Category: Plants

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Double-striped Longtail

Though I did not get a folded wing view with the double stripes, the golden-based color of the bluish/turquoise back identify this longtail as the Double-striped Longtail (butterfliesandmoths site) which seems to be rarely seen. This is my first sighting that I know of. If you browse my CR Butterflies Galleries you will see that there are several other “Longtail” Skippers besides this one and each is interesting. And like so many of the butterflies, there are several others that look a lot like this one, especially this time the Esmeralda Longtail, Urbanus esmeraldus.

Double-striped Longtail Skipper, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Pink-spotted Cattleheart

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.

Pink-spotted Cattleheart, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Looking Up!

Yes, I could say that things are looking up as the number of Covid cases has greatly decreased, more people are out without a mask and businesses seem to be doing a little better, but this time I’m talking about literally looking up from my garden or terrace and seeing the beauty I miss when I only look down, like plants reaching for the sun, a beautiful leaf, and the flowers way up on the hill behind me! And I know that this is not the first post on “Looking Up” and probably won’t be the last, but it is with some fresh photos! 🙂

My favorite Cecropia or Guarumo Leaf, high on the tree, absorbing the sun!
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A Tiny Grasshopper

I’m seeing fewer grasshoppers now than just a few years ago, like with so many of the insects that are decreasing in numbers or going extinct, even in species-rich Costa Rica (11,000+ species of grasshoppers). I don’t have an identity on this little fellow of about an inch long, but the first grasshopper in my yard in a long time! I would encourage you to read a book I just started titled Rebugging the Planet: The Remarkable Things that Insects (and Other Invertebrates) Do – And Why We Need to Love Them More by Vicki Hird. As humans continue to cut down the forests and pour concrete and insecticides over the earth we are systematically destroying the natural earth including creatures necessary for our own survival. This little book is a great starting point for some people to begin “re-wilding” the earth! Time is running out! And I also recommend the documentary series INSECT PLANET on Curiosity Stream.

Unidentified Tiny Grasshopper, Atenas, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

See my gallery of Costa Rica Grasshopper photos. (14+ species!)

Or for all kinds of bugs, my More Insects CR Galleries (82+ species)

🙂

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Giant White Butterfly

A fairly common butterfly here, I think. You can read about them on butterfliesandmoths.org with scientific name of Ganyra josephina, they are found from South Texas through Central America and I’ve seen quite a few here this year, though not this many that would pause long enough for a photo. 🙂 See my other photos of this butterfly in my Giant White Gallery. Or to see my photos of several other species of Whites, go to the bigger Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery. And here’s 4 shots of a Giant White in my garden the other day. Sorry they are damaged but it has been pretty windy this year which may be why . . .

Giant White, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Fiery Skipper (Maybe)

Because I’m choosing IDs for a website now I am even more cautious or unsure of my identifications now and still don’t have an expert to run it by. But this seems to be the closest match out of around a dozen orange and brown Skipper butterflies in my book, A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America, which I still depend on mostly. The website I’m volunteering for as Costa Rica Coordinator has so many different photos of this species that it makes it even more confusing, but as one of the most frequently cited species in this color I’m probably safe. 🙂 Size: about as big as my thumb.

Here’s my five totally different views of this orangey butterfly from two different days in my garden that I hope I have labeled correctly . . .

Fiery Skipper, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Awed by Designs, Colors, Shapes, “Little Things” . . .

. . . in appreciation of the beauty of dying leaves, which happens year around here (no “Fall” as such), I recently snapped, one on a sidewalk in town and the other in my yard, plus the contrast of two favorite green leaves below! 🙂

Unidentified leaf on sidewalk downtown Atenas, Costa Rica.
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New Thumbnail-sized Butterfly

I really struggled with the ID on this butterfly, thinking at first it was one of the Sarota Jewelmarks which are all tiny, but the patterns just did not match any of them. Then moving into the Metalmarks I found two that had similar patterns with colors and dark center matching best with the Rounded Metalmark, Caliphelis perditalis (link to butterfliesandmoths.org). There seem to be a lot of these in Mexico and Texas while I’m the first to note one in Costa Rica on the above website. Here’s two shots from different angles, though he never landed with his wings folded which is the other shot I try to get for ID purposes . . .

Rounded Metalmark, Cliphelis perditalis, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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