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This Red-spotted Scrub-Hairstreak or Strymon ziba is another new species of butterflies for me! Also found only in Central America and southern Mexico. See more of him on butterfliesandmoths. Here’s one of my shots and you can see more in my gallery: Red-spotted Scrub-Hairstreak.
¡Pura Vida!
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Three totally different shots . . .
And a surprising image of him/her taking flight . . .
Continue reading “Beautiful White-winged Dove”
The Tropical Greenstreak, Cyanophrys herodotus, (linked to butterfliesandmoths) is another new species for me this year AND another one found only in Central America & Mexico! 🙂 It is also earlier than I had been getting new species in past years. This makes about 4 or 5 new species before the month of May this year, which surprises me because it is so hot and windy this year. But then, nature never ceases to surprise! 🙂 There are only a few more shots of this same tiny green fellow in my Tropical Greenstreak GALLERY, but I expect I will be adding more in the future. Heres 3 shots for the blog . . .
Yes, I know, I’ve done this post before, several times, but every time the flowers are different and I see or photograph them differently. And this time it is a collection of favorite shots from the previous few weeks, late March and early April. Below this one shot for the email version is a gallery of 18 photos, all different flowers and species repeated only when each flower is quite different. Enjoy God’s beautiful jewels from my tropical Costa Rica garden 🙂 . . .
I’m not sure that I can explain why, but these Polydamas Swallowtails reminded me of flying acrobats or dancers as they swoop in and out of the flowers for their feeding. Fun to watch! 🙂 They are Polydamas Swallowtail, Battus polydamas (link to my Polydamas GALLERY with many more shots of their graceful flying and perching).
Some weeks back I shared a couple of shots of what I found are Physalis “Chinese Lanterns” growing on a vine over my neighbor’s fence and I have been mesmerized by them! They seemed to have turned red as they matured and then faded before falling to the ground. Here’s 6 shots I made of them recently (the unidentified insect is a bonus!) . . .
It seems that I occasionally have days or weeks like this when I keep seeing a new species of butterfly and last week was kind of like that! (I’m only one week ahead on blog posts now!) 🙂 These are among the often-called “Blues” because of blue on the top of their wings and are in the Lycaenidae or Gossamer Wings butterflies (link to my galleries of that family). That family are nearly all very tiny, as is this one (like the size of my thumbnail). This one is a Western Pygmy-Blue, Brephidium exilis (link to my gallery) and you can see photos from other places on butterfliesandmoths. They are found in the U.S. Far West and Southwest on south through Central America to Venezuela . Here’s one shot and you can go to my gallery above for more.
¡Pura Vida!
I’ve seen and photographed a lot of Yellows, but not only is this one new to me, there is only one other on butterfliesandmoths and it was submitted from the Dominican Republic, West Indies. I got several shots almost identical to this one on the tiny wildflower and then he was off, not to be seen again! 🙂
Butterflies of America has photos only of the old-fashion pinned specimens while iNaturalist has several live photos from South America & West Indies, if you click on “View More” after their first little photos. Both of those sites have a little bit of info on the species though they don’t include it being in Costa Rica! 🙂 But that is okay because being in the geographical center of the isthmus between North & South America, we get migrants of all species from both continents! (And West Indies!) Maybe my photos will change the ranges for this butterfly on some of these “official” websites! 🙂 Right now they all say that it is only found in the West Indies (Caribbean Islands) and South America. I fooled them, didn’t I! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
One of my favorite insects in the garden, who adds almost as much color as a butterfly! 🙂 The Green Orchid Bee, Euglossa dilemma (Wikipedia link) is a native of Central America, plus someone introduced it in Florida.
I never tire of photographing this tree that I planted in 2015.
¡Pura Vida!