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I shake my head in amazement that I keep getting photos of new butterfly species in my own garden in the little coffee farming town of Atenas in the Central Valley of Costa Rica. But here is another one seen last week for the first time: White-striped Longtail, Chioides albofasciatus (linked to my gallery with more photos). And you can see on the butterfliesandmothsMAP that they’ve only been reported from the SW U.S. and Mexico until now, but they are know to appear as far south as Argentina.
I planted a Pagoda Flower, Clerodendrum paniculatum, in my yard last year after seeing several large shrubs with many flowers in two or more lodges. (They were introduced here from SE Asia.) Mine seems to be “just hanging on” with two stems shooting up, one flower each, but nothing like what I had hoped for. Maybe this year it will grow into a bush and give me more than just 2 flowers. 🙂 Here’s two shots from the other day . . .
The rainy season is the big time for Heliconia flowers and this year in my garden they are massing on one side for some reason. I thought I would share what I see when I look out of my kitchen window while washing dishes! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
When I first came to Costa Rica, I had trouble identifying this species, but I’m relatively certain now, with specific characteristics: Turquoise tips on their antennae, yellow spot behind each eye and at joint of each hind wing, bluish-gray body, plus the dark brown or black “arrow-head” trim on the forward wings. The males are otherwise solid white while the females have a slight brownish hue to the white. You can see the differences in my Great Southern White Gallery. These photos are of a male. To help you see all the characteristics, I’ve included here from a recent sighting in my garden, 3 views: Top of wings, bottom of wings and a folded wings side view, the three views I try but seldom get when photographing all butterflies. 🙂
Not your everyday dragonfly! But my second time to see a Black-winged Dragonlet, Erythrodiplax funerea (linked to my gallery & the other photo made at Banana Azul in the Caribbean).
¡Pura Vida!
Walking back home from “Central” (what they call “downtown” here) along 8th Avenue in Barrio Boquerón, there were two bright orange butterflies that I thought were the same species, but later evaluating my cell phone photos of them on the computer, I realized the differences in the two species and my photo collection of 2 previous Daggerwings just doubled to 4! 🙂 Here’s one photo of each and you can go to my galleries to see the other shots, including one of the two together which is also the feature photo at top . . .
And oh yes, those other two Daggerwings I photographed away from home on two different rainforest trips (1 north & 1 south) . . .
No end to cool butterflies here! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
These four shots from my garden are all of a female who is the one with the brown trim on top of wings, while males are generally all yellow and easy to confuse with other yellows, especially if they have spots. 🙂 They are Dina Yellow, Pyrisitia dina, (linked to my gallery of them).
Another beautiful tropical butterfly that I first met in the Florida Everglades years ago, though a slightly different subspecies. This one found in Costa Rica is the Tropical Buckeye, Junonia evarete, (linked to my gallery) appearing from Florida & the Southwestern U.S. all the way down to Argentina. Here’s some recent shots of one in my garden . . .
For some reason, most of the big Yellows have been flying around up in the trees here and not down on the ground like other butterflies! 🙂 And of course there’s a natural explanation for every such phenomenon! I just don’t know it! 🙂
But the other day this female Cloudless Sulphur spent some time on the flowers in my garden and here are three fave photos from that experience. This first one below is where she looks like a fairy to me! 🙂 The second shot of her open wings is also the feature photo at top of this post online and it is interesting to note that only the females sometimes have those two brown spots on top of the wings. And the last photo is the most typical photo of a Cloudless Sulphur, showing a folded-wings side-view with the two prominent, imperfect double-white-circles used to identify a Cloudless Sulphur. No other Yellow has that! 🙂
The Rounded Metalmark, Calephelis perditalis (my gallery link) is a tiny butterfly that has been a regular in my garden in the past, though this was the first one I’ve photographed since February, as we have entered a new greener rainy season. It is found from Central Texas south through Mexico & Central America. Just one photo here. See more in my above linked gallery or see what the Texas ones look like on butterfliesandmoths. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
I’m scheduled to go to Xandari Resort in Alajuela tomorrow for just 2 nights and it has been one of my best butterfly places, so there may be a lot more different ones coming from there soon! 🙂