This is one of the many “high-energy” butterflies and has a crisp bright yellow contrasted with a bright white most of the time, flitting through my garden and beyond! The Golden Melwhite, Melete polyhymnia (linked to my gallery) is found only in Central America with a few strays seen in Columbia, South America. iNaturalist shows a subspecies for only Central America named Melete polyhymnia florinda, Mariposa blanca crema de borde negro Centroamericana. Here’s three shots recently from my garden . . .
This tiny little butterfly was one of the most seen in my garden last year, but not nearly as much this year. This particular Rounded Metalmark, Calephelis perditalis (my gallery link) I believe is unique to either Costa Rica or Central America and should be a subspecies or new species, but this is where BAMONA says to put it for now and even though the ones on iNaturalist CR are darker, they are certainly in the same family as my usually more brilliantly colored observations (see my gallery). And for what it is worth, I travel all over Costa Rica but have only seen this fellow in my garden here in Atenas, Alajuela. 🙂
. . . a long way from home! 🙂 But then with Costa Rica in the geographical center between North & South America, just about any species from either continent can be here! Though this is my first time to see this Florida White, Appias drusilla (linked to my gallery). I’ve seen this one in Florida with less of this beige or tan coloring, but I believe my ID is correct even though I will be the first to report one from Costa Rica on butterfliesandmoths.org, though iNaturalist has 36 observations from Costa Rica and says they are found all the way south into Brazil. Here’s two shots from my garden . . .
or at least that is what I think this is! And certainly in the Sphinx Moth Family (linked to my gallery). The only other one in this family I’ve seen is what most people call the “Hummingbird Moth.” Here’s multiple shots I got the other day of this new one for me . . .
That is what some might call this, one of many similar to him. He is a Common Spurwing, Antigonus erosus(linked to my gallery with 4 pix). There are many other similar “Spreadwings” or other categories. Here’s just one shot from my garden. Go to the above gallery for more of this one.
Common Spurwing, Antigonus erosus, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
And the butterfly decided to back away from this flower, giving way to the bee! 🙂 Plus this is a less frequently seen butterfly here, another interesting “Yellow,” the Boisduval’s Yellow, Eurema boisduvaliana(linked to my gallery).
Boisduval’s Yellow + Bee, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa RicaBoisduval’s Yellow backing away from a Bee, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
A couple of White-winged Doves were hiding in the Strangler Fig Tree the other day – meaning that any shot I made would show part of them behind leaves or limbs. But still they are an active part of my home environment! 🙂 See some much better photos in my White-winged Dove Gallery. They are the most frequent doves/pigeons in my garden with maybe Inca Doves second.
White-winged Doves, in my Higueron Ficus Tree, Atenas, Costa Rica
These berries on one of the very tall palms in my garden are shown here feeding a Great Kiskadee, Pitangus sulphuratus (my gallery link) while other Kiskadees and Yigüirros wait their turn on a limb of my nearby Cecropia tree (though occasionally there were 2 or 3 birds on this cluster at the same time). 🙂 Those two species and a few flycatchers have now just about stripped all the berries off this tree. And though butterflies have caught my interest more lately, and there are more of them, I still watch and photograph the few birds that come to my garden, mostly Doves, Kiskadees and Yigüirros (Clay-colored Thrush). Here’s just the one photo of this species found in Central & South America . . .
One of the more common butterflies all over Costa Rica is this Banded Peacock, Anartia fatima (my gallery link) and as these two recent photos in my garden show, the top of its wings are a very dark brown & red with a brilliant white while the bottom of the wings are paler or a light brown and red. Of course, as always in nature, there are a few exceptions or variations, but not many in this species. See my gallery linked above. It is another of the many species found only in Central America & Mexico.
Banded Peacock, Atenas Alajuela, Costa RicaBanded Peacock, Atenas Alajuela, Costa Rica
All of the Whites, Yellows & Sulphur butterflies are in the Pieridae Family (linked to my gallery) where I’ve collected 32 species and one of the most understated of them all is this Statira Sulphur, Aphrissa statira (gallery linked) with a non-descript off-white color, but bright yellow shoulders and the scattered brown spots and upper brown border showing through on the folded wings. And I like his simplicity. Here’s one shot from my garden the other day and there are a lot more in the gallery including some from the Caribe that are a stronger yellow.
Statira Sulphur, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
About My Usual September Caribe Trip
It was first scheduled for earlier in September and a doctor’s appointment moved it to this week which had to be changed again because the government is remodeling the Limón Airport (I prefer to fly there now.) with a longer runway for bigger planes and international flights plus a remodeled terminal building, meaning the airport is closed through the 20th of September for construction work. 🙁
So I rescheduled my Hotel Banana Azul visit again, this time to October 1-6. Hopefully the airport will be ready! 🙂 And hopefully there will still be butterflies on the beach road in October like there has always been in September. I’ll be reporting from there the first week of October to let you know. Now I continue to report the larger number than usual in my garden in Atenas this year! 🙂
