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Maquenque Butterflies

As common after trips, I’ve been overwhelmed with things to do since I returned from Maquenque Eco-Lodge and with so many bird photos to process (70+ species) it may be awhile before I share those, so here is a small collection of 7 species of butterflies. Every living thing loves Maquenque! 🙂 CLICK an image to enlarge.

  • Forest Giant Owl
  • White Peacock
  • Sara Heliconian
  • Sara Heliconian
  • Erato Heliconian or Postman
  • Blue-patched Eyemark
  • Common Green-eyed White
  • Smooth-banded Sister

It’s very tough for me to focus. I’m like: ‘Look, something shiny! No, focus. Oh, there goes a butterfly!’ ~Gabby Douglas

🙂

My Costa Rica Butterfly Gallery has more than 106 species now!

¡Pura Vida!

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Hummingbird Moth

This is a totally new butterfly or moth for me that I photographed yesterday in my garden. It has some characteristics of a Skipper, though not the shrimp-like face, the double plumes on the tail nor the wide white belt around his waist. It is not in my books nor can I find it online. If any reader knows, please contact me with CONTACT button on the main menu.

POSTSCRIPT 29 JUNE: I originally titled this “Flying Shrimp?” and posted it on FaceBook where two people gave me the correct name of Hummingbird Moth – Thanks to Don Walzel and Ron Box who shared this link:

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/pollinator-of-the-month/hummingbird_moth.shtml?fbclid=IwAR2d7rCCyeOiTNdIoe6zPRVyCosQ0iG_BmSyRn8XGpPSUBtx5GSYaeu1JwI

See my Costa Rica Butterfly Gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

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Bee

According to a report in Semanario Universidad, there are 650 species of bees in Costa Rica and all are endangered by the powerful insecticides neonicotinoids used to protect fruit from fruit flies and other insects. I have been unable to identify this particular bee in my garden today along with many butterflies. I cannot find books or websites to accurately identify which one of the 650 species this one happens to be. 🙂 Click image to enlarge.

My Photo Gallery of Costa Rica Bees (6)

Bee Happy! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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My Nashville Zoo Photos Posted

As noted earlier, one of the things I’m doing more of during the “lock-down” time is trying get all of my old photos culled through and posted in one place.

One of the biggest collections is from my 10 years of volunteer work at Nashville Zoo and my Nashville Zoo Gallery is now completed. It includes one of my biggest collections of bird photos along with so many other animals and a really large number of people photos which was what the Zoo PR Dept. wanted a lot of. It was a nice re-living of many great memories at Nashville Zoo. And as I go through other photo files I expect to find more of Nashville Zoo, like when friends and family visited, I often took them to the zoo but haven’t gotten to those photos yet!   🙂

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Organized in 6 super-galleries with many sub-galleries under each.

 

And check out the current Nashville Zoo Website – A wonderful zoo!

¡Pura Vida!

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Unidentified BEETLE

I spent nearly an hour searching my books and all over the internet for an ID on this interesting fellow I saw while walking to town the other day. He is possibly in the large Scarab Beetle family or Stag Beetle family or seems related to our Rhinoceros Beetle and Hercules Beetle, but even with those I can’t find photos of one with these large, wide “horns” or divided head. New surprises every day!   🙂

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Unidentified Beetle, 2 to 3 inches long

“Any foolish boy can stamp on a beetle, but all the professors in the world cannot make a beetle.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

See my “Other Insects of Costa Rica” photo gallery for more insect oddities.

¡Pura Vida!

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Flowers = Butterflies

And 4 species today!   🙂   I went out and photographed the above flowers for a one-shot post when I realized there was a dozen or so butterflies beyond them on my Porterweed flowers of these 4 species (one I incorrectly named the other day}:

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Cloudless Sulphur

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Statira Sulphur

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Polydamas Swallowtail, I mistakenly called a Red-sided Swallowtail recently. Sorry!

 

Cloudywing Butterfly (not sure which one of several Cloudywings)

 

See more of these 4 and 100 others in my Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

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Blue-eyed Darner Dragonfly

One of the neat things about living in Costa Rica is that you do not always have to go look for wildlife, since it often comes to you. This has been particularly true with insects at my house!   🙂

After breakfast yesterday I soaked my oatmeal bowl in the sink with warm soapy water and finished my coffee while reading the paper. When I returned to the sink, this dragonfly had flown or dropped right into the soapy water and was dead. I gently pulled him out and lightly dabbed with a paper towel – no life. And here is my quick cellphone photo. After an internet search I declared him a Blue-eyed Darner male. I’m seldom 100% certain of insect identifications, but this is my best match on the web!

See my Dragonfly Gallery.

“I love to see the sunshine on the wings of the Dragonflies… there is magic in it.”
― Ama H.Vanniarachchy

 

¡Pura Vida!

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Green Orchid Bee

He’s revisiting my garden and thus I’m posting some new photos of a favorite bee here. See my Bees Gallery for some better photos made earlier or posted on earlier blog posts linked below. And if interested in reading about this Central American bee, there’s a good history on Wikipedia.  (People in Florida are trying to introduce them there.)

 

¡Pura Vida!

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Unidentified Flying Bug

He was showing an interest in one of my dried up flowers in the garden the other day and I have not found a name for him yet – just another interesting creation of God!

“Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation? And what creature of all that the Lord has taken the pains to make is not essential to the completeness of that unit — the cosmos?”
― John Muir, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf

¡Pura Vida!

See my “Other Insects” Gallery for more fun bugs.

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Virtual Night Hike at Selva Verde

Come join one of the guides at Selva Verde Lodge on a typical night hike in their Sarapiqui Private Reserve. Since people have not been able to visit them live, they put this”virtual night hike” on their YouTube Channel. One of the guides shows you the kinds of things I get to see live when I go on such night hikes at this and other lodges in Costa Rica. It is real and typical except for the short time of only 3 minutes! In real life there is more walking between the animals seen!   🙂

Featured image is from my Red-eyed Tree Frog Gallery and another night hike somewhere else (Danta Corcovado).  

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And here’s the same guide on a DAYTIME TOUR of Selva Verde, Just be aware that in an hour or more tour you see a lot more wildlife than in these little 3 minute videos! But both are a taste of what I regularly see and photograph in my retirement in Costa Rica: 

¡Pura Vida!

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