This “one more brown Skipper” is not very exciting and thus not as many “observations” posted on iNaturalist, where I am the lead observer. 🙂 But like every human being, every butterfly is important to ecology and he/she has it’s own beauty and purpose. There seem to be a lot in my neighborhood as you can see in my Gallery: Mimosa Skipper, Cogia calchas.
Mimosa Skipper, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
To see how many other “brown skippers” there are here, check out the gallery level above this one, Hesperiidae – SKIPPERS (106+ species) where the majority are brown or mostly brown. The unloved family of butterflies. 🙂
This species, Calephelis laverna(my gallery link) was seen almost daily last year but only a few times this year and it is one I have had trouble identifying with none of the expert identifiers responding to my submissions on iNaturalist or BAMONA. With the Glassberg book I gave it the Rounded Metalmark, Calephelis perditalis, identification. Later with more photos to compare with on iNaturalist, I changed to Calephelis laverna (mainly because of the bits of white on the border). iNaturalist doesn’t use a “common name” while Butterflies of America calls it Laverna Calephelis (reversing the scientific name word order which they generally do when there is not a known “common name” and BAMONA always follows Butterflies of America.
But I am still hoping for an “expert” to confirm or change this identification. Until then, this is my best effort at identification. It is found from Mexico to Brazil, so the location fits. Just one photo from my garden on October 1 and thus the beginning of October nature photos . . .
Calephelis laverna, a tiny Metalmark butterfly, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
And Me Photographing in my Garden . . .
One of my gardeners snapped this shot of me trying to photograph another butterfly! 🙂
Most of my photos of this species and most in online systems show side views of the Broken Silverdrop, Epargyreus exadeus cruza (my gallery link) with this top view being the second top view on both iNaturalist & BAMONA, so a unique photo! And I have 2 top views in my gallery! 🙂 The feature and two other photos here . . .
A more frequently seen “Yellow” than the one shown yesterday is this Dina Yellow, Pyrisitia dina (my gallery link), though this one is still just one of many! 🙂
This is a new yellow butterfly for me this year with sightings in my garden in July, August & September as shown in the gallery Marcellina Sulphur, Phoebis marcellina. There are many different yellows as you can see in their “Family Gallery” of my photos: Pieridae – WHITES, YELLOWS & SULPHURS (40 species). I will never tire of all the unique species of butterflies found here in Costa Rica and the almost continuous finding of new species like this one. Tomorrow I will share a photo of a more common Yellow seen here, the Dina Yellow. But here is just one photo of the Marcellina Sulphur . . .
Seen in my garden before, another big brown, fuzzy Skipper that at times seem like the majority of the butterflies! 🙂 I’ve had this one in my garden one other time, back in 2023 as shown in my gallery: Wind’s Skipper, Windia windi. (Linked to the gallery.)
This is one of those that are almost impossible to identify with no matches in any of my sources of those spots and other characteristics. The AI called Google Lens is for the entire world and on difficult individuals like this one, they might call it a butterfly that lives only in Asia or Africa, so not as helpful on ones like this as they are on very unique and unusual insects they can find another photo of. So far, iNaturalista’s AI is the most helpful on butterflies, but not always. In the case of this one, as far as they will go in identification is to put it in the Hesperini Tribe which is pretty broad or general. As I write this, I haven’t yet posted these photos on iNaturalist yet. But when I do there is a real possibility that one of the experts who have devoted their lives to butterflies will have an identification, but not always. Here’s three photos of this Skipper Butterfly that I cannot ID:
I think it is most likely the Telemiades nicomedes, but not sure, so giving it the genus name. iNaturalist uses the genus name a lot as you can see on this Genus Telemiades page of iNaturalist Costa Rica.
Telemiades Genus of Skipper, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
For the last two weeks I’ve shared photos made on my 4-night trip to “The Amazon of Costa Rica,” Tortuguero National Park. And that was only the “tip of the iceberg” of the many photos made. See them all in the above gallery! Having this kind of nature adventures is why I chose to live out my retirement in Costa Rica and it has already surpassed my hopes and dreams and though I have to slow down some, the adventures continue! Sometimes in my little backyard garden! 🙂
