A more frequently seen “Yellow” than the one shown yesterday is this Dina Yellow, Pyrisitia dina (my gallery link), though this one is still just one of many! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Dina Yellow
Marcellina Sulphur
This is a new yellow butterfly for me this year with sightings in my garden in July, August & September as shown in the gallery Marcellina Sulphur, Phoebis marcellina. There are many different yellows as you can see in their “Family Gallery” of my photos: Pieridae – WHITES, YELLOWS & SULPHURS (40 species). I will never tire of all the unique species of butterflies found here in Costa Rica and the almost continuous finding of new species like this one. Tomorrow I will share a photo of a more common Yellow seen here, the Dina Yellow. But here is just one photo of the Marcellina Sulphur . . .
¡Pura Vida!
Wind’s Skipper
Seen in my garden before, another big brown, fuzzy Skipper that at times seem like the majority of the butterflies! 🙂 I’ve had this one in my garden one other time, back in 2023 as shown in my gallery: Wind’s Skipper, Windia windi. (Linked to the gallery.)
Difficult to Identify
This is one of those that are almost impossible to identify with no matches in any of my sources of those spots and other characteristics. The AI called Google Lens is for the entire world and on difficult individuals like this one, they might call it a butterfly that lives only in Asia or Africa, so not as helpful on ones like this as they are on very unique and unusual insects they can find another photo of. So far, iNaturalista’s AI is the most helpful on butterflies, but not always. In the case of this one, as far as they will go in identification is to put it in the Hesperini Tribe which is pretty broad or general. As I write this, I haven’t yet posted these photos on iNaturalist yet. But when I do there is a real possibility that one of the experts who have devoted their lives to butterflies will have an identification, but not always. Here’s three photos of this Skipper Butterfly that I cannot ID:
Dorantes Longtail
There are a lot of these around my garden as you can see in the gallery: Dorantes Longtail, Cecropterus dorantes.
¡Pura Vida!
Telemiades Genus Skipper
I think it is most likely the Telemiades nicomedes, but not sure, so giving it the genus name. iNaturalist uses the genus name a lot as you can see on this Genus Telemiades page of iNaturalist Costa Rica.
¡Pura Vida!
Tortuguero Trip Gallery
Go to: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2025-09-08-12-Tortuga-Lodge-Gardens-Tortuguero
For the last two weeks I’ve shared photos made on my 4-night trip to “The Amazon of Costa Rica,” Tortuguero National Park. And that was only the “tip of the iceberg” of the many photos made. See them all in the above gallery! Having this kind of nature adventures is why I chose to live out my retirement in Costa Rica and it has already surpassed my hopes and dreams and though I have to slow down some, the adventures continue! Sometimes in my little backyard garden! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Red Postman
This Heliconius erato (scientific name) has the English Common Name of “Red Postman” as opposed to the Heliconius melpomene rosina (my gallery link) which is often called just plain “Postman.” There is only a slight difference in both the red and the white bars on these two similar butterflies
And note that this one in today’s post has a very long Spanish Common Name here in Costa Rica: “Mariposa de Alas Largas de Bandas Carmesí.” See more of my many photos of this “Red Postman” Heliconius erato in that linked gallery. The two photos here were made near my room at Tortuga Lodge & Gardens, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica.
Red-mantled Dragonlet
The most frequently seen dragonfly at Tortuguero this year was the Red-mantled Dragonlet – Erythrodiplex fervida (my gallery link). I saw them at both the Tortuga Lodge and on the Jaguar Trail in the park and in my gallery are sightings at Manquenque Ecolodge, Hotel Banana Azul, and Gandoca Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge; all on the Caribbean Slope! Here’s three shots made this month in Tortuguero . . .
Banded Tigerwing
One of the lesser-seen butterflies is this Banded Tigerwing, Aeria eurimedia (my gallery link) found only in Central America and Northern South America. I think it is a handsome butterfly and I almost used one of my photos of it on my ’23 Christmas Card! 🙂
