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The five spots in that upper short white line on the wing is what makes this a Tanna instead of a Teleus, Brown or Plain Longtail. Otherwise, those four are very similar and often confused. These two were in my garden and are fairly common Skippers here.
See my Tanna Longtail Skipper GALLERY.
And for comparisons with Teleus, Plain & Brown Longtails, browse through all my SKIPPER GALLERIES to see those and many others! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
On September 30 after my house was fumigated for ants, I spent the night at our little neighborhood Hotel Colinas del Sol and though cloudy and getting dark, I got some shadowy shots of 3 birds and two butterflies seen below. Nothing spectacular, but nature is almost everywhere waiting to be seen and photographed! And I love it, even in bad light! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
. . . is the first impression you get from this Rufous-naped Wren who was either grooming himself or drying out in my Guarumo Tree the other day. 🙂
See my Rufous-naped Wren GALLERY for more of this bird!
¡Pura Vida!
This one is usually very common in my garden, but not this year! This is maybe the fourth time I’ve seen one this year or at least recently. Here’s three photos, all a little different . . .
This is another new species for me, assuming I have identified correctly. Mine has more tail than those photos in the books and online, but the folded wing pattern is identical and my basis for this identification. Hammock Skipper, Polygonus leo. In my garden in Atenas.
See all my Skippers’ GALLERIES!
Or more of this species on Butterflies & Moths.org.
¡Pura Vida!
I haven’t seen this bird in quite a while, but he was one of about 4 species in my Cecropia Tree the other morning, feeding on the flowers like the toucans sometimes do. And as usual, he was partially hidden by leaves the entire time here! You can see other shots in my Black-cowled Oriole GALLERY showing the same hiding problem always! Except my very first shot here in Costa Rica of one on my window screen inside my house! 🙂 Here’s just two shots . . .
¡Pura Vida!
All the Longtail Skippers are brown, but this one has slightly different markings to give him the color name. 🙂 And you may have noticed that I’m much heavier on Skippers in general this year which may mean that they can handle the different weather better or some other reason I don’t know. And I continue to have fewer birds and fewer of the brighter colored butterflies, whatever the reason may be.
These range from a lighter brown than this to a dark brown as seen in my Brown Longtail GALLERY.
¡Pura Vida!
Rounded Metalmark, Calephelis perditalis, is a beautiful tiny butterfly that I’ve seen several times over the years in my garden and this identification is my best effort! I say that, implying some doubt, because my Glassberg book says it has “no white check” on the wing border, although both websites I use have photos of this species with and without the white check, so I’m sticking with this ID for now. The next closest one is in the Glassberg book that is not an official species which he calls “Bright Scintillant (Misol-ha CHP), a Calephelis species” and is probably a sub-species of this Rounded Metalmark. A closer match to this, but I want to put a name on as many as possible and it matches the two websites. Of course no source, book or web, is infallible! 🙂 Here’s one photo for the email version followed by 3 more! Those 2 websites on this species are:
The Butterflies and Moths dot com doesn’t even have this species included on their website yet (I’ve requested it!) and otherwise online I find it reported from Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua, so my photo may be the first reported of this species from Costa Rica (IF my identity is correct) 🙂 and this is not the first time for me to add a new species on that website! 🙂 I’ve found online two common names and two scientific names for what seems to be the same species of butterfly . . .
COMMON NAMES: Yellow-haired Skipper and Yellow-haired Pyramid-Skipper
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Typhedanus cajeta cajeta and Cogia cajeta cajeta
This is not terribly unusual with so many species of butterflies and new ones being discovered or named every year. And I just wait to see what my supervisor at Butterflies and Moths dot com decides to do with it. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Another fun holiday from the Washington Post article on “strange and fun holidays:”
National Chocolate-Covered Insects Day (October 14): Chocolate tastes delicious on anything, right? So why not insects? They are filled with protein and are popular foods in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Be adventurous and try chocolate-covered ants, crickets or superworms. So celebrate what will be one of the major food sources in the future! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!