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Butterflies photographed in Costa Rica and nearby
This butterfly in my garden is like many of the others, hard to identify, but the closest match in my book and online seems to be Salome Yellow (Eurema salome) (link to butterfliesandmoths.org). The book was more helpful for this butterfly than this online site though other sites verified the single spot on top. While the bottom side of the wings is very similar to both the Cloudless Sulphur and Tailed Sulphur, the heavier border and single dark dot on top seals it for this species, I think! 🙂
Occasionally I realize how much I would miss if I had a car instead of walking to town. 🙂 More than just reducing my carbon footprint and helping my health by walking, I get the serendipity of seeing a new or rare butterfly or bird – like this one! Another lifer!
As with the Western Pygmy-blue seen at Chachagua, this one is tiny or thumbnail sized (a tiny bit larger than the Pygmy-blue) and my first time to see or photograph this Blue Metalmark – Lasaia sula Staudinger (butterfliesandmoths.org link).
One house that I always pass on the way to town has lots of flowers and by their corner they have an occasional bed of zinnias, not oft seen here. This metalmark was on the zinnias with a Polydamas Swallowtail and I got photos of both with my cell phone before continuing on toward town. 🙂 What a life! 🙂
Though I still have another week’s worth of blog posts about my visit to Chachagua Rainforest Hotel, I have also completed the photo gallery on this trip for anyone who wants to see all the shots from this trip together in one place. 🙂 CLICK on the image of first page of gallery below which this time is all in just 3 folders: Birds, Other Wildlife and Hotel Grounds.
If that image click doesn’t work, try this new SmugMug Gallery Address URL: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2022-May-16-21-Chachagua-Rainforest-Hotel-San-Ramon-Alajuela
¡Pura Vida!
UPDATE & CORRECTION, April 2024:
I made a big mistake when I first identified this back in 2022. The real identity is Simple Sarota, Sarota acantus. Sorry for any inconvenience! I first made the correction with a blog post April 14, 2024: Correcting a Butterfly ID. Then later decided I should make it here also.
I’m still going through photos from my visit to Chachagua Rainforest Hotel in San Ramon Canton of Alajuela Province and just discovered a new favorite that has taken a lot of work with the photos to get them visible. They are of a teeny tiny butterfly the size of a fingernail or at most my thumbnail! And with an internet search I discovered that it is a Western Pygmy-Blue, Brephidium exilis (Wikipedia article link). In my photos he/she is on the leaf of a flower and then on the stem of a flower. It is about the size of a fingernail or thumbnail, the smallest I’ve ever photographed and websites say it is one of the smallest in the world and the smallest in the Americas, found from the western U.S. south through Venezuela. They come in many color combinations and I think mine is prettier than any I saw online! 🙂 It wasn’t included in my earlier Rainforest Butterflies post because I had not processed these photos yet, made on my last day there in one of their gardens.
I managed to get photos of 6 butterflies at Chachagua Rainforest Hotel out of about 10 different species I saw. These aren’t great photos but they document what I saw all over the hotel property from gardens to the lakes. Of these 6, four are first-time-seen butterflies for me, all but the Yellow and the White Peacock. Here’s one photo for the email announcement of this post, then all 6 are in a gallery in the full post online.
That’s the official name and commonly called just Heliconius doris (Wikipedia article link) or Doris Longwing, whether the red or blue version. Though not usually said about butterflies, this is a “Lifer” butterfly for me! First one to see or photograph! And if you count my “Lifer” fungus, this makes 3 lifers on this trip! 🙂 So my Heliconius doris viridis Gallery has only these 3 photos in it for now. This butterfly is said to be more common in the Amazon of Brazil, though I didn’t see it when I was there. 🙂
There are many Long-tailed Skippers but with my book and the internet I am still unable to find an exact match for this specific species in my garden yesterday. At least the butterflies are coming again now! 🙂
The one labeled simply “Long-tailed Skipper” has blue on his back in all ID sources, this one in my photos does not. The Teleus Longtail Skipper is also like this one, without the blue, but has white lines instead of white dots at the top of wings. The devil’s in the details! 🙂 So these photos go in my gallery folder labeled “Skipper, Longtail Unidentified.” (Yes, I have others!) 🙁 And if any reader is certain of the ID, please CONTACT me! 🙂
And here’s 4 images from my garden yesterday . . .
Continue reading “A Long-tailed Skipper?”
The Polydamas Swallowtail (Link to butterfliesandmoths.org) seems to be one of the most common in my garden and one of first showing up early this year! 🙂 I have 28 photos in my Polydamas Swallowtail Gallery, all made in my garden! 🙂
Unlike other butterflies here, I have no photos from my many visits to other locations in Costa Rica. These photos were made day before yesterday, May 6, which means it is early for a lot of butterflies, other than Yellows flitting about, and in past years butterflies have peaked at my house in June & July. I’m located in the western foothills of the Central Valley of Costa Rica. I have a trip north of here next week and hope for some different early butterflies there and then on my July trip is to the southwest of the country, maybe something new there, I hope! 🙂
Costa Rica has an incredible variety of butterflies as a part of more than 300,000 insect species, the most for any country it’s size. Part of that is due to our location as a “connecting bridge” of land between North and South America. The above butterfly website shows this particular Swallowtail appearing across the Southern U.S. and throughout Central America and the Caribbean Islands.
¡Pura Vida!
See all my Costa Rica Butterfly Galleries. 139+ species!
Lavinia Clearwing (Hypoleria lavinia) (link to Butterflies & Moths of North America site) or Fuzzy-spotted Ticlear in my book A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America. This seems to be fairly rare or at least I’m not finding much about it online. This one appeared in my kitchen as I was preparing a ham sandwich, landing first on a bottle of relish then flying to the floor where he seems to be on his last leg, though when I I examine closely the one on the floor seems a little different – hmmm. Anyway, it’s another new butterfly for me! 🙂
See my Costa Rica Butterflies GALLERY.
¡Pura Vida!
That now makes 18 national symbols for Costa Rica! Read about why this one and what the other national symbols are in this Tico Times Article. And be sure to check out my collection of Blue Morpho photos in my Blue Morpho Gallery! Including this one below.
And you might also be interested in this article in Tico Times this week: Costa Rica Increases Forest Protection by Over 16 million Hectares
¡Pura Vida!