Clench's Greenstreak and a Ministreak Trifecta, 5/3/26

I spent the morning working on photos from Saturday's bird migration marathon at South Padre Island and I was just getting ready for lunch when the Dischord chimed.  Woody had just found a stonking Clench's Greenstreak at the National Butterfly Center.  I've seen a few of these but Woody's photos were better than any of mine so to hell with lunch for a while.  I wanted to see this beauty!

I entered the visitors center and Angelly told me Woody had it in the garden in the frostweed.  I ran out the back and was soon checking frostweed..... and I could not find it.  Just a few Reakirt's Blues and a Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak.  Sigh.  Well this happens.  Many times I've seen a butterfly for just a few seconds and then it's gone forever.  No harm in trying.  You can't win if you don't play.  And stuff like that.  

I headed for home to finish my lunch.  I had just passed the stop sign when I realized there was another patch of frostweed in the garden.  Duh.  I turned around, drove back and parked.  Kenneth Wilson was in the frostweed out front looking for the greenstreak.  I told him it was supposed to be in the sunken garden and that I had checked the frostweed on the west side but had forgotten about the frostweed on the east side.  We ran over and there was the green hairstreak nectaring on the frost weed.

Closeups showed it did indeed have the brown frons of a Clench's Greenstreak.  Tropical Greenstreak has a green frons.

The upper wing surface is bright blue but hard to see.

Pretty cool!  I went home to finish my lunch.  I was later working on bird photos again and the Dischord chimed again.  Woody had just found a Red-lined Scrub-Hairstreak.  Pretty good but we had a bunch of these this past winter.  Then I saw his beautiful photo.  The PM spot band was all wrong.  I checked Glassberg's book.  This was a Gray Ministreak!  The only one I had ever seen was years ago at The Old Hidalgo Pumphouse.  I raced back.

Peggy was there and showed me the fiddlewood bush but we couldn't find it.  She returned to her duties at the park's Spring Bird Big Sit.  I kept looking and eventually found it right where she had seen it.

Well that was nice.  Plenty of Clytie Ministreaks around for a second Ministrymon species.

Mission accomplished I decided to drive back to the south garden and check the Mexican orchid bush for swallowtails.  Only a few giants.  I wandered around and soon found the Big Sit crew.  They were up to 75 species of birds seen from their 50 feet diameter circle.  Pretty good.  

I went back to the Mexican orchid (It's actually a species of Bauhinia and not related to orchids) and saw just a bunch of Large Orange Sulphurs and a Western Giant Swallowtail.  I then checked the nearby fiddlewoods and saw a tiny hairstreak looking thing up high.  I shot a few phots before it escaped.  Dang!  That looks like another Gray Ministreak.  Then a voice in my head said "Check the eye color."  Damned if it didn't have green eyes.  This was a Vicroy's Ministreak and my third Ministrymon species for the day.  Not much of a shot but it will do.

It used to be thought that Gray Ministreak came in black eyed and green eyed forms.  Jeff Glassberg decribed the green eyed form as the Vicroy's Ministreak, naming it after his late wife.  It really looks different with a much rougher looking underwing surface and the PM band is not as bold.  Their host plants are also different.  Some refer to Vicroy's Ministreak as the Pebbly Ministreak.

Wow!   And this doesn't include Peggy's Tailed Cecropian.  This spring season is turning out to be special.

Vicroy's Ministreak at La Puerta Tract, 5/7/25

Monday I was driving out to Salineno and Falcon to look for birds but I got a late start so as I approached Rio Grande City I thought why not check out the La Puerta Tract of the Lower Rio Grande NWR.  Turns out it was lush and birdy.  So yesterday I ran there again but it was less birdy and the sun was out and stuff was flying.  So I switched over to butterflies and bees and had a good morning.  Butterfly of the day was this pebbly little Vicroy's Ministreak, only my third and first self found.

Otherwise butterflies were numerous but with low diversity as has been the case since the freeze and flood.  There was lots of cenizo out there so a Theona Checkerspot was expected.

Best I can tell this is a Theona Checkerspot catepillar.

Lots of Western Giant Swallowtails.

