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

Starred Skipper at National Butterfly Center, 1/1/26

Happy New Year!  Well Dennis Vollmar did it again.  Because of our phenomenal butterfly fall in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, Dennis flew up from Florida a second time this season to look for vagrant leps.  Back on 12/28/21 I was present at the park when Dennis found the first US record for Tanned Blue-Skipper.  This morning he found another mega rare butterfly, Starred Skipper.  Back in October Terry Mortier found a worn Starred Skipper but no one else saw it.  However this fresh specimen put on a show for all who were in the park today.  It is a species I have long wanted to see and my 233rd for the RGV.

A bit earlier I thought the New Years bug of the day would be this Angled Leafwing.

This season bright male Pavon Emperors are not a big deal.

The same with Silver Emperors.

Young birder phenoms Ryan Rodriguez and Nolan Walker found a Guatemalan Cracker.

The Malachite a few inches away drew little fanfare.

The hairstreak show continued today with nine speces.  The rare Black Hairstreak returned and was the second best butterfly of the day.

Other hairstreaks included Marius and Silver-banded Hairstreaks and the charming Clytie Ministreak.

I forgot the beat up White Scrub-hairstreak.

This big Scolia guttata is a first for the RGV according to iNaturalist.

Warm weather continues.  Full steam ahead!

• Ruby-spotted Swallowtail 1
• Checkered White 1
• Giant White 1
• Orange Sulphur 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 4
• Lyside Sulphur 6
• Little Yellow 3
• Black Hairstreak 1
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 3
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• White Scrub-Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 4
• Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 8
• Clytie Ministreak 3
• Western Pygmy-Blue 1
• Ceraunus Blue 6
• Fatal Metalmark 3
• Red-bordered Pixie 4
• American Snout 8
• Gulf Fritillary 5
• Zebra Heliconian 3
• Bordered Patch 1
• Texan Crescent 5
• Pale-banded Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 3
• Phaon Crescent 6
• Red Admiral 2
• Common Buckeye 1
• White Peacock 5
• Malachite 1
• Mexican Bluewing 1
• Common Mestra 1
• Guatemalan Cracker 1
• Tropical Leafwing 1
• Goatweed Leafwing 1
• Angled Leafwing 1
• Empress Leilia 2
• Tawny Emperor 1
• Pavon Emperor 2
• Silver Emperor 1
• Monarch 4
• Queen 25
• Soldier 1
• White-striped Longtail 3
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 2
• Starred Skipper 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 5
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Laviana White-Skipper 5
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 2
• Whirlabout 2
• Southern Broken-Dash 1
• Common Mellana 3
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 1
• Eufala Skipper 6
• Purple-washed Skipper 1
• Mexican Crescent 1

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.

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