The White Angled Sulphur, Anteos clorinde (link to butterflies&moths site), is not new to me and when I get my photos loaded to that website I think I will have some of the better photos there, but I haven’t gotten to my White Angled Sulphur GALLERY yet. 🙂 Check it out!
I’ve been very busy with so many butterflies to photograph in my garden daily (and almost no birds for some reason) plus I still haven’t caught up with identifying and approving all the submissions from Costa Rica to the butterflies & moths website (very time-consuming!) that I don’t have time to get my own photos submitted! 🙂
Here’s 3 shots of today’s White Angled-Sulphur . . .
I read three things today that helped me realize again how fortunate I am to be living in such an amazing little country as Costa Rica! AND how much I have slowed down, calmed down, and embraced nature since I’ve been living here, eight years this coming December! Here’s links to the three inspirational articles I read today . . .
Another butterfly today that I’ve seen only one other time, and yes, it looks a lot like some of the Cattlehearts (which are related to Swallowtails), but is one of five black & red & white butterflies labeled “Swallowtails.” You can read a little about the Papilio anchisiades or Ruby-spotted Swallowtail on butterfliesandmoths.org, which are found from Argentina north to South Texas, and for only a few more pix, check out my Ruby-spotted Swallowtail Gallery.
Eusalasia Cheles is the scientific name of this new butterfly for me and it will be new for butterfliesandmoths.org website that I volunteer for after my request to add it as a species is processed and my photos will then be their first! 🙂 My garden is becoming a rich source of butterflies!
It is found only in Costa Rica and Panama and there is not much online about it with only pictures of pinned specimens on the most prolific butterfliesofamerica.com. For the common name, they just reverse the scientific name, calling it “Cheles Eusalasia” while my Butterflies of Mexico and Central America book has the common name of “Dimorphic Sombermark,” with “sombermarks” being a subspecies category of “metalmarks.” Here are my 5 photos of one that first came in my house before I shooed him back into the garden! 🙂
For you butterfly aficionados, you probably already know that the backside pattern of the Giant Swallowtail and the Thoas Swallowtail at first glance look the same, but thanks to my favorite butterfly book I now know that there are slight differences in all those spots and the Thoas is a much lighter yellow or nearly white on black while the Giant is obviously a light yellow on black. Then the underside of the hind wings is the real giveaway with the Giant having a lot of blue spots and the Thoas only one little spec! So check it out the next time you see one of these! 🙂
Just two photos from my garden on Sunday of the Giant Swallowtail, Papilio cresphontes, with that link to butterfliesandmoths.org website article, photos and map. And you might want to see my other photos of this giant in my gallery of Giant Swallowtails with some much better photos than these! 🙂
Giant Swallowtail, Atenas, Costa RicaGiant Swallowtail, 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.
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.
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.
