Tiger Mimic-Queen at NBC, I'm finally the hero! 1/9/26

During this amazing fall/winter butterfly season of 2025/25 I have been treated to seven lifer butterflies.  It's been a long time since I've gotten that many in a season.  And all have been found by other butterfly watchers.  I am reminded of Blanche DuBois' line "Whoever you are...  I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."  Now mind you, though I did not find any of these lifers, I was first to properly identify several of them.  And I have found some good ones that were lifers for others.  So I've been sort of carrying my weight.

But yesterday I had a senior moment.  I had refound the rare Black Hairstreak that has been around a few days at the National Butterfly Center and put it on the Discord alert.  I knew a few people present who wanted to see it.  But I accidentally entered "Black Crescent".  I had Black Crescent on the brain.  The day before I had found a very dark Pale-banded Crescent and had hoped it was a rare Black Crescent.  Also there was a questionable recent report of a Black Crescent.   Well, everyone came running.  Peter DeGennaro excitedly asked "Where is it?"  It took me a minute to realize my error.  Billy Webber was racing over from the nearby Oleander Acres garden.  "No Billy No!  Black Hairstreak" I typed on Discord.  Everyone laughed and forgave me.  But having just turned 70, I was feeling old and not enjoying the moment.

So today I went for one last day at the National Butterfly Center before the approaching cold front.  The past two days had been very windy so we were all hoping something good had blown in from Mexico.  I was at the blooming spring mistflower by the palapa looking for the reported Malicious Skipper, when I saw a large brightly colored butterfly only a couple of feet away.  Bight orange and black tiger stripes like an Isabella Heliconian.  But the black thorax was spotted with white... like a Queen or a Monarch.  Tiger Mimic-Queen!  This rare relative of the Monarch, a Heliconia mimic, has been seen few times in the RGV.  I had a fun experience chasing one with Mark and Holly Salvato years ago at the NBC and I saw a second at Quinta Mazatlan.  This one was a knockout.  And it stayed all day, feeding on the spring mist flowers.  Everyone got to see it.

Wow!  That was a doosey!  So I left the happy throng and went to the mist flower cross over to look for another Malicious Skipper and I spied a very colorful crescent. The bright white hind wing band with an extension on the second spot spot screamed female Chestnut Crescent.  I put out the word and the happy gang came thundering one more time.

And then things went back to just normal spectacular.  Dennis Vollmar found this striking fresh Guatemalan Cracker.  I tried hard to turn it into Variable but the double blue rings on the hind wing ocelli say Guatemalan.

I found a Zilpa Longtail but no one else got it.

Then there were the usual Malachites, Silver and Pavon Emperors, Band-celled Sisters, etc that normally bring people runing but we're a little jaded this year.  Glad to have a few days off with the cool front blasting through.

Tiger Mimic-Queen at Quinta Mazatlan, 12/2/17

I got up early this morning and decided I would go to Sabal Palm Sanctuary in Brownsville to see if I could get lucky and find a Zone-tailed Hawk which I have not seen yet in Cameron County.  I failed on my quest but found a Tropical Parula and was getting ready to make another loop when I got the call that a Green-breasted Mango had been seen at Quinta Mazatlan in McAllen.  Well, it's been years since I had seen one of those so I made the hour long drive over to Quinta Mazatlan only to find I was about a half hour late.  Other birders were showing up and some decided to wait for it to appear in the tree where it had been seen while others wandered about the park looking for the rare hummingbird.

One of those wandering about was Justin LeClair who thought he had glimpsed the hummer.  While he was searching he found what at the time appeared to be an Isabella Heliconian.  When I heard about it, I ran over as I have not seen one in a few years.  The butterfly was perched low in the shade on a Turk's-cap and when I put my camera on it the first thing I saw was the bright yellow antennae.  I told him and his buddy Tony that I didn't think this was an Isabella but that it might be the much more rare Tiger Mimic-Queen.  I had seen one a few years ago and remembered the bright yellow antennae.  We checked online with our phones and sure enough I was right.  We got the word out and luckily it stayed put and gave the birders and arriving butterfliers a really nice lifer.  There are only a handful of records north of Mexico for this spectacular relative of the Monarch.

Tiger Mimic-Queen at NBC, 12/22/13

I arrived at the National Butterfly Center at 9:30 this cool morning.  Yesterday's cold front had blown out the cloudy humid weather and left us with beautiful sunshine.  Mark and Holly were already there hoping for a repeat performance from yesterday's Tiger Mimic-Queen.  Well, it took a while but Mark found in the ditch at about 11.  I ran about 50 yards to where he had seen the butterfly only to get a glimpse of it sailing through the trees.  We split up and headed north through the woods.  After a bit I saw this huge orange and yellow butterfly bouncing rapidly toward me..........and passing about four feet away from my face.  So I went running after it but lost it again.  We eventually refound it nectaring on some Lantana.  What a cool bug.

It took off again and we found it in the ditch and got our final shots before it left for good.  There's only a handful of records for this species north of the Border.  I don't know if any of those were photographed alive.

Earlier the Blomfild's Beauty put in an appearance.  This is one far out butterfly.

Mark and Holly had put the Mexican Silverspot to bed last night. It was sleeping in late at the same spot this morning.  And eventually it got up and did a few laps around the Lantana.

It's not everyday one gets to see four members of the Monarch subfamily, Danainae.  But we had the Tiger Mimic-Queen, Monarch, Queen and Soldier.

It's been a few weeks since I had seen a Purple-washed Skipper so this one was a surprise after a mostly skipperless yesterday.

So it turned out to be a darn good day.  As they say, "I'd rather be lucky than good."