Not your everyday dragonfly! But my second time to see a Black-winged Dragonlet, Erythrodiplax funerea (linked to my gallery & the other photo made at Banana Azul in the Caribbean).
¡Pura Vida!
Black-winged Dragonlet
Veined White Skipper
This is a first sighting for me of the Heliopetes arsalte, Veined White Skipper (linked to butterfliesandmoths.org) or you can see more shots from this sighting in my garden in my own Veined White Skipper Gallery. Here’s 3 different views of this butterfly . . .
2 New Daggerwing Butterflies Came Together
Walking back home from “Central” (what they call “downtown” here) along 8th Avenue in Barrio Boquerón, there were two bright orange butterflies that I thought were the same species, but later evaluating my cell phone photos of them on the computer, I realized the differences in the two species and my photo collection of 2 previous Daggerwings just doubled to 4! 🙂 Here’s one photo of each and you can go to my galleries to see the other shots, including one of the two together which is also the feature photo at top . . .
- Ruddy Daggerwing Butterfly, Marpesia petreus GALLERY
- Pale Daggerwing Butterfly, Marpesia harmonia GALLERY
And oh yes, those other two Daggerwings I photographed away from home on two different rainforest trips (1 north & 1 south) . . .
No end to cool butterflies here! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Neighbor’s Zinnia Butterflies
My neighbor and landlord “K,” who goes by the initial since his name is hard for some to say, recently planted a mass of zinnias on a hill behind his house and he invited me over to photograph the butterflies the flowers attract. In 15-20 minutes I photographed 13 species and that was not all of them! Here’s just 8 of the photos that I liked. One shot for the email and a gallery below that . . .
Tropical Buckeye
Another beautiful tropical butterfly that I first met in the Florida Everglades years ago, though a slightly different subspecies. This one found in Costa Rica is the Tropical Buckeye, Junonia evarete, (linked to my gallery) appearing from Florida & the Southwestern U.S. all the way down to Argentina. Here’s some recent shots of one in my garden . . .
Hassan Greenstreak
This middle-eastern sounding name is actually a Central & South American butterfly, appearing from Mexico to Brazil and now in South Texas and Florida. It is similar to other Greenstreaks and to one group of Metalmarks, but my decision was that this ID is the best for these photos and I’ve requested it as an addition to butterfliesandmoths website. And unfortunately, my first one to photograph is slightly damaged or injured, but for now I’m still sticking with this identification. 🙂 The scientific name of Hassan Greenstreak is Chalybs hassan. The good thing about the website is that several “real” butterfly specialists are participating and one of them will correct me if they believe my ID is incorrect. (Happens a lot!) 🙂 Here’s 3 photos of this new species for me . . .
Mystical Cloudless Sulphur
For some reason, most of the big Yellows have been flying around up in the trees here and not down on the ground like other butterflies! 🙂 And of course there’s a natural explanation for every such phenomenon! I just don’t know it! 🙂
But the other day this female Cloudless Sulphur spent some time on the flowers in my garden and here are three fave photos from that experience. This first one below is where she looks like a fairy to me! 🙂 The second shot of her open wings is also the feature photo at top of this post online and it is interesting to note that only the females sometimes have those two brown spots on top of the wings. And the last photo is the most typical photo of a Cloudless Sulphur, showing a folded-wings side-view with the two prominent, imperfect double-white-circles used to identify a Cloudless Sulphur. No other Yellow has that! 🙂
Rounded Metalmark
The Rounded Metalmark, Calephelis perditalis (my gallery link) is a tiny butterfly that has been a regular in my garden in the past, though this was the first one I’ve photographed since February, as we have entered a new greener rainy season. It is found from Central Texas south through Mexico & Central America. Just one photo here. See more in my above linked gallery or see what the Texas ones look like on butterfliesandmoths. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
I’m scheduled to go to Xandari Resort in Alajuela tomorrow for just 2 nights and it has been one of my best butterfly places, so there may be a lot more different ones coming from there soon! 🙂
Yellow-rimmed Skipper
The Yellow-rimmed Skipper, Aethilla lavochrea (my gallery link where I have more photos from other sightings) is found from Mexico through Central America to Columbia, thus a mostly Central American butterfly and Costa Rica is central in it’s range. Evidently not many people are seeing and photographing this species, since most websites that even include it, have only 1 or 2 photos. Plus at butterfliesandmoths dot org all the photos are mine except for 1. 🙂 Here’s 3 photos from this April 2024 sighting . . .
Tropical Checkered Skipper
The Tropical Checkered Skipper, Burnsius oileus, (my gallery link) is another fairly common butterfly in the past that has returned to my garden for this year. Here’s just one shot and you can see more in the above linked gallery. They are found along the U.S. Gulf Coast south to Argentina. See photos from other places on butterfliesandmoths.
¡Pura Vida!
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