Category: Wildlife

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Purple-washed Eyed-Metalmark (or Eyemark)

At 1.5 inches wide, wing-tip to wing-tip, this one is smaller than my earlier similar “Blue-patched Eyed-Metalmark/Eyemark” and a whole lot smaller than an even earlier “Blue-winged Sheenmark,” all of similar design and colors. I’m thinking this one may be a sub-species of the “Purple-washed” or a new species “I’ve discovered” 🙂 because of two differences from the other purple-washed photos online and in my book:

The book does say that the “Purple-washed” color can be blue instead of purple (like mine) but (1) in the other photos “the wash” (blue or purple) is bleeding into the forward wings (this one doesn’t) and (2) none of the others have the tiny black “almond eyes” on the top of the hind-wing blue or purple like this one. Otherwise it is identical to the Purple-washed Eyed-Metalmark photos in the book and online at ButterfliesOfAmerica and a few of other sites. Maybe another evolutionary change or sub-species? The scientific name is Mesosemia lamachus, if this is what I photographed. 🙂 If not, I’m hoping someone can give me the correct identification. This Mesosemia lamachus is on page 63 of the Second Edition of the Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America for anyone wanting to follow-up on it and also on the BOA link above. 🙂

There are so many amazing creatures here in Costa Rica that seem to appear from nowhere some days! 🙂 This one appeared in my kitchen last Saturday night as I was preparing dinner and I tried to photograph him in the poor house light at night, first with my cellphone (which did better) and then with my SLR and zoom lens from a distance. Here’s four shots of another tiny butterfly of which I’m not positive of the ID.

It first landed here on my marble kitchen counter which is not the best background. 🙂
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Double-striped Longtail

Though I did not get a folded wing view with the double stripes, the golden-based color of the bluish/turquoise back identify this longtail as the Double-striped Longtail (butterfliesandmoths site) which seems to be rarely seen. This is my first sighting that I know of. If you browse my CR Butterflies Galleries you will see that there are several other “Longtail” Skippers besides this one and each is interesting. And like so many of the butterflies, there are several others that look a lot like this one, especially this time the Esmeralda Longtail, Urbanus esmeraldus.

Double-striped Longtail Skipper, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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A Flight of Dragonflies

English-language websites say dragonfly groups are either clusters, flights or swarms and swarm implies a lot more than the 6 to 8 I had circling my garden the other day, do I assume looking for food? 🙂 The term “flight” is appropriate with my group because they never landed anywhere in my yard but just kept flying around in circles like they were looking for something until they flew away from my yard.

Wandering Glider (Pantala flavescens), Atenas, Costa Rica

Now that I’m getting used to my Costa Rica Dragonfly/Damselfly book, I’m more comfortable identifying these guys as the Wandering Glider, Pantala flavescens (Wikipedia link), whose name indicates that they have the “habit of long-term flying and then hanging up vertically” in a tree or other plant. They did not “hang” at my place but moved on. Since all dragonflies breed in and generally stay around water, they are probably from the little stream on the other side of the cow pasture in front of my house. This species is known for its long flights, but evidently my yard was not far enough for what they wanted. 🙂

Another reason for this ID is that the book says they are “the only medium-sized skimmer gold or yellow-orange overall.” That plus the red eyes and reddish or gold spots on the tip of their wings clinches the ID. Two more photos:

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Pink-spotted Cattleheart

I think this is a beautiful “Swallowtail-Like” butterfly that I’ve seen two other times before this; once before in my garden and once at Villa Calletas Hotel in Jaco Beach on the Pacific Coast. I know that at first glance, the spots above the crescents seem red rather than pink, but if you look at my top-view photo you can tell that they are more pink in some light. 🙂 Here’s four different photo views of one in my garden a week ago yesterday.

