This Carolina Satyr was in my bedroom the other night, acting lethargic or sleepy and though light was not good enough for good photos, here’s my effort. It is one of the most common butterflies here but with much fewer this year for whatever reason. See My Carolina Satyr GALLERY.
There are many subspecies of this Eucereon(Wikipedia) genus of tiger moths (6,000 neotropical species) in the family Erebidae and I’ve been unable to get more specific than Eucereon, but fairly confident of this. Photographed with my cell phone inside my house in Atenas, Costa Rica. Two images with different light giving each a slightly different color.
Eucereon Moth, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa RicaEucereon Moth, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
If my ID is correct, this is another new species for me. It is hard to be sure when I cannot get both the top view and the side view like this. But the top view here matches best this new species for me, Mella Skipper – Anatrytone mella.
An old friend from seminary and Miami days, Carlos Cobos, was in Costa Rica this past week on a choir tour with his wife Linda from their church in Conway, Arkansas. They had a “free day” Friday while their group was in a hotel in La Fortuna. So I went with my driver and we showed Carlos & Linda a few things in that part of Costa Rica that they chose from my list of options. The last activity was to see the La Fortuna Waterfall, but since it was pouring down rain by then, we did not do that, considering the steep climb down and back up from the waterfall in rain. But we did a lot of other things like the Butterfly Conservatory and Sky Adventure for lunch with views of volcano and Lake Arenal! You can see the photos in my photo gallery titled: 2023 July 21 – Day Around Arenal Volcano.
There are too many photos to share in a blog post, so I hope you will check out the gallery! The feature photo of a sloth is repeated below after this shot of the three of us on the Bogarin Trail in La Fortuna. Interestingly, we paid to see a sloth (and other wildlife) on this trail and did not! But later saw a sloth alongside the highway! 🙂 Luck!? We did see birds and other wildlife on the Bogarin Trail though, so not a waste of time! 🙂
Charlie, Linda, and Carlos on the Bogarin Nature Trail, La Fortuna, Costa RicaBrown-throated Three-toed Sloth along the highway near La Fortuna, Costa Rica.
I earlier promised a blog post on this unique place adjacent to Esquinas Rainforest Lodge and then I will lay off posts from that area for awhile. 🙂 And begin again tomorrow doing blog posts from my garden and the community of Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica! 🙂
Normally the station is full of students and other researchers as in this photo from their website, but the week I was there, they were in between research projects and I talked with only two students.
The University of Vienna in Austria does an exceptional amount of tropical and rainforest research with not only their professors and students, but with many guest researchers from other parts of Europe and from the USA and Latin America. Read more about this important research station on their English-language website: https://www.lagamba.at/en/ while being aware that the primary language there is German. 🙂 Austrians speak an Austrian dialect of German.
This Renata Satyr, Yphthimoides renata, was spotted on the campus of the La Gamba Field Station down the road from Esquinas Rainforest Lodge. It is a rainforest research station for the University of Vienna, Austria and that is why German is spoken in that area as much or more than English along with the Spanish of course! And I refused to put it in the headline, but this is another “first time seen” butterfly for me! 🙂 And I will do a post on the research station later. And for the butterfly enthusiasts, yes, you need the side view of Satyrs for good ID and by blowing up my one angled side shot I was able to confirm the proper eye spots and lines to assure this identity. 🙂 Another Central American butterfly!
Renata Satyr, La Gamba Field Station, Piedras Blancas NP, Golfito, Puntarenas, Costa RicaRenata Satyr, La Gamba Field Station, Piedras Blancas NP, Golfito, Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Though a lousy photo! It was my last photo made on the ground on this trip, just before getting on the airplane at the tiny Golfito Airport Terminal where I was waiting on the little plane to arrive inside the mostly glass building when a butterfly, Great Eurybia, flitted by and landed on the glass, inside the building, meaning terrible light for a photo, but here’s my cell phone camera effort, lightened up in Photoshop Elements 8 so that it is identifiable, just not a pretty photo! 🙂 It is my first sighting of this species, meaning I added three new butterflies on this trip! 🙂 This one found only in Costa Rica and Panama.
Great Eurybia,
Eurybia patrona, Airport Building, Golfito, Puntarenas, Costa Rica
There is not a lot of information about this species online, but you can see the others posted on the website where these two photos will go at https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/eurybia-patrona or some better photos on another website. Though difficult to see in my photos, the eyes are black with a blue pupil and the orange eye-ring around it, the only Metalmark with this particular eye mark, thus a positive ID. 🙂 My collection is growing! See all my Costa Rica Butterflies Galleries – 245+ species!
Great Eurybia,
Eurybia patrona, Airport Building, Golfito, Puntarenas, Costa Rica