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One website calls this “Blurry-Striped Longtail,” but I think I prefer White-striped Longtail, Chioides catillus (my gallery link). Just this one shot here plus the feature photo at top. Go to that gallery for more shots in my garden the other day while still windy + more from last year.
¡Pura Vida!
And for you butterfly aficionados, yes, he is a lot like the Durantes Longtail, but without that white stripe! Plus he has a longer tail than any of the other Longtails, I think.
The Florida (Giant) White, Glutophrissa drusilla (my gallery link) (formerly Appias drusilla and without the “Giant” in common name) can be found all over Costa Rica even though it’s name implies that it is a butterfly for the state of Florida. 🙂
See more butterfly photos + an update on migrants being sent to Costa Rica by Dictator Trump . . .
Continue reading “Florida White”
More different butterflies are beginning to show up like this Cassius Blue, Leptotes cassius (my gallery link) on my driveway the other day while watering the garden (why blacktop is wet). And it was still windy then, but I guess if the caterpillar turns to a butterfly, he has to eat! Windy or not! 🙂
And oh yeah, he is called a “Blue” because the top of his wings are solid blue, but you only see that when he is flying. He seems to never land with his wings open. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Only my second time to see this species with the other documented with just a cell phone on 8th Avenue in Boquerón Barrio, not far from my house. Thankfully, these photos, made with my Canon camera in my garden, will improve the quality of the photos in my GALLERY: Banded Orange Heliconian, Dryadula phaetusa. 🙂 This is mostly a Central American Butterfly with rare strays in Mexico & SW U.S. as shown on the few Butterflies & Moths postings, but more than 200 observations on iNaturalist CR. 🙂
He’s back! (And while the wind is still blowing!) As one of the most common tiny butterflies in my garden each year, maybe he is signaling the beginning of “butterfly season?” 🙂 The Rounded Metalmark, Calephelis perditalis (my gallery link) is only a little bigger than my thumbnail and yet is one of the most intricately-designed of all the butterflies. I even used a photo of one on my 2023 Christmas Card! 🙂
This one is the first of that species in my garden this year, but I expect there to be many more! 🙂 And a funny thing to me is that all my many photos of this species have come from my garden, not even one from another location in Costa Rica! But iNaturalist CR shows them all over, on both slopes, but with more in the hills and on the Pacific Slope for whatever reason.
¡Pura Vida!
The Split-banded Owl-Butterfly – Opsiphanes cassina fabricii is a first-time seen butterfly for me and I found him dead on the floor of my bedroom one evening recently. And like with many new ones, it took awhile to identify the species, but I’m going to give credit to iNaturalist Costa Rica for their AI providing the final clue to nail down this identification with a certain amount of confidence that it is correct and the other photos submitted on both iNaturalistCR and on Butterflies&Moths seem to further confirm it. Though even here there is still always a little doubt with some organizations using sub-species, etc. and as an example with this, Butterflies of America uses Opsiphanes cassina fabricii (fabricii as a sub-species), while Butterflies&Moths uses just Opsiphanes cassina (as the overall species) and iNaturalist has the two separated as 2 different species. So I may never be 100% certain! 🙂 But it is still fun and I feel like I am contributing a little toward saving what is left of this planet. And we need everybody’s help for that to happen!
¡Pura Vida!
If you don’t want to just go there and start using it, try their website HELP PAGE with 5 Getting Started basic questions answered, then go to iNaturalist.org and start both using their IDs & sharing your photos! 🙂 I have it on my phone just for help in identifications and on my laptop computer from where I download my observations. Some younger people use their phone for everything, but that screen is too small for this old man! 🙂 And yeah! I still use a computer mouse and mouse pad too! 🙂
Similarly you can also share your bird photos on eBird and your butterfly & moth photos on BAMONA, butterfliesandmoths.org.
All of these are enormous contributions to scientific research and the conservation of our planet’s animals & plants. Your few observations and contributions added to those of thousands of other people WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Plus you will discover the identification of many things you’ve always wanted to know the name of! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
“The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind” (apologies to Bob Dylan)
Some large Yellows are flying up in the tree limbs and other smaller yellows, whites and skippers I’ve seen down lower without ever stopping for a photo! 🙂 But Friday I did manage to get a couple of shots of this Polydamas Swallowtail, Battus polydamas (my gallery link) quickly stopping by both the Porter Weed (below) and the Plumbago (above), one of the few who land on that sticky flower! (Maybe the ‘sticky’ keeps him from blowing away!?) 🙂 And though that answer is not as philosophical as Bob Dylan’s, there simply will not be many butterflies until this wind quits blowing! 🙂
One of the common Skippers all over Costa Rica is the Teleus Longtail (my gallery link), and he is just one of about 20 different “Longtails!” Here’s a couple of shots of one in my garden recently on a less windy day:
¡Pura Vida!
Another one eating out of the Hummingbird Feeder! This is a better photo than the one I showed last month. 🙂 This Blomfild’s Beauty, Smyrna blomfilda (my gallery link) is a semi-regular butterfly in my garden that I’ve also seen it in two other places in Costa Rica, Xandari & Macaw Lodge.
¡Pura Vida!
A cool, tiny butterfly in the Hairstreak Family the size of a small fingernail that is bright blue on top of his wings which he seldom shows. See one top view in my gallery at Dusky-blue Groundstreak, Calycopis isobeon. This is only the third one that I’ve seen. Here’s three shots . . .
