On a recent walk that I haven’t been doing as much since cancer is the walk over the steep hill that my little rental casita hangs on the side of. It’s a difficult climb up, but with some rewarding views like this one I share today. And yes, I know, there’s actually 2 houses on that hill in Phase 2 of Roca Verde (I’m in Phase 1), but one house is the center of the view beneath the big mountains in the background, that I’m pretty sure are the ones in Braulio Carrillo National Park just east & NE of San Jose and thus two of the peaks may be Volcanoes Barva and Cacho Negro.
I’ve scheduled another butterfly for tomorrow’s post then the next day I’ll share a different vista from that same hilltop walk, one viewing our little town (called a pueblo here) of Atenas in Alajuela Province. ¡Pura vida! 🙂
“House on a Hill” viewed from the top of the hill I live on the side of, Atenas, Costa Rica
The feature photo or the next two shots after this top view shows the “broken silver drop” as the odd-shaped white spot. The scientific name is Epargyreus exadeus and it is one of the many Skipper butterflies which you can read about on butterfliesandmoths.org.
I photographed this 3 days ago in my garden and the other one I’ve posted was back in October 2021 as seen on my kitchen counter inside my house. 🙂 Plus the same day I photographed this I posted another Skipper with a blue top, similar-looking, but he was a Double-striped Longtail with the two obvious differences being his long tail plus the two stripes in his name referred to dark stripes on his hind wings or folded wings while he had more than two stripes on his top, though similar looking with the blue top! Here’s three photos of today’s “Two-barred Flasher” skipper butterfly.
About a week ago I passed by “the flower lady” house where I’ve gotten several new butterflies on her zinnias (now gone) and discovered as I looked through her fence that she had the Red Vein Indian Mallow flower I reported on from Guayabo Lodge in Cartago Province in , my first sighting of this magical lantern-like flower, and my favorite new discovery at Guayabo. I phone-snapped the above two shots at the flower lady house.
Then 3 days ago I was walking back to town with my neighbor Steve, and as he is a gardener I wanted him to see this flower. I was pointing to one of her only 5 or 6 blooms when her husband snapped out something he thought was funny in Spanish that I didn’t understand and she just walked over to the shrub, picked the flower I had pointed to and came over handing it to me. I felt terrible that she picked one of her few blooms but it was the common Costa Rican courtesy to do that because I praised her flower. I walked home carrying it gently and decided it best to just float in a bowl of water since it is a hang-down lantern-type flower. Another of the many cultural surprises I’ve had here. 🙂
It is prettier on the shrub, but here it is floating in water on my kitchen counter!
Since my Crown of Thorns pot plant on the patio died, I’m going to see if Cristian & Alfredo, my gardeners, can get me this Abutilon striatum, Red Vein Indian Mallow, “Chinese Lantern” or in Spanish: Abutilon pictum, “farolito japonés” (Japanese Lantern) as a new pot plant on my terrace. Always something new to look forward to. 🙂
It originated in South America, Brazil and other countries and has adapted to tropical climates all around the world including Costa Rica and India (thus the English common name). It is an edible flower both raw and cooked and is said to be both sweet and astringent, whatever that means. 🙂
At 1.5 inches wide, wing-tip to wing-tip, this one is smaller than my earlier similar “Blue-patched Eyed-Metalmark/Eyemark” and a whole lot smaller than an even earlier “Blue-winged Sheenmark,” all of similar design and colors. I’m thinking this one may be a sub-species of the “Purple-washed” or a new species “I’ve discovered” 🙂 because of two differences from the other purple-washed photos online and in my book:
The book does say that the “Purple-washed” color can be blue instead of purple (like mine) but (1) in the other photos “the wash” (blue or purple) is bleeding into the forward wings (this one doesn’t) and (2) none of the others have the tiny black “almond eyes” on the top of the hind-wing blue or purple like this one. Otherwise it is identical to the Purple-washed Eyed-Metalmark photos in the book and online at ButterfliesOfAmerica and a few of other sites. Maybe another evolutionary change or sub-species? The scientific name isMesosemia lamachus, if this is what I photographed. 🙂 If not, I’m hoping someone can give me the correct identification. This Mesosemia lamachus is on page 63 of the Second Edition of the Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America for anyone wanting to follow-up on it and also on the BOA link above. 🙂
There are so many amazing creatures here in Costa Rica that seem to appear from nowhere some days! 🙂 This one appeared in my kitchen last Saturday night as I was preparing dinner and I tried to photograph him in the poor house light at night, first with my cellphone (which did better) and then with my SLR and zoom lens from a distance. Here’s four shots of another tiny butterfly of which I’m not positive of the ID.
Though I did not get a folded wing view with the double stripes, the golden-based color of the bluish/turquoise back identify this longtail as the Double-striped Longtail (butterfliesandmoths site) which seems to be rarely seen. This is my first sighting that I know of. If you browse my CR Butterflies Galleries you will see that there are several other “Longtail” Skippers besides this one and each is interesting. And like so many of the butterflies, there are several others that look a lot like this one, especially this time the Esmeralda Longtail, Urbanus esmeraldus.
English-language websites say dragonfly groups are either clusters, flights or swarms and swarm implies a lot more than the 6 to 8 I had circling my garden the other day, do I assume looking for food? 🙂 The term “flight” is appropriate with my group because they never landed anywhere in my yard but just kept flying around in circles like they were looking for something until they flew away from my yard.
Wandering Glider (Pantala flavescens), Atenas, Costa Rica
Now that I’m getting used to my Costa Rica Dragonfly/Damselfly book, I’m more comfortable identifying these guys as the Wandering Glider, Pantala flavescens (Wikipedia link), whose name indicates that they have the “habit of long-term flying and then hanging up vertically” in a tree or other plant. They did not “hang” at my place but moved on. Since all dragonflies breed in and generally stay around water, they are probably from the little stream on the other side of the cow pasture in front of my house. This species is known for its long flights, but evidently my yard was not far enough for what they wanted. 🙂
Another reason for this ID is that the book says they are “the only medium-sized skimmer gold or yellow-orange overall.” That plus the red eyes and reddish or gold spots on the tip of their wings clinches the ID. Two more photos:
I think this is a beautiful “Swallowtail-Like” butterfly that I’ve seen two other times before this; once before in my garden and once at Villa Calletas Hotel in Jaco Beach on the Pacific Coast. I know that at first glance, the spots above the crescents seem red rather than pink, but if you look at my top-view photo you can tell that they are more pink in some light. 🙂 Here’s four different photo views of one in my garden a week ago yesterday.
Yes, I could say that things are looking up as the number of Covid cases has greatly decreased, more people are out without a mask and businesses seem to be doing a little better, but this time I’m talking about literally looking up from my garden or terrace and seeing the beauty I miss when I only look down, like plants reaching for the sun, a beautiful leaf, and the flowers way up on the hill behind me! And I know that this is not the first post on “Looking Up” and probably won’t be the last, but it is with some fresh photos! 🙂
