Category: Butterflies

Butterflies photographed in Costa Rica and nearby

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Giant Swallowtail

For you butterfly aficionados, you probably already know that the backside pattern of the Giant Swallowtail and the Thoas Swallowtail at first glance look the same, but thanks to my favorite butterfly book I now know that there are slight differences in all those spots and the Thoas is a much lighter yellow or nearly white on black while the Giant is obviously a light yellow on black. Then the underside of the hind wings is the real giveaway with the Giant having a lot of blue spots and the Thoas only one little spec! So check it out the next time you see one of these! 🙂

Just two photos from my garden on Sunday of the Giant Swallowtail, Papilio cresphontes, with that link to butterfliesandmoths.org website article, photos and map. And you might want to see my other photos of this giant in my gallery of Giant Swallowtails with some much better photos than these! 🙂

Giant Swallowtail, Atenas, Costa Rica
Giant Swallowtail, Atenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

And then there is my Costa Rica Butterflies & Moths Gallery!

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Two-barred Flasher

I photographed this 3 days ago in my garden and the other one I’ve posted was back in October 2021 as seen on my kitchen counter inside my house. 🙂 Plus the same day I photographed this I posted another Skipper with a blue top, similar-looking, but he was a Double-striped Longtail with the two obvious differences being his long tail plus the two stripes in his name referred to dark stripes on his hind wings or folded wings while he had more than two stripes on his top, though similar looking with the blue top! Here’s three photos of today’s “Two-barred Flasher” skipper butterfly.

Two-barred Flasher, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Purple-washed Eyed-Metalmark (or Eyemark)

At 1.5 inches wide, wing-tip to wing-tip, this one is smaller than my earlier similar “Blue-patched Eyed-Metalmark/Eyemark” and a whole lot smaller than an even earlier “Blue-winged Sheenmark,” all of similar design and colors. I’m thinking this one may be a sub-species of the “Purple-washed” or a new species “I’ve discovered” 🙂 because of two differences from the other purple-washed photos online and in my book:

The book does say that the “Purple-washed” color can be blue instead of purple (like mine) but (1) in the other photos “the wash” (blue or purple) is bleeding into the forward wings (this one doesn’t) and (2) none of the others have the tiny black “almond eyes” on the top of the hind-wing blue or purple like this one. Otherwise it is identical to the Purple-washed Eyed-Metalmark photos in the book and online at ButterfliesOfAmerica and a few of other sites. Maybe another evolutionary change or sub-species? The scientific name is Mesosemia lamachus, if this is what I photographed. 🙂 If not, I’m hoping someone can give me the correct identification. This Mesosemia lamachus is on page 63 of the Second Edition of the Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America for anyone wanting to follow-up on it and also on the BOA link above. 🙂

There are so many amazing creatures here in Costa Rica that seem to appear from nowhere some days! 🙂 This one appeared in my kitchen last Saturday night as I was preparing dinner and I tried to photograph him in the poor house light at night, first with my cellphone (which did better) and then with my SLR and zoom lens from a distance. Here’s four shots of another tiny butterfly of which I’m not positive of the ID.

It first landed here on my marble kitchen counter which is not the best background. 🙂
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Double-striped Longtail

Though I did not get a folded wing view with the double stripes, the golden-based color of the bluish/turquoise back identify this longtail as the Double-striped Longtail (butterfliesandmoths site) which seems to be rarely seen. This is my first sighting that I know of. If you browse my CR Butterflies Galleries you will see that there are several other “Longtail” Skippers besides this one and each is interesting. And like so many of the butterflies, there are several others that look a lot like this one, especially this time the Esmeralda Longtail, Urbanus esmeraldus.

Double-striped Longtail Skipper, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Pink-spotted Cattleheart

I think this is a beautiful “Swallowtail-Like” butterfly that I’ve seen two other times before this; once before in my garden and once at Villa Calletas Hotel in Jaco Beach on the Pacific Coast. I know that at first glance, the spots above the crescents seem red rather than pink, but if you look at my top-view photo you can tell that they are more pink in some light. 🙂 Here’s four different photo views of one in my garden a week ago yesterday.

Pink-spotted Cattleheart, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Giant White Butterfly

A fairly common butterfly here, I think. You can read about them on butterfliesandmoths.org with scientific name of Ganyra josephina, they are found from South Texas through Central America and I’ve seen quite a few here this year, though not this many that would pause long enough for a photo. 🙂 See my other photos of this butterfly in my Giant White Gallery. Or to see my photos of several other species of Whites, go to the bigger Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery. And here’s 4 shots of a Giant White in my garden the other day. Sorry they are damaged but it has been pretty windy this year which may be why . . .

Giant White, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Fiery Skipper (Maybe)

Because I’m choosing IDs for a website now I am even more cautious or unsure of my identifications now and still don’t have an expert to run it by. But this seems to be the closest match out of around a dozen orange and brown Skipper butterflies in my book, A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America, which I still depend on mostly. The website I’m volunteering for as Costa Rica Coordinator has so many different photos of this species that it makes it even more confusing, but as one of the most frequently cited species in this color I’m probably safe. 🙂 Size: about as big as my thumb.

Here’s my five totally different views of this orangey butterfly from two different days in my garden that I hope I have labeled correctly . . .

Fiery Skipper, Atenas, Costa Rica
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New Thumbnail-sized Butterfly

I really struggled with the ID on this butterfly, thinking at first it was one of the Sarota Jewelmarks which are all tiny, but the patterns just did not match any of them. Then moving into the Metalmarks I found two that had similar patterns with colors and dark center matching best with the Rounded Metalmark, Caliphelis perditalis (link to butterfliesandmoths.org). There seem to be a lot of these in Mexico and Texas while I’m the first to note one in Costa Rica on the above website. Here’s two shots from different angles, though he never landed with his wings folded which is the other shot I try to get for ID purposes . . .

Rounded Metalmark, Cliphelis perditalis, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Blomfild’s Beauty

Not a new butterfly for me though the first one seen this year. It is beautiful in it’s own complicated sort of way like a paisley design? 🙂

The scientific name is Smyrna blomfildia (Butterfliesandmoths.org) and it is found throughout Central America and Mexico and the southwestern fringes of the United States. Just two shots here and FYI, that is a narrow ceiling level screen for air flow in my laundry room (much lint) and I did vacuum the screen after seeing these photos! 🙂

Blomfild’s Beauty, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Blomfild’s Beauty, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

See other photos in my Blomfild’s Beauty Gallery.

¡Pura Vida!