One of my regulars at home, but haven’t shared one in awhile! 🙂 Here’s 3 views of this tiny thumbnail-sized butterfly in my garden . . .
Rounded Metalmark
Great Southern White
When I first came to Costa Rica, I had trouble identifying this species, but I’m relatively certain now, with specific characteristics: Turquoise tips on their antennae, yellow spot behind each eye and at joint of each hind wing, bluish-gray body, plus the dark brown or black “arrow-head” trim on the forward wings. The males are otherwise solid white while the females have a slight brownish hue to the white. You can see the differences in my Great Southern White Gallery. These photos are of a male. To help you see all the characteristics, I’ve included here from a recent sighting in my garden, 3 views: Top of wings, bottom of wings and a folded wings side view, the three views I try but seldom get when photographing all butterflies. 🙂
Black-winged Dragonlet
Not your everyday dragonfly! But my second time to see a Black-winged Dragonlet, Erythrodiplax funerea (linked to my gallery & the other photo made at Banana Azul in the Caribbean).
¡Pura Vida!
Veined White Skipper
This is a first sighting for me of the Heliopetes arsalte, Veined White Skipper (linked to butterfliesandmoths.org) or you can see more shots from this sighting in my garden in my own Veined White Skipper Gallery. Here’s 3 different views of this butterfly . . .
2 New Daggerwing Butterflies Came Together
Walking back home from “Central” (what they call “downtown” here) along 8th Avenue in Barrio Boquerón, there were two bright orange butterflies that I thought were the same species, but later evaluating my cell phone photos of them on the computer, I realized the differences in the two species and my photo collection of 2 previous Daggerwings just doubled to 4! 🙂 Here’s one photo of each and you can go to my galleries to see the other shots, including one of the two together which is also the feature photo at top . . .
- Ruddy Daggerwing Butterfly, Marpesia petreus GALLERY
- Pale Daggerwing Butterfly, Marpesia harmonia GALLERY
And oh yes, those other two Daggerwings I photographed away from home on two different rainforest trips (1 north & 1 south) . . .
No end to cool butterflies here! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Dina Yellow
These four shots from my garden are all of a female who is the one with the brown trim on top of wings, while males are generally all yellow and easy to confuse with other yellows, especially if they have spots. 🙂 They are Dina Yellow, Pyrisitia dina, (linked to my gallery of them).
Tropical Kingbird
This one almost fooled me because I did not see his yellow breast that I always associate with the Kingbird, I almost called it a Palm Tanager, but it’s not! Confirmed by Merlin as the Tropical Kingbird (linked to my gallery).
¡Pura Vida!
Neighbor’s Zinnia Butterflies
My neighbor and landlord “K,” who goes by the initial since his name is hard for some to say, recently planted a mass of zinnias on a hill behind his house and he invited me over to photograph the butterflies the flowers attract. In 15-20 minutes I photographed 13 species and that was not all of them! Here’s just 8 of the photos that I liked. One shot for the email and a gallery below that . . .
Tropical Buckeye
Another beautiful tropical butterfly that I first met in the Florida Everglades years ago, though a slightly different subspecies. This one found in Costa Rica is the Tropical Buckeye, Junonia evarete, (linked to my gallery) appearing from Florida & the Southwestern U.S. all the way down to Argentina. Here’s some recent shots of one in my garden . . .
Hassan Greenstreak
This middle-eastern sounding name is actually a Central & South American butterfly, appearing from Mexico to Brazil and now in South Texas and Florida. It is similar to other Greenstreaks and to one group of Metalmarks, but my decision was that this ID is the best for these photos and I’ve requested it as an addition to butterfliesandmoths website. And unfortunately, my first one to photograph is slightly damaged or injured, but for now I’m still sticking with this identification. 🙂 The scientific name of Hassan Greenstreak is Chalybs hassan. The good thing about the website is that several “real” butterfly specialists are participating and one of them will correct me if they believe my ID is incorrect. (Happens a lot!) 🙂 Here’s 3 photos of this new species for me . . .
