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Another one of those tiny little butterflies and the second time for me to see the Cassius Blue, Leptotes cassius (my gallery link), both times this year! I keep being surprised with new species and during a year with an extra hot and windy pre-rainy season! But fortunately, the rainy season has started and my garden is happy! Along with the birds and butterflies! 🙂 And here’s 3 shots of the Cassius Blue with different light, shading and details . . .
Thanks to one of the volunteers on iNaturalist, I now have a species name for that “cute smiling” flower I photographed at Arenal last month. The scientific name is Trimezia gracilis and the most used common name is Liro Caminante, with a less-used common name of Falsa Orquidea. You can see a map of where they are found around the world and read more information about them on PlantNet.org. Here’s that one photo again and I’m proud to be first to share it on iNaturalist! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
I just can’t stop photographing this unique tree! But every photo is different! 🙂 This species lives up to 25 or 30 years, which is a short life for trees, but they perform many functions in the rainforest & cloud forest. Here are two blog posts on it’s longevity from the University of Georgia in Costa Rica Blog. (Lots of universities from around the world have campuses in Costa Rica! One reason is that we have more species of plants and animals than any other country its size in the world!) 🙂
My Cecropia Gallery.
¡Pura vida!
Postscript: Thanks to my Tennessee friend Larry Yarbrough for this link to an article titled Birding for the Soul, about how birding and other nature activities, like looking for butterflies, 🙂 not only lifts your spirits but is mentally and spiritually strengthening and it helps world research on saving nature. I hope you will get involved with nature in whatever way pleases you and enjoy the benefits! 🙂 ~Charlie
One of the more common birds that has been back in my garden for a while now is the Blue-gray Tanager, Thraupis episcopus (linked to my gallery), that is found from southern Mexico through all of Central America and the northern half of South America. Read more on eBird. Here’s a couple of shots made in April . . .
One of my unidentified photos from Arenal just got identified by an authority with butterfliesandmoths.org and it is another one of those rare finds and mine is the first one ever submitted to butterfliesandmoths. 🙂 Wikipedia says “Athis inca is a moth of the Castniidae family. It is found from Mexico to Costa Rica.” You can see this photo of mine posted on butterfliesandmoths or in my gallery. And to learn more, the website that seemed to have the most information was GBIF (linked). And Project Noah (linked) has several nice photos, including different subspecies. I’m proud of my find and so glad that J. Wiley Rains of BAMONA identified it for me! Costa Rica is just full of “rare finds!” 🙂 And it is wonderful to be “Retired in Costa Rica,” the name of my blog! 🙂
On this same trip I also found another semi-rare moth which you can see in my gallery, the Feigeria herilia, an equally interesting and different moth! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Both in the shadows of my Cecropia Tree, thus not great photos, but part of my purpose is to document what seen, when and where, which with eBird helps scientific research like also with my butterflies on butterfliesandmoths. Great photos or works of art come occasionally as an extra treat! 🙂
You can see more in my galleries linked below for these two bird species photographed all over Costa Rica:
¡Pura Vida!
And all my Costa Rica Birds GALLERIES.
An unknown leaf blew in from off my property and I haven’t identified it, but here’s 3 photos of the gracefully dead or dying leaf . . .
This is my second time to see this rare butterfly, with the other time being in the south of the country near Golfito at Playa Cativo Lodge on Golfo Dulce at Piedras Blancas National Park AND I am the only person to have submitted any photos of it to butterfliesandmoths.org (Link to their page for this butterfly.) Or you can see the same photos in my gallery for the Megarus Scrub-Hairstreak, Strymon megarus. 🙂 Here’s four shots from a recent sighting in my garden . . .
Finally, I have processed all the photos and organized them into another fun gallery representative of Arenal Observatory Lodge & Trails inside the Arenal Volcano National Park of Costa Rica. And the blog will be back to my little creatures and fun nature from my little garden. You can click the first page of the gallery below or if preferred, this address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2024-May-6-11-Arenal-Observatory-Lodge-Trails
And to visit there, see the Arenal Observatory Lodge WEBSITE.
¡Pura Vida!