This one is usually very common in my garden, but not this year! This is maybe the fourth time I’ve seen one this year or at least recently. Here’s three photos, all a little different . . .
Banded Peacock Butterfly
Rounded Metalmark
Rounded Metalmark, Calephelis perditalis, is a beautiful tiny butterfly that I’ve seen several times over the years in my garden and this identification is my best effort! I say that, implying some doubt, because my Glassberg book says it has “no white check” on the wing border, although both websites I use have photos of this species with and without the white check, so I’m sticking with this ID for now. The next closest one is in the Glassberg book that is not an official species which he calls “Bright Scintillant (Misol-ha CHP), a Calephelis species” and is probably a sub-species of this Rounded Metalmark. A closer match to this, but I want to put a name on as many as possible and it matches the two websites. Of course no source, book or web, is infallible! 🙂 Here’s one photo for the email version followed by 3 more! Those 2 websites on this species are:
- https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Calephelis-perditalis
- https://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/L/calephelis_p_perditalis.htm
First Report of this Species in CR
The Butterflies and Moths dot com doesn’t even have this species included on their website yet (I’ve requested it!) and otherwise online I find it reported from Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua, so my photo may be the first reported of this species from Costa Rica (IF my identity is correct) 🙂 and this is not the first time for me to add a new species on that website! 🙂 I’ve found online two common names and two scientific names for what seems to be the same species of butterfly . . .
COMMON NAMES: Yellow-haired Skipper and Yellow-haired Pyramid-Skipper
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Typhedanus cajeta cajeta and Cogia cajeta cajeta
This is not terribly unusual with so many species of butterflies and new ones being discovered or named every year. And I just wait to see what my supervisor at Butterflies and Moths dot com decides to do with it. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Caribbean Trip Gallery Finished!
And of course there are many more blog posts I intended to write on this almost annual trip to the Atlantic Coast of Costa Rica, but the opening of a new art gallery is demanding all of my time now! Maybe more later. In the meantime if you are interested in Costa Rica’s Caribe South, I hope you will check out this quite extensive “Trip Gallery” with all of my decent photos included in category folders by clicking the Page 1 Gallery Pix below or going to this address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2023-September-18-24-South-Caribbean-Costa-Rica
BUTTERFLIES are the real stars this year! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
34 Butterfly Species + Busy Schedule
I finally got through all my butterfly photos made on the property at Hotel Banana Azul in Costa Rica’s Caribe South and they total 34 species! Unfortunately I have 11 different Skippers labeled “Unidentified” and I really need some better sources to help with identification. I am including two photos here and one is an unidentified Yellow or Sulphur. You can see all of the 34 species in my Banana Azul 2023 Butterfly GALLERY. And this is in addition to all those already reported on from Gandoca-Manzanillo and Cahuita reserves making a total of 54 species! 🙂
And oh yeah, the feature photo at the top of post has been identified as a Pompeius Skipper, Pompeius pompeius.
¡Pura Vida!
¡Muy ocupado! — Very Busy!
Read on for why I am behind on my blog posts now and what is happening in my personal life, from my new “free” doctors to helping open a new art gallery in Atenas . . .
Continue reading “34 Butterfly Species + Busy Schedule”Leaves, Lichens & Nature Things
Sometimes it’s the little things that are usually ignored that become my biggest discoveries in nature and my Leaves & Nature Things! GALLERY has 20 of these discoveries that I found at Hotel Banana Azul and there were more such nature things I shared in the Cahuita and Gandoca-Manzanillo sub-galleries, but click the above link for Hotel Banana Azul. And here’s just one leaves shot and one mushroom! Plus email readers must click the title above to see my feature photo & favorite leaf shot! 🙂
Leaves & Nature Things! at Hotel Banana Azul.
¡Pura Vida!
Caribe Flowers!
As I am aging I seem to love and appreciate the beauty of flower even more than in the past. Here’s just two flower photos, the feature photo at the top of the blog post and this one for the email version, then you can see more in the Flowers Sub-Gallery of this Trip Gallery. Enjoy the beauty of nature!
¡Pura Vida!
Fun Tropical Insects
I did a post on “Other Insects” at Banana Azul earlier but did not include these 6 bugs that are all unidentified for now (and maybe for a long time). 🙂 I never cease to be amazed at the variety, colors, patterns and just the appearance of so many different insects here in Costa Rica. I will not label or comment on these 6 but just share the photos below . . .
Half My Banana Azul Butterflies
I initially was able to identify only about 15 of the 30 or more species of butterflies photographed at Hotel Banana Azul. Most of the remainder of the butterflies are various types of Skippers and hopefully I will eventually identify most of them! 🙂 I’m getting behind again, so not sure when I will get them posted but maybe tomorrow. I’m working on posts only 4 days ahead now, so we will see. 🙂
Aging Slider or Mud Turtle
There is a little channel of water on two sides of the outdoor restaurant in Hotel Banana Azul with lots of Mesoamerican Sliders swimming and some fish. This one attracted my attention as he rested on these floating plants and though most likely a Slider, because he doesn’t show the usual yellow stripes on his neck, I gave the option of Mud Turtle in the title. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
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¡Pura Vida!