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One of my regular butterflies that I never tire of. His bright red spots make up for his otherwise drab appearance. Polydamas Swallowtail on butterfliesandmoths.org and check out my Gallery Polydamas Swallowtail. That’s 7 years worth all from my garden!
Though I still have another week’s worth of blog posts about my visit to Chachagua Rainforest Hotel, I have also completed the photo gallery on this trip for anyone who wants to see all the shots from this trip together in one place. 🙂 CLICK on the image of first page of gallery below which this time is all in just 3 folders: Birds, Other Wildlife and Hotel Grounds.
If that image click doesn’t work, try this new SmugMug Gallery Address URL: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2022-May-16-21-Chachagua-Rainforest-Hotel-San-Ramon-Alajuela
¡Pura Vida!
UPDATE & CORRECTION, April 2024:
I made a big mistake when I first identified this back in 2022. The real identity is Simple Sarota, Sarota acantus. Sorry for any inconvenience! I first made the correction with a blog post April 14, 2024: Correcting a Butterfly ID. Then later decided I should make it here also.
I’m still going through photos from my visit to Chachagua Rainforest Hotel in San Ramon Canton of Alajuela Province and just discovered a new favorite that has taken a lot of work with the photos to get them visible. They are of a teeny tiny butterfly the size of a fingernail or at most my thumbnail! And with an internet search I discovered that it is a Western Pygmy-Blue, Brephidium exilis (Wikipedia article link). In my photos he/she is on the leaf of a flower and then on the stem of a flower. It is about the size of a fingernail or thumbnail, the smallest I’ve ever photographed and websites say it is one of the smallest in the world and the smallest in the Americas, found from the western U.S. south through Venezuela. They come in many color combinations and I think mine is prettier than any I saw online! 🙂 It wasn’t included in my earlier Rainforest Butterflies post because I had not processed these photos yet, made on my last day there in one of their gardens.
In some ways that is what I do by living in Costa Rica, “Living in a Garden,” 🙂 but in traveling to visit the many wonderful lodges and hotels around the country I literally eat & sleep in a garden, and some of my hiking is in a garden with even the “wild” rainforest having flowers blooming year around! Chachagua Rainforest Hotel (their website link) in San Ramon Canton of Alajuela Province, Costa Rica had one of the largest and better gardens I have visited with all of their plants growing in a rainforest on the Caribbean slopes of the mountains (the rivers flow to the Atlantic Ocean or on the eastern side of Continental Divide).
I’ll place one photo here for the emailed version of post then a gallery of 20 flowers will be only in the online post. Just click the “see more” link! 🙂
Here’s 9 photos of 7 or 8 different species of Dragonflies and Damselflies. After I got home I used my new dragonfly book to try and identify these guys, but the book has too many that are similar and yet not exact matches to these, so I still have a big ID job! 🙂
All were photographed on two of the many lakes at Chachagua Rainforest Hotel and one stream on the one day that was sunny during my week there. Be sure to see my photo gallery of Dragonflies and Damselflies (58 photos of 30+ species) and if you are in Costa Rica and interested in Dragonflies, the new book is titled: Dragonflies & Damselflies of Costa Rica. (Link is to Cornell Press, the publisher, but it’s also available on amazon.com and some bookstores here.)
One photo here for the emailed version of post, then 8 more photos in the gallery that follows online.
There are many Long-tailed Skippers but with my book and the internet I am still unable to find an exact match for this specific species in my garden yesterday. At least the butterflies are coming again now! 🙂
The one labeled simply “Long-tailed Skipper” has blue on his back in all ID sources, this one in my photos does not. The Teleus Longtail Skipper is also like this one, without the blue, but has white lines instead of white dots at the top of wings. The devil’s in the details! 🙂 So these photos go in my gallery folder labeled “Skipper, Longtail Unidentified.” (Yes, I have others!) 🙁 And if any reader is certain of the ID, please CONTACT me! 🙂
And here’s 4 images from my garden yesterday . . .
Continue reading “A Long-tailed Skipper?”
The Polydamas Swallowtail (Link to butterfliesandmoths.org) seems to be one of the most common in my garden and one of first showing up early this year! 🙂 I have 28 photos in my Polydamas Swallowtail Gallery, all made in my garden! 🙂
Unlike other butterflies here, I have no photos from my many visits to other locations in Costa Rica. These photos were made day before yesterday, May 6, which means it is early for a lot of butterflies, other than Yellows flitting about, and in past years butterflies have peaked at my house in June & July. I’m located in the western foothills of the Central Valley of Costa Rica. I have a trip north of here next week and hope for some different early butterflies there and then on my July trip is to the southwest of the country, maybe something new there, I hope! 🙂
Costa Rica has an incredible variety of butterflies as a part of more than 300,000 insect species, the most for any country it’s size. Part of that is due to our location as a “connecting bridge” of land between North and South America. The above butterfly website shows this particular Swallowtail appearing across the Southern U.S. and throughout Central America and the Caribbean Islands.
¡Pura Vida!
See all my Costa Rica Butterfly Galleries. 139+ species!
Here’s my first Damsel or Dragonfly photo this year though not the first seen. They are all hard for me to photograph and to identify, usually! But this time with my handy new book Dragonflies and Damselflies of Costa Rica by Dennis Paulson and William Haber, I managed to narrow it down quicker than usual for me; obviously first to a Damselfly and then by the spreading wings that it is one of the subspecies called “Spreadwing” (most Damsels keep their wings straight by their side) and then with the book’s excellent photos and me having a photo with enough detail like the blue eyes and the brown thorax with white stripe I quickly determined that this is a “Plateau Spreadwing Damselfly” or “Lestes alacer” the technical name of this species found in Central America and parts of North America. I hope to expand my collection of Dragonflies & Damselflies which is already a pretty good start . . .
See my GALLERY: Dragonflies & Damselflies of CR (18+ species identified with many more not identified. Your ID help welcomed!) 🙂
They never cease to amaze me! And I hope I haven’t blogged them too many times! Here’s a few shots from my garden the other day.
I’ve decided that two weeks of posts on this lodge may be enough, so I’m referring everyone to the gallery which has been ready awhile. Because of so many amazing flowers in their gardens, I may someday go back to more posts on them, but for now other photos from my life in nature in Costa Rica. You may click the image of gallery to go to the gallery or use this link:
https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2022-April-3-8-Guayabo-Lodge
¡Pura Vida!
Or check out ALL MY COSTA RICA TRAVELS.