And lots of sulphurs like this Southern Dogface.

This fresh Funereal Duskywing almost looks like a Mournful but not mottled enough on the interior forewing.

Otherwise it was an amazing display of native bees like giant Glorious Protoxea.

And tiny Vireck's Nomad Cuckoo Bee.

Here are both of these rare bees together for a size comparison.

Hoping we can get some more rain to keep this stuff going or they're going to fry in the summer heat.

Vicroy's Ministreak and lots more at NBC, 2/18/25

One last warm breezy day before four cold days means the National Butterfly Center has the the potential to be hopping.  Bug of the day goes to this Vicroy's Ministreak found by Jeff Bryant, only the second I've ever seen.  BOA refers to it as Pebbly Ministreak.  Long though of as a varient of Gray Ministreak, the green eyes and pebbly scales are quite distinctive.  Jeff Glassberg described the new species and named it after his wife who passed away a few years ago, Ministrymon janevicroy.

Jeff Bryant also found this worn Mexican Crescent, the first one to be found since the freeze.

Chris Balboni found this female Silver Emperor, it's been years since I've seen one.

Two Mourning Cloaks would normally been the major find.  One was really fresh.  And one not so much.

Lots of Common Streaky-Skippers around lately.

My first Double-dotted Skipper since the freeze.

Desert Checkered-Skippers were out today.

The requisite Mexican Bluewing photo.

Here's today's list of 43 species which is pretty amazing for February.  The NBC list for the month is up to 73.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 1
• Orange Sulphur 1
• Southern Dogface 3
• Lyside Sulphur 12
• Little Yellow 3
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Gray Hairstreak 5
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 3
• Western Pygmy-Blue 3
• Ceraunus Blue 3
• Reakirt's Blue 5
• American Snout 20
• Variegated Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 2
• Texan Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Mexican Crescent  1
• Phaon Crescent 5
• Mourning Cloak 2
• American Lady 1
• Red Admiral 5
• Mexican Bluewing 2
• Tropical Leafwing 5
• Silver Emperor 1
• Queen 1
• Funereal Duskywing 6
• White Checkered-Skipper 20
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 5
• Desert Checkered-Skipper 2
• Laviana White-Skipper 3
• Common Streaky-Skipper 5
• Clouded Skipper 1
• Double-dotted Skipper 1
• Southern Skipperling 2
• Fiery Skipper 5
• Whirlabout 1
• Sachem 1
• Common Mellana 1
• Nysa Roadside-Skipper 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 2
• Eufala Skipper 2
• Vicroy's Ministreak 1
• 
  

Wild Day Part II, Hairstreak-o-mania! 12/22/15

After Mark's call, I walked back to the car and proceeded to race the 19 miles to the National Butterfly Center hoping to see the Vicroy's Ministreak.  When I reached Hidalgo, I got another call.  Telea Hairstreak!!!  I had just missed one last week in the crotons at the NBC and had missed the one last year at Barry Nall's place that everyone else had seen and had missed the one at the Tanglewood coma a few weeks ago.  I was due!

When I arrived I was happy to find my butterfly friends guarding crotons and keeping an eye on the hairstreaks so picking up my life butterflies was a piece of cake.  First came the Telea Hairstreak.  What a tiny beautiful emerald!

And then it was the Vicroy's Ministreak.  This was previously thought of as a green eyed Gray Minstreak but was recently described as a new species.  Another tiny gem!

A Ruddy type hairstreak had also been found.  This one did not flash orange so we can't be sure if it's a female Ruddy (most likely) or a Muted (very rare).

And then another Strophius Hairstreak.  We had one just last month.

So that makes four pretty rare hairstreaks.  And then there were the more common ones, like this fabulous Great Purple Hairstreak.

And another green one, Silver-banded Hairstreak.

And the not-so-striking Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak.

And a sharp winter form Clytie Ministreak.

The very common Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak in its winter form.

And two for the price of one, Gray Hairstreak and Dusky-blue Groundstreak.

Yesterday's Gray Ministreak could not be found but we still finished with an amazing eleven species of hairstreaks.  That will be a tough record to break.  But it will be fun trying.