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 . . .
¡Pura Vida!
Broken Silverdrop
Juno Longwing
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 . . .
¡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! 🙂
2 of the Many Spreadwing Skippers
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.
¡Pura Vida!
A Nature Object Lesson
And I can testify of how true this is! Thanks to friend Larry for sharing.
¡Pura Vida!
Little Banner
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.
¡Pura Vida!
3 Common Longtails . . .
. . . in my August garden, that is. 🙂 There are so many Skippers labeled “Longtail” (I have 16 Longtail Galleries) that it is difficult to say which is most common in Costa Rica or even in my garden, but I got photos of these three (and some more) in August, and they are 3 of the most obviously different longtails from each other, so they make the longtail post! 🙂 The three, alphabetically, with their galleries linked to their name headings . . .
Brown Longtail – Urbanus procne
Dorantes Longtail – Urbanus dorantes
Esmeralda Longtail – Urbanus esmeraldus
¡Pura Vida!
Cloudless Sulphur
One of the many spotted Yellows and Whites that I see so many of here, I’m finding them easier to identify. Just one shot from my August garden here, but you can see more in my GALLERY: Cloudless Sulphur, Phoebis sennae (linked).
¡Pura Vida!
Yellow-rimmed Skipper
Another dull brown skipper is made interesting with the addition of color – in this case a simple rim of yellow. To see him from different angles and postures, see other shots in my gallery: Yellow-rimmed Skipper, Aethilla lavochrea (linked). Here’s just one shot for now, from my garden in August . . .
¡Pura Vida!
White Angled-Sulphur
This other common white for my garden is not as difficult to identify because of the strongly showing veins on underside of wings and the yellow accent spots with black or brown spot inside on the upper wings. The only possible confusion is that there is a Yellow Angled-Sulphur with the underside of wings almost identical, though supposedly more yellowish while the White is usually more white and/or greenish, plus the Yellow Angled-Sulphur does not have the topside yellow accent spots. Also there is one light brown spot on the underside of the wings of both which is rounded on the White and elongated on the Yellow. Little details make the difference in identification! 🙂 Just one image here from my garden and you can see more in my White Angled-Sulphur, Anteos clorinde GALLERY (linked).
Giant White
This one has always been a little difficult for me to identify because of the same big black dot and sometimes two gray dots like Howarth’s White, but I believe now that the Giant White, Ganyra josephina (linked to my gallery) is the only White with the turquoise color on antennae and legs. Check my Howarth’s White Gallery to see how similar they are with those black and gray dots confusing me. The following 3 shots from my garden in August I believe are Giant White, based on the turquoise color.
¡Pura Vida!