Guatemalan Cracker at NBC, 8/24/25

Yesterday Tom Forwood found a Gautemalan Cracker at the National Butterfly Center.  Tom is the new Superintendent at nearby Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park and is a fine naturalist.  I ran over and Alex told me where to look.  It took about a minute to find the Guatemalan Cracker in the row of Retama trees where it was feeding on sap.  The common name comes from the specific epithet guatemalena.  Many butterfly common names are Anglicizations of the the Latin name.

The Brown-banded Skipper was still hanging out by the old visitors center.

Long-tailed skippers are finally showing after a long absense.  Here's White-striped Longtail,  Long-tailed Skipper and Brown Longtail.

This Red-bordered Pixie was not doing a very good of hiding under this leaf.  Many of the brightly colored tropical metalmarks can be found hiding under leaves,

Finally a White Peacock after months without seeing one.

Mexican Fritillaries were out.

I guess this is just a Common Mellana.  It was down in the "ditch" in the shade, atypical of where I usually see it up in the flowers.  But nothing else in the Mexican guide seems to fit.

Last butterfly of the day was this fresh Mournful Duskywing.

The Valley has gotten some rain this past weeks and it's cooled off a tiny bit.  It feels like fall!

• Pipevine Swallowtail 3
• Giant Swallowtail 5
• Southern Dogface 1
• Large Orange Sulphur 15
• Lyside Sulphur 10
• Little Yellow 5
• Gray Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Ceraunus Blue 8
• Fatal Metalmark 2
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• American Snout 10
• Gulf Fritillary 8
• Mexican Fritillary 3
• Bordered Patch 10
• Phaon Crescent 20
• White Peacock 1
• Mexican Bluewing 8
• Guatemalan Cracker 1
• Tropical Leafwing 8
• Tawny Emperor 15
• Queen 8
• White-striped Longtail 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Brown Longtail 5
• Brown-banded Skipper 1
• White-patched Skipper 1
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 6
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 20
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Clouded Skipper 6
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Whirlabout 2
• Southern Broken-Dash 2
• Common Mellana 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 6
• Eufala Skipper 5

Progreso Lakes yard, 6/1/23

Well the species score in our yard today at Progreso Lakes, Texas was Birds 27 Butterflies 37.  Nothing exciting but the butterflies kicked the birds asses.  This oddly marked Double-dotted Skipper got my attention today.  I tried to turn it into some new Mexican Species but it's not.  Not only are the dots variable, so is the white at the base of the atenna clubs.

Boisduval's Yellows showed nicely.

White Peacocks have popped out.

Had Mimosa and Little Yellows side by side but my camera could not get focused on them both in the same shot..

First Turk's-Cap White-Skipper I've seen in a while.  Females are pretty uncommon in my experience.

Here today's list of 37 species.

• Giant Swallowtail 4
• Great Southern White 2
• Cloudless Sulphur 6
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 2
• Boisduval's Yellow 3
• Little Yellow 5
• Mimosa Yellow 2
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 2
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 1
• Ceraunus Blue 5
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 6
• Bordered Patch 1
• Texan Crescent 12
• Vesta Crescent 4
• Phaon Crescent 2
• Pearl Crescent 3
• White Peacock 5
• Queen 4
• Brown Longtail 5
• Sickle-winged Skipper 1
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 15
• Laviana White-Skipper 4
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 5
• Double-dotted Skipper 5
• Southern Skipperling 1
• Fiery Skipper 1
• Whirlabout 8
• Southern Broken-Dash 6
• Sachem 1
• Common Mellana 3
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 4
• Eufala Skipper 3

Progreso Lakes yard, 6/17/20

It's been a slow dry spring but we've gotten a little rain lately and some different butterflies have been showing up.  Still happy to have a Boisduval's Yellow.  When they first showed up last November, I never dreamed
 they would become regular in our yard.

This Tropical Leafwing was ovipositing on Low Croton.  It's been a while since we've had one.

Bordered Patch has been pretty rare lately.

As has Sickle-winged Skipper.

But the Double-dotted Skippers seem to usually be around.  There were at least four today.

Our button bush is blooming nicely but the only take today was this Giant Swallowtail.

