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The feature photo or the next two shots after this top view shows the “broken silver drop” as the odd-shaped white spot. The scientific name is Epargyreus exadeus and it is one of the many Skipper butterflies which you can read about on butterfliesandmoths.org.
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.
About a week ago I passed by “the flower lady” house where I’ve gotten several new butterflies on her zinnias (now gone) and discovered as I looked through her fence that she had the Red Vein Indian Mallow flower I reported on from Guayabo Lodge in Cartago Province in , my first sighting of this magical lantern-like flower, and my favorite new discovery at Guayabo. I phone-snapped the above two shots at the flower lady house.
Then 3 days ago I was walking back to town with my neighbor Steve, and as he is a gardener I wanted him to see this flower. I was pointing to one of her only 5 or 6 blooms when her husband snapped out something he thought was funny in Spanish that I didn’t understand and she just walked over to the shrub, picked the flower I had pointed to and came over handing it to me. I felt terrible that she picked one of her few blooms but it was the common Costa Rican courtesy to do that because I praised her flower. I walked home carrying it gently and decided it best to just float in a bowl of water since it is a hang-down lantern-type flower. Another of the many cultural surprises I’ve had here. 🙂
It is prettier on the shrub, but here it is floating in water on my kitchen counter!
Since my Crown of Thorns pot plant on the patio died, I’m going to see if Cristian & Alfredo, my gardeners, can get me this Abutilon striatum, Red Vein Indian Mallow, “Chinese Lantern” or in Spanish: Abutilon pictum, “farolito japonés” (Japanese Lantern) as a new pot plant on my terrace. Always something new to look forward to. 🙂
It originated in South America, Brazil and other countries and has adapted to tropical climates all around the world including Costa Rica and India (thus the English common name). It is an edible flower both raw and cooked and is said to be both sweet and astringent, whatever that means. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
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.
Yes, I could say that things are looking up as the number of Covid cases has greatly decreased, more people are out without a mask and businesses seem to be doing a little better, but this time I’m talking about literally looking up from my garden or terrace and seeing the beauty I miss when I only look down, like plants reaching for the sun, a beautiful leaf, and the flowers way up on the hill behind me! And I know that this is not the first post on “Looking Up” and probably won’t be the last, but it is with some fresh photos! 🙂
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 . . .
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 . . .
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 . . .
I’ve recently learned that much of the park renovation is being paid for by volunteer donations as the city budget was greatly hurt by the pandemic. And all the work is being done by park employees rather than an expensive contractor, so I guess the slowness is to be expected and maybe praised for a job well done without much means.
After the celebration of the park entrance sign and flagpoles, they finally started again by blocking off another wedge of the park with the ugly tin construction fence. It is the area where we’ve had a children’s playground. They’ve removed all the old playground equipment and dug up the brick sidewalk in preparation for another modern cement sidewalk with I assume the trademark low walls for sitting as a replacement for park benches. There will likely be an additional sitting area for parents watching their children play. This sidewalk radiates from the central circular kiosk to the SE corner of the park. Once the concrete work is done I assume they will then install the new playground equipment and another section of remodeling will be completed. I doubt that even they know how long it will take. Here’s 3 photos to show what they’ve started . . .
This month is my second time to see one of these in my garden in June 2020 when I did a blog post first titled “Flying Shrimp” and then went back and changed it when someone told me it was a “Hummingbird Moth.” Well, now I’m a little better versed in butterflies and moths and the scientific name is Aellopos titan (link to ButterfliesandMoths.org) and the accepted common name Titan Sphinx Moth, though some still call it “Hummingbird Moth.” It is found throughout South and Central America north throughout the eastern half of the United States. It is one of the weirdest looking creatures I’ve seen in my garden. My Titan Sphinx Moth Gallery includes those photos from 2020 as well as this year’s. Interesting! 🙂
And more photos from this year . . .
Continue reading “Titan Sphinx Moth”