• Mexican Crescent 10

Amazing Summer Hairstreak Day at NBC, 6/3/26

 After doing some bee stuff for a couple of days I was back at the National Butterfly Center yesterday to get the June list going.  The new June Big Board was at 37 species for the month when I arrived and was at 60 when I finished so it was a pretty good day.  A little Common Sootywing out front got me off to a good start.

After signing in, I went out the back door to the garden and quickly found a striking fresh guava Skipper.

And then the hairstreak show started.  It's been a few months since the last Marius Hairstreak.

Likewise for this Ruddy Hairstreak.  I don't know why my photos were off on this one.

A common but still striking Gray Hairstreakwas nearby.

Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak is usually the most common.

My only Dusky-blue Groundstreak brought the morning hairstreak total to five species.  Pretty good for June.

I should be able to find a Clytie Ministeak.  And I did find one on the frostweed.

And then I found another ministreak but this one had a black eye and was missing some red spots.  Gray Ministreak!  There were two of them.  We had one just a month ago.  Hairstreak #7 for the day.

I put the Gray Ministreak on the Dischord alert and Stephanie came running after a bit.  It was a lifer for her.  She's usually too busy running the NBC to get to chase butterflies.  And while we were standing there by the frostweed this big stonking Clench's Greensteak magically appeared.  It was also a lifer for Stephanie.  I think we're up to at least eight of them in the last month.

Eight species of hairstreaks in June is pretty incredible.  I wanted more but got sidetracked by this Banded Cucumber Beetle.

Then a brief look at a Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak.  #9 for the day and all before lunch!.

After luch I thought there was a good possiblity for Silver-banded Hairstreak or Red-lined Scrub-Hairstreak in the balloon vine but it was not to be.  Red-bordered and Curve-winged Metalmarks were nice.

After lunch it gets hot fast and the humidity was stifling.  So I was done for the day.  Along with the nine hairstreaks I saw four species of blues whitch makes for a total of 13 Lycaenids!  I think that's my all time high.

Amazing 54 species!

• Giant Swallowtail 5
• Checkered White 20
• Great Southern White 6
• Large Orange Sulphur 6
• Lyside Sulphur +s
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 1
• Dainty Sulphur 3
• Marius Hairstreak 1
• Clench's Greenstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 5
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 8
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Ruddy Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Clytie Ministreak 3
• Gray Ministreak 2
• Western Pygmy-Blue 1
• Cassius Blue 5
• Ceraunus Blue 6
• Reakirt's Blue 1
• Red-bordered Metalmark 1
• Curve-winged Metalmark 3
• American Snout 2
• Gulf Fritillary 8
• Mexican Fritillary 3
• Bordered Patch 10
• Texan Crescent 20
• Pale-banded Crescent 10
• Phaon Crescent 8
• Red Admiral 1
• White Peacock 6
• Mexican Bluewing 5
• Tropical Leafwing 1
• Tawny Emperor 12
• Queen 12
• Soldier 6
• Guava Skipper 1
• Brown Longtail 6
• White Checkered-Skipper 4
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 10
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 1
• Laviana White-Skipper 5
• Common Sootywing 1
• Clouded Skipper 20
• Double-dotted Skipper 6
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper 2
• Whirlabout 8
• Southern Broken-Dash 15
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 12
• Eufala Skipper 8
• Purple-washed Skipper 1
• Mexican Crescent 15

Ruddy Hairstreak at NBC, 2-12-25

I had stuff to do today but Mary Beth Stowe found a Mourning Cloak at the National Butterfly Center so I changed plans.  I never found it but as it turned out it was a good day to be there ahead of the approaching cold front.  The elbo bushes had quit blooming but white brush and baby bonnets took up the slack.  Pride of place (I like this old British term) goes to this sharp little Ruddy Hairstreak.  Males are easy to ID if you can see the orange upper wing surfce.  Females are dull above and identical to Muted Hairstreak.  The little guy was flashing orange!

Common Streaky Skippers have appeared out of nowhere.  I saw three today.

Mazan's Scallopwing is not common at the NBC.  Resaca de la Palma is a better place to find it.

My first Goatweed Leafwing for 2025.

This is most likely a female Orange Sulphur but I'm not sure how you could rule out Clouded Sulphur.  I like the pink overtones.

Texan Crescents were out.

The other note worthy event today was the return of the native bees.  Identification is a challenge but iNaturalist helps.  I think this is the Texas Nomad Bee, a kleptoparasite of some of the little Andrena mining bees.

Female Texas Agopostemn is hairy compared to the other green sweat bees.

And I haven't figured out this dark little sweat bee.  Not finding anything like it online.

Here's today's list of 35 species.

• Black Swallowtail 1
• Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 6
• Little Yellow 3
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Gray Hairstreak 5
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Ruddy Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 2
• Western Pygmy-Blue 1
• Reakirt's Blue 4
• Fatal Metalmark 3
• American Snout 10
• Bordered Patch 1
• Texan Crescent 3
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Pearl Crescent 1
• Red Admiral 6
• White Peacock 1
• Mexican Bluewing 2
• Tropical Leafwing 5
• Goatweed Leafwing 1
• Mazans Scallopwing 1
• Funereal Duskywing 2
• White Checkered-Skipper 8
• Laviana White-Skipper 2
• Common Streaky-Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper 2
• Sachem 2
• Common Mellana 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 1