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And how can a butterfly named “Apricot” not be cool? 🙂 This Apricot Sulphur, Phoebis argante (my gallery link) I saw just a week ago in my garden for my fourth sighting! One other time in my garden and once each at Xandari and Banana Azul, my two best butterfly hotels here! Check out the different looks in my gallery linked above or study them online. Here’s two shots with more from that sighting in the above gallery.
Saltbush Sootywing is the common name and the scientific name is Hesperopsis alpheus. This is a new species for me. And my ID is based on the Glassberg book where it is an exact match, but my photos don’t match the ones on butterfliesandmoths.org for this species, so I will probably be flagged and if so, I hope whomever can give a good identification for this butterfly, IF this ID is not correct. Note that the two photos are of the same insect on the same leaf within seconds apart, but the changing light or capture of the camera has them as two different colors. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
This Renata Satyr, Yphthimoides renata, was spotted on the campus of the La Gamba Field Station down the road from Esquinas Rainforest Lodge. It is a rainforest research station for the University of Vienna, Austria and that is why German is spoken in that area as much or more than English along with the Spanish of course! And I refused to put it in the headline, but this is another “first time seen” butterfly for me! 🙂 And I will do a post on the research station later. And for the butterfly enthusiasts, yes, you need the side view of Satyrs for good ID and by blowing up my one angled side shot I was able to confirm the proper eye spots and lines to assure this identity. 🙂 Another Central American butterfly!
¡Pura Vida!
And of course you do know that I mean Peacock BUTTERFLY! 🙂
There are two species that I see here, the more common is the Banded Peacock that I see all over Costa Rica and shared one from last week’s visit to Xandari, but maybe my preferred is the simpler but elegant White Peacock Butterfly, Anartia jatrophae. Click that link for my gallery photos of them. They are also found all over Costa Rica, though not in the abundance of the Banded Peacock. These are the only 2 “Peacock” butterflies in Costa Rica, while Panama and south into South America there is also a Red Peacock Butterfly which is similar to the Banded but with thicker bands of red where the Banded has thinner white bands.
Another new butterfly for me! And in my home garden no less! 🙂 The Royal Firetip or Mysoria barcastus is found from Mexico through most of South America, and just one more of our myriad of butterflies here! Though I’m finding new butterflies on most of my trips to different forest locations, the vast majority of my Costa Rica Butterfly Collection (150+) has been photographed in my Gardens here in Atenas! And I have now become as interested in butterflies as in birds, with both being somewhat of a challenge to photograph. 🙂 Here’s 3 photos of this new species for me:
Another “First Time Seen” butterfly for me, so I’m doing a second post today! 🙂 One of the “Hairstreak” butterflies, the Dusky-blue Groundstreak, Calycopis isobeon (link to butterflies & moths.org), is all over Costa Rica and another fingernail-sized butterfly! 🙂
I’m posting more butterflies than birds now partly because I haven’t had many birds in my garden and this is the time of year for more butterflies in Atenas is one reason. Another is that my interest in butterflies is going up and I have just become the “Costa Rica Coordinator” for the website butterfliesandmoths.org and since they haven’t had a CR Coordinator for 7 or more years here, I inherited a backlog of 450 submissions which will take months to go through, identify and approve while I’m anxious to submit my own 150 species photographed here. 🙂 I seem to always have plenty to keep me busy! 🙂 Enjoy this cool and different tiny butterfly and go outside and look for some where you live!
My second time to see this colorful butterfly was almost two weeks ago (yeah, I’m writing posts way ahead again, but will do it live daily on my trip in July). It was after breakfast, walking in my garden, when I found him. The Guava Skipper, Phocides polybius (Wikipedia link) is found from South Texas through Mexico and all of Central America down to Argentina. My only other time to see one was at Xandari Resort Alajuela for my birthday in 2019. Those photos plus these here can be seen in my Guava Skipper Gallery.
The one at Xandari was bluer than this one which is darker or close to black. And it is interesting that most of my butterfly photos at home show them on a Porterweed flower even though I have many other flowers. An obvious preference for butterflies and hummingbirds! 🙂 And by the way, they are called “Guava” because they lay their eggs on a Guava Plant, which is somewhere between a shrub and a small tropical tree. 🙂
Now here’s six shots in a slideshow for a change . . .
Continue reading “Guava Skipper”
I spent more than an hour searching for the identification of this butterfly that I photographed from beneath or below in the Gardens of Guayabo Lodge, Turrialba last week. Then I suddenly realized that it is the same butterfly as yesterday’s, just the other side! 🙂 Dummy me! The closest similarity was the underside of the Dione Juno Heliconian Butterfly, but I am fairly certain that this one is Mexican! 🙂
Continue reading “A Dazzling Surprise”
This one is not only a regular in my garden but I’ve photographed him all over Costa Rica as you can see in my Banded Peacock Gallery. Read more about this Banded Peacock, Anartia fatima on Wikipedia. Note that there is another butterfly with this English common name, but this Anartia fatima is found only from South Texas through Mexico and Central America, though most common in Costa Rica.
Two more photos today . . .
Continue reading “Banded Peacock Butterfly”
And 4 species today! 🙂 I went out and photographed the above flowers for a one-shot post when I realized there was a dozen or so butterflies beyond them on my Porterweed flowers of these 4 species (one I incorrectly named the other day}:
See more of these 4 and 100 others in my Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery.
¡Pura Vida!