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The Frosted Flasher, Astraptes alardus (butterflies & moths website) is found from Argentina throughout Central America to Mexico and Cuba. This is my first record of one in my garden, though several flashers can look alike. 🙂 The “frosted” is that wide white band on the underneath side of his wing. Here’s 4 photos from yesterday and you can see more in my Frosted Flasher Gallery. The butterflies are abundant here this year! 🙂
The White Angled Sulphur, Anteos clorinde (link to butterflies&moths site), is not new to me and when I get my photos loaded to that website I think I will have some of the better photos there, but I haven’t gotten to my White Angled Sulphur GALLERY yet. 🙂 Check it out!
I’ve been very busy with so many butterflies to photograph in my garden daily (and almost no birds for some reason) plus I still haven’t caught up with identifying and approving all the submissions from Costa Rica to the butterflies & moths website (very time-consuming!) that I don’t have time to get my own photos submitted! 🙂
Here’s 3 shots of today’s White Angled-Sulphur . . .
I read three things today that helped me realize again how fortunate I am to be living in such an amazing little country as Costa Rica! AND how much I have slowed down, calmed down, and embraced nature since I’ve been living here, eight years this coming December! Here’s links to the three inspirational articles I read today . . .
Continue reading “Pura Vida Inspiration”
Another butterfly today that I’ve seen only one other time, and yes, it looks a lot like some of the Cattlehearts (which are related to Swallowtails), but is one of five black & red & white butterflies labeled “Swallowtails.” You can read a little about the Papilio anchisiades or Ruby-spotted Swallowtail on butterfliesandmoths.org, which are found from Argentina north to South Texas, and for only a few more pix, check out my Ruby-spotted Swallowtail Gallery.
Eusalasia Cheles is the scientific name of this new butterfly for me and it will be new for butterfliesandmoths.org website that I volunteer for after my request to add it as a species is processed and my photos will then be their first! 🙂 My garden is becoming a rich source of butterflies!
It is found only in Costa Rica and Panama and there is not much online about it with only pictures of pinned specimens on the most prolific butterfliesofamerica.com. For the common name, they just reverse the scientific name, calling it “Cheles Eusalasia” while my Butterflies of Mexico and Central America book has the common name of “Dimorphic Sombermark,” with “sombermarks” being a subspecies category of “metalmarks.” Here are my 5 photos of one that first came in my house before I shooed him back into the garden! 🙂
I never tire of trying to capture a slightly different view of Atenas from atop the hill I live on the side of in Residential Roca Verde, Atenas, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica. These are not necessarily my best shots, so check out the others in my gallery: From Hill Above My House.
Here’s the three shots from my walk the other day, one a single shot vista and the others are two-shot panoramas of Atenas Central from atop Phase 1 of Residential Roca Verde. If you look close you can see the church steeple and the palm trees in front of it which are in our Central Park.
¡Pura Vida!
For you butterfly aficionados, you probably already know that the backside pattern of the Giant Swallowtail and the Thoas Swallowtail at first glance look the same, but thanks to my favorite butterfly book I now know that there are slight differences in all those spots and the Thoas is a much lighter yellow or nearly white on black while the Giant is obviously a light yellow on black. Then the underside of the hind wings is the real giveaway with the Giant having a lot of blue spots and the Thoas only one little spec! So check it out the next time you see one of these! 🙂
Just two photos from my garden on Sunday of the Giant Swallowtail, Papilio cresphontes, with that link to butterfliesandmoths.org website article, photos and map. And you might want to see my other photos of this giant in my gallery of Giant Swallowtails with some much better photos than these! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
And then there is my Costa Rica Butterflies & Moths Gallery!
On a recent walk that I haven’t been doing as much since cancer is the walk over the steep hill that my little rental casita hangs on the side of. It’s a difficult climb up, but with some rewarding views like this one I share today. And yes, I know, there’s actually 2 houses on that hill in Phase 2 of Roca Verde (I’m in Phase 1), but one house is the center of the view beneath the big mountains in the background, that I’m pretty sure are the ones in Braulio Carrillo National Park just east & NE of San Jose and thus two of the peaks may be Volcanoes Barva and Cacho Negro.
I’ve scheduled another butterfly for tomorrow’s post then the next day I’ll share a different vista from that same hilltop walk, one viewing our little town (called a pueblo here) of Atenas in Alajuela Province. ¡Pura vida! 🙂
Some of my other Costa Rica VISTAS, a Gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
The feature photo or the next two shots after this top view shows the “broken silver drop” as the odd-shaped white spot. The scientific name is Epargyreus exadeus and it is one of the many Skipper butterflies which you can read about on butterfliesandmoths.org.
I photographed this 3 days ago in my garden and the other one I’ve posted was back in October 2021 as seen on my kitchen counter inside my house. 🙂 Plus the same day I photographed this I posted another Skipper with a blue top, similar-looking, but he was a Double-striped Longtail with the two obvious differences being his long tail plus the two stripes in his name referred to dark stripes on his hind wings or folded wings while he had more than two stripes on his top, though similar looking with the blue top! Here’s three photos of today’s “Two-barred Flasher” skipper butterfly.