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Butterflies photographed in Costa Rica and nearby
The Heraldica Clearwing, Ithomia heraldica (my gallery link) is a common-looking orange & black butterfly that’s found only in Costa Rica and Panama say some sources, while others say from Columbia to Mexico. Either way, mostly Central America. Here’s a couple of shots from my trek on Calle Nueva the other day.
or at least I am pretty sure that is the identification, Banded Yellow, Eurema elathea (my gallery link) and it is common to have all of these different colors (white, tan, yellow, orangey), but without a view of the top of wings (to see yellow & brown bands) it is difficult for an exact ID as there are others similar to this in the Pieridae family of butterflies. 🙂 Here’s four shots from Calle Nueva, all 4 different colors (but I think the same species) . . .
seen on Calle Nueva that morning are the same as what I have regularly in my garden. Check out my photo collections in their two galleries with better photos than these two:
This Barred Yellow, Eurema daira (my gallery link) was in bright sunlight and thus the nicer colors that you can find in my gallery weren’t seen on that morning. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
A week ago yesterday I used that Saturday morning to walk about 10 blocks to just past Colegio Technico (our technical high school) to the entrance of the old dirt farm road named “Calle Nueva” with the hope of some butterflies different from my garden’s. I got 10+ species (about half were different and one was a new species!) which I will share here over the next few days . . .
This first one, Variable Cattleheart, Parides erithalion (my gallery link) is the most colorful from that 3 hour hike! 🙂 Here’s just two shots. Go to the above gallery for more.
When iNaturalist “Identifiers” (participants with expertise in butterflies) can’t accurately identify a photo, they will often generalize and give it a subfamily or genus label to put it under, and thus I am doing that also, especially with photos that don’t have enough details to be sure of the identity. And I’ve already started adding galleries for genus and subfamily for cases like this.
This one is almost definitely in the Genus Strymon (Scrub-Hairstreaks), but I’m not able to tell which species. Maybe someone will be able to on iNaturalist after I post it there or on BAMONA where I have to just click “unable to identify.” And both sites have people who maybe will identify is as a species. If interested, I have identified 5 species in this genus in my galleries:
And yes, today’s photo may be one of these or another Strymon not shown above. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
One of those tiny Hairstreak family of butterflies, the Cassius Blue, Leptotes cassius (my gallery link) may be a regular this year. I shared one in early April who was sitting on the wet black-topped driveway.
¡Pura Vida!
This Blue-gray Satyr, Magneuptychia libye (linked to iNaturalist Costa Rica where there are 307 observations of this species which is a new species for me!) and it makes my 22nd species of Satyrs! 🙂 My galleries for these are at the bottom of the Nymphalidae – BRUSHFOOTS Family Gallery, my largest family of butterflies, though just a little larger than the Skipper! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
And more about those migrants that the U.S. dumped on Costa Rica . . .
Continue reading “Blue-gray Satyr”
It still happens quite a bit for me to not be able to identify a butterfly. This one I first thought was one of the tiny Metalmarks, but all the A-I identifiers puts in in the bigger Skipper family with the leading genuses being Staphylus, Quadrus, or Ouleus, but I still can’t find a match with all my butterfly books and online help. I will eventually post it and hope someone will identify it. Very small, less than an inch wingspan. Here’s three photos . . .
The little thumbnail-sized Hairstreaks are beginning to show up as the busier butterfly time starts in my garden. Just be aware that butterflies can be found all year long all over Costa Rica. iNaturalist has a chart for each species showing when the observations were found and every month has some highs, regardless of the winds and other factors including my garden’s May-October high season, which may be because I have more flowers then. 🙂
I’ve seen this little one several times as shown in my GALLERY: Red-spotted Scrub-Hairstreak, Strymon ziba. And if you are a serious butterfly watcher here in Costa Rica, note that this species is very much like another, Strymon megarus (my gallery link), and the two are easily confused! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
One of my projects over the last few weeks has been to get all of my butterfly observation photos (11 years worth) in iNaturalist and I have nearly completed that tedious posting job with now over 1,500 observation posted on iNaturalist total, which beyond all my butterflies, I have also posted all of my dragonflies and I am in real time now posting other nature photos from day to day but not going back with my 11 year collections, like I just did with butterflies. 🙂
Now all of my Costa Rica butterfly photos will be on both iNaturalist and on butterfliesandmoths.org. Plus all bird photos on eBird and future birds on both. Contributing your image to these volunteer scientific sites will contribute to future research and hopefully the future preservation of many species. I recommend everyone to participate as they can. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!