bright scintillant Archives - Retired in Costa Rica

In the Glassberg book, this matches what Jeffrey Glassberg calls the Bright Scintillant, a Calephelis Species, but my butterfly websites don’t list it as an official species, so I continue to list it in the next closest match, Rounded Metalmark, Calephelis perditalis, though I think it should be listed as a separate subspecies. Most of the characteristics of these two are the same with the Bright Scintillant obviously being brighter and also the border fringe is brown and white checkered, while the Rounded is one solid color. But I’m not in charge of naming butterflies, so I label them the best I can with what information I do have. 🙂 Here’s four shots of one recently in my garden and be aware that he is tiny, only a little larger than my thumbnail . . .

My best printed source of butterfly identification is the book A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America by Jeffrey Glassberg. In that book this butterfly is labeled as a “Bright Scintillant,” but rather than giving a scientific name, it just says it is one of the “Calephelis species.” The butterfly website I volunteer for (butterfliesandmoths.org) does not have Bright Scintillant nor does its backup website, butterfliesofamerica.com, therefore I and others have put this one in “Rounded Metalmark, Calephelis peritalis,“ a part of the “Calephelis species” as the book says. But according to the Glasberg book, the white dots on the upper edges of the the forward wing make this one different from the Rounded Metalmark in the book. I do not know who is the final authority on butterfly names, but hope this one is at least made a subspecies of the Rounded Metalmark! And identification of the myriad of butterflies in Costa Rica will always have its challenges like this! 🙂 Here’s two shots of the latest I have seen of the above butterfly in my garden . . .