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Three days ago I had a photo of a male which includes the 2 bright yellow splotches on upper wings and four little brown dots. The female of this species is all white but different from the all-white Florida White because of the very strong veins. Often the males and females are like two different species in butterflies and birds. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
See my White Angled Sulphur Gallery or the bigger CR Butterflies Gallery.
And unidentified for me! Skippers take up almost half the pages in my butterfly ID book, 119 pages with only 161 pages for all the other butterflies! Plus browns & golds are a dominant color on possibly most of them, so you will forgive me for not finding these two Skipper butterflies in the book for identification. In my galleries I have identified seventeen different specific Skippers and have only one gallery for Unidentified Skippers with only 7 in it. 🙂 There is a general article on all 3,500 known Skippers on Wikipedia.
You thought I was going to run out of unique butterflies didn’t you? 🙂 Well, when I do I will go to other nature and the birds have been mostly away from my house the last week or so. And I will keep looking for more butterflies! My Costa Rica Butterflies Galleries. I have all the Skippers together alphabetically, Skipper, name; Skipper, next, etc.
¡Pura Vida!
Like me recovering from cancer and the just-as-bad cancer treatment, this pitiful-looking damaged butterfly is still flying and eating! 🙂 He is a Ilus swallowtail or Dual-spotted swallowtail, Mimoides ilus (Wikipedia link) and note that it is very similar to another butterfly that I originally labeled this as, the Emerald-patched Cattleheart. The main difference is the Cattleheart has emerald or light-green spots on the upper wings instead of white as this Swallowtail has. (And by the way, Cattlehearts are in the Swallowtail family!) See my Dual-spotted Swallowtail Gallery or all of my CR Butterflies. Note that in the additional photos below this feature image there is one of a non-damaged Dual-spotted that got in my house on the window screen before I opened it and let him fly out.
And some more shots including of one not damaged (+ health update) . . .
Continue reading “Butterfly & Holiday/Health Report”
This type of little Skipper butterfly is actually more colorful than he would let me photograph this time, since his upper back is a bright blue. You can see some pix with the blue showing in my Two-barred Flasher Gallery and to learn more see this article in Wikipedia. Binomial name: Astraptes fulgerator.
¡Pura Vida!
See all of my Costa Rica Butterfly Galleries!
This beautiful Green Orchid Bee, Euglossa dilemma (Wikipedia link) is endemic or native to Central America, though some yokel recently introduced them into Florida in the states. I never tire of seeing the little shiny emeralds flitting about my garden. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
See more in my Bee Gallery or for other interesting CR insects, see my More CR Insects Gallery.
Another of my regular garden butterfly visitors is the Juno Heliconia, Dione juno (Wikipedia link), also called Juno silverspot and Juno longwing. They are a nice sparkly butterfly like the checkerspots on the bottom of wings or side-views while all orange with black trim on top almost like another favorite, the Julia (though not as large). See my gallery of this variously named Dione Juno or check out my bigger CR Butterflies Gallery. This Juno is found from the southern U.S. down through Central and most of South America.
And more photos . . .
Continue reading “Juno Heliconian”
Possibly the most common butterfly in my garden though certainly not the most colorful! But at least I’m out in the garden again! 🙂 To see other photos I’ve made of this species, my Polydamas Swallowtail Gallery or for more butterflies see my Butterflies of Costa Rica Galleries! 126+ 🙂
Saturday morning in Atenas I checked with my new internet order-delivery service called “Atenas WebShop” and had two packages, one a new paperback book from Amazon.com, Dragonflies and Damselflies of Costa Rica, A Field Guide by Dennis Paulson and William Haber (Link to Amazon ordering). It’s also available direct from the publisher, Cornell University Press.
It is a very thorough and scientific book and the first I’ve found anywhere here to help me identify these odonatan insects that I occasionally photograph. They have detailed descriptions and photographs of all 283 Dragonflies and Damselflies identified in Costa Rica with more being discovered frequently here.
I will use it to try and identify the ones I already have in my Dragonflies and Damselflies Photo Galleries, though it will not always be easy as there are some finely detailed differences between many species that all of my photos are not good enough to show, but at least I will have more labeled than before! 🙂
Now I just wish someone would develop as good a field guide for the butterflies of Costa Rica! A much bigger job! And until then I will continue to use the Butterflies of Mexico & Central America book for my IDs.
¡Pura Vida!
Now that the wind is dying down a bit (we had an exceptional amount of wind Jan-Apr) the insects are more visible in my garden and I hope will be in the hotel garden this coming week! And here is just one of my favorite bees in Costa Rica . . . The Green Orchid Bee! (Link to my CR Bees Gallery)
I have a huge belief in the importance of bees . . . the necessity of bee colonies that are vital to the health of the planet.
~Trudie Styler
¡Pura Vida!
The first in a long time for me and the first since the rainy season began early in April. Like many I’ve seen here, I cannot identify it yet, but just ordered a new book from Amazon, Dragonflies and Damselflies of Costa Rica: A Field Guide (Zona Tropical Publications / Antlion Media). I’m hoping it will help me in identifying the many dragonflies here. In the meantime, if you know this one for sure, leave a comment with the ID. 🙂
And check out my Gallery: Dragonflies & Damselflies
“I love to see the sunshine on the wings of the Dragonflies… there is magic in it.”
― Ama H. Vanniarachchy
¡Pura Vida!