Retired American nature-lover, living in Costa Rica, photographing birds and other jewels of nature. This site simply reports on my joys of being RETIRED IN COSTA RICA!
One of the more common butterflies all over Costa Rica is this Banded Peacock, Anartia fatima (my gallery link) and as these two recent photos in my garden show, the top of its wings are a very dark brown & red with a brilliant white while the bottom of the wings are paler or a light brown and red. Of course, as always in nature, there are a few exceptions or variations, but not many in this species. See my gallery linked above. It is another of the many species found only in Central America & Mexico.
Banded Peacock, Atenas Alajuela, Costa RicaBanded Peacock, Atenas Alajuela, Costa Rica
All of the Whites, Yellows & Sulphur butterflies are in the Pieridae Family (linked to my gallery) where I’ve collected 32 species and one of the most understated of them all is this Statira Sulphur, Aphrissa statira (gallery linked) with a non-descript off-white color, but bright yellow shoulders and the scattered brown spots and upper brown border showing through on the folded wings. And I like his simplicity. Here’s one shot from my garden the other day and there are a lot more in the gallery including some from the Caribe that are a stronger yellow.
Statira Sulphur, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
About My Usual September Caribe Trip
It was first scheduled for earlier in September and a doctor’s appointment moved it to this week which had to be changed again because the government is remodeling the Limón Airport (I prefer to fly there now.) with a longer runway for bigger planes and international flights plus a remodeled terminal building, meaning the airport is closed through the 20th of September for construction work. 🙁
So I rescheduled my Hotel Banana Azul visit again, this time to October 1-6. Hopefully the airport will be ready! 🙂 And hopefully there will still be butterflies on the beach road in October like there has always been in September. I’ll be reporting from there the first week of October to let you know. Now I continue to report the larger number than usual in my garden in Atenas this year! 🙂
Another favorite White butterflies is the Central American only Godart’s White, Ganyra Phaloe (linked to my gallery). And for you butterfly enthusiasts, it is almost the same as the Great Southern White except for the black dot on each forward wing. Here’s just one of many photos recently . . .
Great Southern White, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
One of my favorite of the many orange butterflies is this Julia Heliconian, Dryas julia (linked to my gallery with much better photos) and not just because my special needs daughter was named Julianne! 🙂 Though probably related! 🙂
Depending on the light and the individual insect, the bottom of the wings or side views like below can be a beige, light tan or pale orange color rather than the bright orange always on the tops of the wings. See 2 or 3 like that in the gallery. Plus it is easy to confuse the top of the wings with the Juno Longwing I shared the other day, with only a slight design difference, though the bottom of wings are totally different between those two.
One of several Skippers with bright blue or turquoise on top is this Two-barred Flasher, Astraptes fulgerator (linked to my gallery with more photos). Here’s one shot from my garden in August with more in the gallery.
One of the unusual Skippers in both looks and name is this Broken Silverdrop, Epargyreus exadeus (linked to my gallery with a lot of other photos). Here’s just one shot from my garden recently . . .
The colorful Juno Longwing, Dione juno has also been called “Juno Heliconian.” Name linked to my gallery where I have a lot of photos of this beautiful butterfly. Here’s just one shot from many in August . . .
Juno Longwing, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
Correction in Yesterday’s Post
The largest of the two Spreadwing Skippers in yesterday’s post I called a Bentwing and it is actually a Giant Sicklewing. I have corrected the post if you want to go back to it at: 2 of the Many Spreadwing Skippers. Sorry, but with so many butterflies so much alike I will continue to make mistakes from time to time. And no one wrote me about this mistake, but while researching another butterfly I decided to use Google Lens on this one too and through that determined the real identification. And at least it was before I had posted the photo on butterfliesandmoths.org! 🙂
During the last few weeks I’ve been seeing more Skippers than any other family of butterflies and one of those “sub-families” or categories is generally called “Spreadwing Skippers” with several pages in my best butterfly book to go through for identification. They are all brown in various shades and with differing patterns, spots and/or wing shapes. Here’s two I’ve seen recently, The Giant Sicklewing (Achlyodes busirus heros) and the Panna Skipper (Ouleus panna) linked to my galleries on them with more photos there of the Panna. And just yesterday I photographed another tiny Spreadwing that I haven’t identified yet, but think is still another species. Plus you can find other Spreadwings in my Skippers Galleries, photographed in earlier years here. My collection just keeps growing and I’m now up to more than 300 species of butterflies in my Costa Rica Butterflies Galleries.
Giant Sicklewing, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa RicaPanna Skipper, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
This is my third sighting of a Little Banner, Nica flavilla (my gallery link), all in my garden and another tiny fingernail-sized butterfly with intricate details and bright colors. Here’s two shots from August and click the above linked gallery to see more.
Little Banner, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa RicaLittle Banner, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