Pink-spotted Cattleheart, Atenas, Costa Rica
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A Tiny Grasshopper

I’m seeing fewer grasshoppers now than just a few years ago, like with so many of the insects that are decreasing in numbers or going extinct, even in species-rich Costa Rica (11,000+ species of grasshoppers). I don’t have an identity on this little fellow of about an inch long, but the first grasshopper in my yard in a long time! I would encourage you to read a book I just started titled Rebugging the Planet: The Remarkable Things that Insects (and Other Invertebrates) Do – And Why We Need to Love Them More by Vicki Hird. As humans continue to cut down the forests and pour concrete and insecticides over the earth we are systematically destroying the natural earth including creatures necessary for our own survival. This little book is a great starting point for some people to begin “re-wilding” the earth! Time is running out! And I also recommend the documentary series INSECT PLANET on Curiosity Stream.

Unidentified Tiny Grasshopper, Atenas, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

See my gallery of Costa Rica Grasshopper photos. (14+ species!)

Or for all kinds of bugs, my More Insects CR Galleries (82+ species)

🙂

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Fiery Skipper (Maybe)

Because I’m choosing IDs for a website now I am even more cautious or unsure of my identifications now and still don’t have an expert to run it by. But this seems to be the closest match out of around a dozen orange and brown Skipper butterflies in my book, A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America, which I still depend on mostly. The website I’m volunteering for as Costa Rica Coordinator has so many different photos of this species that it makes it even more confusing, but as one of the most frequently cited species in this color I’m probably safe. 🙂 Size: about as big as my thumb.

Here’s my five totally different views of this orangey butterfly from two different days in my garden that I hope I have labeled correctly . . .

Fiery Skipper, Atenas, Costa Rica
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New Thumbnail-sized Butterfly

I really struggled with the ID on this butterfly, thinking at first it was one of the Sarota Jewelmarks which are all tiny, but the patterns just did not match any of them. Then moving into the Metalmarks I found two that had similar patterns with colors and dark center matching best with the Rounded Metalmark, Caliphelis perditalis (link to butterfliesandmoths.org). There seem to be a lot of these in Mexico and Texas while I’m the first to note one in Costa Rica on the above website. Here’s two shots from different angles, though he never landed with his wings folded which is the other shot I try to get for ID purposes . . .

Rounded Metalmark, Cliphelis perditalis, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Blomfild’s Beauty

Not a new butterfly for me though the first one seen this year. It is beautiful in it’s own complicated sort of way like a paisley design? 🙂

The scientific name is Smyrna blomfildia (Butterfliesandmoths.org) and it is found throughout Central America and Mexico and the southwestern fringes of the United States. Just two shots here and FYI, that is a narrow ceiling level screen for air flow in my laundry room (much lint) and I did vacuum the screen after seeing these photos! 🙂

Blomfild’s Beauty, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Blomfild’s Beauty, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

See other photos in my Blomfild’s Beauty Gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

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Titan Sphinx Moth

This month is my second time to see one of these in my garden in June 2020 when I did a blog post first titled “Flying Shrimp” and then went back and changed it when someone told me it was a “Hummingbird Moth.” Well, now I’m a little better versed in butterflies and moths and the scientific name is Aellopos titan (link to ButterfliesandMoths.org) and the accepted common name Titan Sphinx Moth, though some still call it “Hummingbird Moth.” It is found throughout South and Central America north throughout the eastern half of the United States. It is one of the weirdest looking creatures I’ve seen in my garden. My Titan Sphinx Moth Gallery includes those photos from 2020 as well as this year’s. Interesting! 🙂

Titan Sphinx Moth, Atenas, Costa Rica

And more photos from this year . . .

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Calle Balsilla Birds

I must admit that I was more focused on butterflies than birds when we walked Calle Balsilla last week, plus we were later getting there which means fewer birds, but I did get these 4 bird species along with my 11 species of butterflies! 🙂

Inca Dove, Calle Balsilla, Atenas, Costa Rica

Interesting that the above dove is the only bird I photographed that was not totally black in color! 🙂

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