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The “Southern” in the name doesn’t refer to just the deep south of the U.S. but also to further south as in Tropical America (Central & South + Caribbean Islands) where you can also find this butterfly. See some more of my photos made here in Costa Rica in the GALLERY: Great Southern White – Ascia monuste. Here’s two shots of the same butterfly in my garden with different light, making it look like two different insects!
What I (and others) have been calling “Rounded Metalmark,” I now believe are Calephelis laverna (scientific name), Laverna Metalmark, Calephelis laverna (my gallery link). A Google AI summary of searches on the differences in Rounded and Laverna Metalmarks show the wing patterns to be almost identical with possibly “minor differences in genitalia and primary difference being the geographic distribution.” With Rounded Metalmarks found in Texas and Mexico and Laverna Metalmark (some sites use just “Calephelis laverna”) residing in Central America and parts of South America, especially noted in Costa Rica by the AI. Thus I am moving all of my Rounded Metalmarks to Laverna. Here are two photos of the one seen in my Garden Wednesday (side view & top view) . . .
There are many Whites and some are easily confused, but this one seems to be the most common in my garden and you can see other photos of it in my Gallery: Giant White, Ganyra josephina. Here’s 2 photos (when possible, I always try to get a side view & top view) of the one in my garden 3 days ago . . .
This brilliant orange butterfly, Julia Heliconian, Dryas julia (my gallery link) sometimes reminds me of my beaming special needs daughter, Juli, who died of kidney failure in 1997. She too was brilliant, hyper-active and unpredictable! 🙂 And only parents of other special needs children know what I mean. 🙂 She was the only true love in my life at that time and I will always miss her! Pura vida!
¡Pura Vida!
Of course there are other looks of this Florida White, Glutophrissa drusilla (my gallery link), but I kind of liked this one captured in my garden in July. See the above gallery for more looks. And I will now start posting August photos, but if the photo ops run thin, I may go back to some more like this from July! There were a lot! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
I’m not even trying to make it to all the colorful activities in our little farming community’s Central Park, but thanks to Facebook sending me links to posts they think might interest me, here’s a video from the Atenas FB Page of a folklore musical performance this past week . . .
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=1292819208868018
https://www.facebook.com/MuniAtenas/videos/1292819208868018/?__tn__=F
It wouldn’t “embed” with a picture with either address. Technology is getting to be too much for me! 🙂
This Marcellina Sulphur, Phoebis marcellina (iNaturalist link) has had only 56 observations in Costa Rica on iNaturalist and was my 3rd new species in July. I had a total of 31 species of butterflies photographed which could make it a near-record month! I haven’t been counting by months before, but have now started doing all my uploads to 4 websites by months, keeping a record now of each month for birds, butterflies and other wildlife. But with the recent bout of all-day cloudiness, it has slowed down with the less flowers. But who knows what tomorrow holds? 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Continue reading “Another New Species of Butterflies”
We have continued to have strange or different weather this year with July usually bright sun until mid-afternoon when the showers start. Well, the showers have been mostly the same with somewhat more this year, going all night occasionally, and even a few times into the morning. Which is OK, but, the mornings and early afternoons have had much less sunshine which is simply required for many of the flowers. It has been cloudy most of each day until the rain starts every day for over a month now!
My Porter Weeds are blooming less, the Lantanas have quit blooming as has the Golden Shrimp and the new Golden Dewdrop and Tropical Milkweed, all of which attract butterflies. The Zinnias that K planted next to my yard are blooming, but smaller or dwarfed by less sun. The only two things that seem to thrive in the dominant shade are my Maraca Plants (Shampoo Ginger) and the Anthuriums which I added some more of just to have some color.
The Desert Rose did poorly for awhile, which I blamed on repotting, but it is coming back strong now with blooms on each stem! (But it’s not a butterfly flower!) 🙂 It does need sun though, and I have it on the east side for morning sun, which is when we get what little we may get now.
Here are 6 shots of the ones that are blooming in July & August with another new one that I might not keep, the Ginger Lily. A shot of the “Garden Man” for the emailed version and then 5 more below that with explanations . . .
Like most skippers, he is not very colorful or exciting, and you can’t see his purported “purple wash” on my shots, but – he is a new species for me! Right here in my garden! And that long row of white dots was what made him easy to identify! 🙂 No other shots in my gallery, but you can see others from Costa Rica in the iNaturalist CR Purple-washed Skipper, Panoquina lucas, where there are only 17 other observations of this species in Costa Rica! 🙂 You can see the “purple wash” on some photos there! Here’s two shots from my garden . . .
I’ve been seeing a lot of yellow butterflies recently and this Westwood’s Yellow, Eurema westwoodii (my gallery link) seems to be one of the “regulars” this year for the first time. See more in my gallery link above.
¡Pura Vida!
The Julia Heliconian Butterfly always has beige or muted colors on the bottom of the wings, but this one photographed in my garden in July seemed “muted” all over, most likely because of the sky or sunlight that particular day. It gave this particular butterfly a feeling of calm, sophistication, and nostalgia, I think. Evoking a sense of subtlety.
See how bright an orange the top wings can be in my gallery: Julia Heliconian. And 2 more shots of this one . . .
Continue reading “Muted Colors Julia & Health Update”