This White Peacock may have come from out Ruelia.  I've seen their caterpillars on them in the past.

I'm hoping we get more rain in the coming weeks.  If it doesn't get too hot it could be a good butterfly summer.

National Butterfly Center, 10/15/15

This morning I ran over to the National Butterfly Center to see what the recent rains had brung.  Mike Rickard and Ginny Musgrave showed up as I had half expected and Mike proceeded to find this beat up Hackberry Emperor.  We only see a few each year at the NBC.

Chris Tenney was in the gardens in back of the visitor's center.  He's been all over the country working on his big year in which he attempting to see 600 species of butterflies.  Chris told us he's at 501 which is pretty amazing.  He found this Violet-Banded Skipper shortly before I arrived.

There was nothing really rare today but lots of stuff I had not seen for a while like my first Purple-washed Skipper for the year.

Long-tailed Skippers have been hard to come by this year.

An extremely worn Zilpa Longtail.

And a Dorantes Longtail.

Turk's-cap White-Skipper was right in the mallows where I usually get one but it's been a while.

A really pretty Large Orange Sulphur.

  And a smokin' White Peacock.

• Pipevine Swallowtail 6
• Giant Swallowtail 3
• Southern Dogface 6
• Large Orange Sulphur 15
• Lyside Sulphur 8
• Mimosa Yellow 2
• Sleepy Orange 1
• Gray Hairstreak 3
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 3
• Western Pygmy-Blue 3
• Cassius Blue 2
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• American Snout 5
• Gulf Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 4
• Phaon Crescent 4
• Painted Lady 1
• Red Admiral 1
• Common Buckeye 4
• White Peacock 2
• Hackberry Emperor 1
• Tawny Emperor 60
• Monarch 4
• Queen 2
• Soldier 200
• Zilpa Longtail 1
• Long-tailed Skipper 1
• Dorantes Longtail 1
• Brown Longtail 5
• Funereal Duskywing 1
• White Checkered-Skipper 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 4
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Turk's-cap White-Skipper 1
• Julia's Skipper 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 1
• Clouded Skipper 3
• Whirlabout 5
• Southern Broken-Dash 6
• Sachem 2
• Common Mellana 2
• Celia's Roadside-Skipper 3
• Eufala Skipper 1
• Ocola Skipper 3
• Purple-washed Skipper 1
• Violet-banded Skipper 1

National Butterfly Center, 12/14/14

Honey and I ran over to the National Butterfly Center this warm, windy, sunny day.  There were plenty of butterflies but nothing good until Jeff Glassberg found a Ruddy Hairstreak.  Unfortunately I didn't get a photo. I also failed to photograph the Malachite, so here's a pair of copulating Soldiers.

And a couple of White Peacocks in love.

This South Texas Satyr (AKA Hermes Satyr, AKA Carolina Satyr) has very small ocelli.

Tropical Leafwings are in short supply this winter, but this is a rally nice one.

I guess this is just a dark Cassius Blue.

Here's our list of 43 species.

• Black Swallowtail 1
• Checkered White 1
• Southern Dogface 4
• Cloudless Sulphur 4
• Large Orange Sulphur 5
• Lyside Sulphur 5
• Tailed Orange 2
• Little Yellow 2
• Silver-banded Hairstreak 1
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 5
• Ruddy Hairstreak 1
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 25
• Cassius Blue 2
• Ceraunus Blue 5
• Red-bordered Pixie 1
• American Snout 3
• Gulf Fritillary 8
• Zebra Heliconian 4
• Bordered Patch 2
• Vesta Crescent 2
• Phaon Crescent 10
• Red Admiral 8
• White Peacock 5
• Malachite 1
• Common Mestra 1
• Tropical Leafwing 2
• Tawny Emperor 25
• Carolina Satyr 1
• Monarch 5
• Queen 40
• Soldier 10
• Brown Longtail 3
• Sickle-winged Skipper 3
• White Checkered-Skipper 20
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 8
• Laviana White-Skipper 8
• Julia's Skipper 2
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 3
• Clouded Skipper 50
• Southern Skipperling 5
• Fiery Skipper 6
• Whirlabout 1
• Sachem 1
• Eufala Skipper 3