If nothing else, it has a cool name! 🙂 The Yojoa Scrub-Hairstreak – Strymon yojoa (my gallery link) is another of those many Central American butterflies. Here’s a couple of shots and go to the gallery for more.
Yojoa Scrub-Hairstreak
Canivet’s Emerald
is now one of my three regular hummingbirds along with the Rufous-tailed and the Blue-vented that surf my Porterweed flowers all day along with an occasional other flower and my feeders when filled (not often). Their second favorite flower seems to be the Torch Ginger or Bastón de Emperador. Both of these shots are of a female (white chest and white eyebrow) while the male has no white and thus I could be confusing him with the blue-vented which are very much alike.
Large Orange Sulphur
This species usually has lots of brown spots and lines on the folded wings much like the Apricot Sulphur, but these in my garden the other day were solid yellow, or to fit their name, a bright orange! 🙂 I am pretty sure of the identification, though never certain. Here’s 3 pix from that recent sighting and for more photos, see my Orange Sulphur Gallery.
Guava Skipper
This was one of my first “exotic” butterflies on my birthday trip to Xandari in 2019 and since I’ve seen it one other time in my garden in June of 2022 and now here in 2025. See some much better photos in my gallery: Guava Skipper.
Note that different sources have different scientific names: Phocides lilea, Phocides polybus and Phocides palemon. I still don’t know who is in charge of butterfly names, but I’m beginning to lean toward iNaturalist and put their scientific name first in my lists when more than one is used. It is not like with birds where eBird is sort of everyone’s source with confidence that it is always correct. (A least we think that!) 🙂
Orange-barred Sulphur
This Orange-barred Sulphur, Phoebis philea (my gallery link) does not have the strong “barring” that some of this species have, but the stronger yellow color to me eliminates the possibility of a a similar-spotted butterfly, the Cloudless Sulphur, which is usually white or a light yellow. But I could be wrong! 🙂 And if someone changes it on iNaturalist, I will come back and change it here! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Blurry-striped Longtail
This Blurry-striped Longtail, Chiodes catillus (my gallery link) is also sometimes called White-striped Longtail by some sources. It is a less seen longtail skipper, but one of the many species that make up the huge biodiversity of Costa Rica! Here’s two shots of the same individual showing the difference in color that bright sunlight or shadows can make on these butterflies. 🙂
Tropical Buckeye
One of my many “favorites” is the Tropical Buckeye, Junonia evarete or Junonia zonalis (linked to my gallery) is found throughout Central America, West Indies, Florida and the Southwestern U.S.
New Species for me . . .
. . . the Straight-lined Sulphur, Phoebis trite (iNaturalist CR link with map of where seen here) or see three observations recorded on BAMONA. Not your every day butterfly! 🙂
Here’s my three shots . . .
Continue reading “New Species for me . . .”
Genus Strymon
When iNaturalist “Identifiers” (participants with expertise in butterflies) can’t accurately identify a photo, they will often generalize and give it a subfamily or genus label to put it under, and thus I am doing that also, especially with photos that don’t have enough details to be sure of the identity. And I’ve already started adding galleries for genus and subfamily for cases like this.
This one is almost definitely in the Genus Strymon (Scrub-Hairstreaks), but I’m not able to tell which species. Maybe someone will be able to on iNaturalist after I post it there or on BAMONA where I have to just click “unable to identify.” And both sites have people who maybe will identify is as a species. If interested, I have identified 5 species in this genus in my galleries:
- Yojoa Scrub-Hairstreak, Strymon yojoa
- Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak, Strymon istapa
- Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak, Strymon bazochii
- Megarus Scrub-Hairstreak, Strymon megarus
- Red-spotted Scrub-Hairstreak, Strymon ziba
And yes, today’s photo may be one of these or another Strymon not shown above. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Cassius Blue
One of those tiny Hairstreak family of butterflies, the Cassius Blue, Leptotes cassius (my gallery link) may be a regular this year. I shared one in early April who was sitting on the wet black-topped driveway.
¡Pura Vida!