Gulf fritillary or passion butterfly

The Gulf Fritillary Butterfly is found in the states touching the Gulf of Mexico, especially Florida and South Texas, all the way south through Central America and the northern edges of South America. They love to feed on my Lantana (Porterweed) plants shown in these photos in my garden and also love the Passionflower when available (I have none), thus its secondary name of Passion Butterfly.

The above average rain this year has helped my flowers which seems to bring more butterflies and maybe more varieties. June and July are the peak months for butterflies here, meaning they may decrease in number soon. I include two photos to show the difference in the bright orange top of wings and the underside with silver/white spots. Beautiful!

Gulf Fritillary or Passion Butterfly

 

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly.    ~Richard Bach

See also my Photo Gallery Butterflies and Moths with more than 70 species photographed here in Costa Rica.

I also have a little 7X7 inch photo book titled My First 50 Butterflies in Costa Rica.  You can preview all pages electronically for free at this link. Best viewed full screen for bigger photos.

Report on Tonight’s Surgery will come in tomorrow’s post, Tuesday.

¡Pura Vida!

Giant White Butterfly

This name or label is the closest match found in online searches with the scientific name of  Ganyra josephina, found from South Texas all the way through Central America to northern South America. It is similar to the Felder’s White found in the book A Swift Guide to the Butterflies of Mexico and Central America with scientific name Ganyra phaloe (which name I almost gave it). Another web page had a similar butterfly labeled Godart’s White, almost identical to Felder’s, both having a little brown edge around the upper wings which mine does not have. Mine more closely matches the “Giant White” photos and descriptions online but is not in Swift’s book.

Butterflies are so difficult to identify, especially in Costa Rica where we seem to have millions of different ones! This was photographed in my garden in Atenas, Costa Rica.

See also my Photo Gallery Butterflies and Moths with more than 70 species photographed here in Costa Rica.

I also have a little 7X7 inch photo book titled My First 50 Butterflies in Costa Rica.  You can preview all pages electronically for free at this link. Best viewed full screen for bigger photos.

¡Pura Vida!

Butterflies in Home Garden

“There’s no place like home” for garden and butterfly photos, well . . .  some of the time. 4 simple shots right out my door, one morning. Click to see larger.

See my Butterflies & Moths Photo Gallery for a lot more butterflies!

¡Pura Vida!

Retired in Costa Rica

Butterflies and Other Bugs – Xandari

Xandari is like any place in Costa Rica, there are lots of bugs, but I don’t think as many here as some deeper forests I’ve been in. And this is butterfly season! Here’s a little slide show of 6 butterflies and 2 other insects photographed at Xandari Nature Resort. Enjoy!

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¡Pura Vida!

See my Trip Photo Gallery:  2018 Xandari Resort

Xandari costa rica   (their website)

 

 

West Indian Buckeye

West Indian Buckeye Butterfly
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
I am glad that we are getting a lot more butterflies now! I had forgotten that it was mainly in June & July that the butterflies were numerous. I have a bad photo of one of these West Indian Buckeys, but this is my first good photo that shows the beauty of its coloration and design.

PREPARING NEW WEBSITE/BLOG AT WORDPRESS

I will be working on my new website at charliedoggett.net for a long time it seems, though my phone appointment with a specialist Tuesday may move me forward a little quicker. That may be when I move this blogger.com blog into WordPress. We will see. I have started a practice blog in WordPress, but it will not be the main one until they are merged there. The merging is suppose to include moving my subscriptions, but I never totally trust computers or programmers, so be prepared to sign up again if necessary!
Then I will consider moving my photo gallery into the same website so everything is together.  ¡Poco a poco! Little by little!
¡Pura Vida!

A Sphinx Moth?

One of the Sphinx Moths maybespecific variety not found
La Coope Supermercado Auto Repair Shop
Atenas, Costa Rica

During my first year or so here I was finding new butterflies or moths nearly every week but have not in months if not a year or longer recently. On the last two trips I saw several Banded Peacocks which are kind of common butterflies to me now and nothing else that would land. Both Arenal and Corcovado had several fast-flying butterflies that never landed or slowed down for a photo. That included several Blue Morphos at Corcovado. But this is my first photo in a good while and I cannot positively identify it. If you know, please leave a comment! Or email me. Cell phone shot.

And see my similar photos in gallery  Butterflies & Moths.

¡Pura Vida!

Daytime Nature Hike

Our guide told us a lot about plants as well as animals.
 I’ll do a separate post about plants & flowers in the forest.
The 2 young men behind the guide are from Chicago. 3 of us on hike.
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
 San Ramon, Costa Rica

Parsa or Synchlora gerularia Moth 
 I’ll research more when I get home.
 Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
 San Ramon, Costa Rica

Unknown Insect, a little beetle
 Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
 San Ramon, Costa Rica

Unknown Insect, a little beetle
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
 San Ramon, Costa Rica
Stink Bug
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
 San Ramon, Costa Rica
Unknown Caterpillar  
 Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
 San Ramon, Costa Rica 

Unknown Caterpillar 
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
 San Ramon, Costa Rica
Unknown Butterfly  
 Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
 San Ramon, Costa Rica

Glasswing Butterfly
 
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
 San Ramon, Costa Rica

Red-tailed Dragonfly
 
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
 San Ramon, Costa Rica

Walking Stick Insect
 
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
 San Ramon, Costa Rica

Paw Print of Ocelot 
At least our guide thought so. See three toe prints right of beige leaf.
 Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve
 San Ramon, Costa Rica

And the next morning this guy was in hotel garden – he fits with day hike varmits:

Hooded Mantis
 
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort & Nature Reserve
 San Ramon, Costa Rica

Hooded Mantis
 
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort & Nature Reserve 
 San Ramon, Costa Rica

We saw a lot more stuff and he told us about plants used for medicines, not only by natives, but also by modern pharmaceutical companies. Interesting but I will never remember most of that!  🙂

My Trip Photo Gallery:  2017 Nov 6-11 Villa Blanca

Or go through my general Costa Rica Gallery for subsets on insects, butterflies, plants, etc. 
Or see the Villa Blanca Website  And several more blog posts with more photos!

Heliconius Hecale Zuleika

Heliconius Hecale Zuleika 
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

This is not a new species, but It seems like I haven’t been photographing as many butterflies this year, so wanting to include one. I got a better shot of this Heliconius in August. Butterflies are fun!

Happiness is a butterfly . . .
 
~Nathaniel Hawthorne