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Today a cloud of mostly Yellows was in my garden plus one brown Skipper I didn’t try to photograph. They don’t stay still, thus very difficult to photograph and with the book full of Yellows & Whites the identification is not always exacting, but my best effort with a few “either/or” IDs! 🙂
And the grasshopper only eats the leaves, while the butterflies go for the flower nectar, so no competition! They share a flower! 🙂
My Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery
¡Pura Vida!
Earlier I shared two videos of virtual night & day rainforest hikes with one of the young female guides at Selva Verde Lodge, Melany Ocón. The kind I experience on my trips, though we see more on our live hikes than these short videos . . .
Today is a hike with one of the young male guides whom I have been hiking with before when there (an expert on frogs). We saw a lot more than they see on this video, but it gives you an idea of what it is like to hike at Selva Verde Lodge & Reserve, one of my many favorite places in Costa Rica. You will see a couple of frogs, a helmeted lizard, a pit viper and an anteater, so worth your effort to watch for 20 minutes and see just a little of why I love to explore the forests of Costa Rica with guides like Iván and Melany. June 30 I head north of Sarapiqui (location of these videos) for a week at Maquenque Lodge with other guides but similar experiences. And remember that English is not their first language! They do much better with English than I do with Spanish! 🙂
“If man doesn’t learn to treat the oceans and the rainforest with respect, man will become extinct.”
~Peter Benchley
And for my photos of two visits to Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui:
2019-May 9-15 — Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiqui
2016 December 23-27 – Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui
¡Pura Vida!
Walking around my little house is one morning joy I can have any day! As good as up the hill or in a faraway place.
There I feel that nothing can befall me.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
My Flora & Forest Gallery
¡Pura Vida!
Trees are the earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.
~Rabindranath Tagore
You have glimpsed the divine.”
~Vera Nazarian
See my Flora & Forest Gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
On the same walk to town with yesterday’s beetle I snapped these 3 flowers that caught my attention. The red & yellow hibiscus is rare or at least for my eyes! 🙂 One of the red flowers (feature photo) appears to be in the poinsettia family but not the traditional one while the other red flower is more common here, but eye-catching none-the-less!
“Life is like a box of crayons.”
~John Mayer
My Flora & Forest GALLERY
¡Pura Vida!
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! 🙂
“Any foolish boy can stamp on a beetle, but all the professors in the world cannot make a beetle.”
―
See my “Other Insects of Costa Rica” photo gallery for more insect oddities.
¡Pura Vida!
A different butterfly in my garden today along with repeats of most seen yesterday. 🙂
The “Giant” Swallowtail is not really bigger than most other Swallowtails but identified by his patterns. See more in my Giant Swallowtail Gallery or go for all in the big Butterfly Gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
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}:
See more of these 4 and 100 others in my Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
“Soon it got dusk, a grapy dusk, a purple dusk . . . mysteries.”
―
¡Pura Vida!
Yesterday I saw a new butterfly for me and my best efforts at identification using my book and online sites is “Red-sided Swallowtail.” He matches all the photos of that species except for his tail, but that could be one of those “exceptions” every species seems to have. His tail is more like the “Dual-spotted Swallowtail” but the wings are just too different. And his wings are a little bit like “White Crescent Swallowtail” but not totally and those don’t live further south than Honduras, so I’m sticking with this ID for now! 🙂
Just thankful that I have one more new butterfly whatever he is! 🙂
Butterflies are nature’s angels.
They remind us what a gift it is to be alive.
-Robyn Nola
¡Pura Vida!
See my Butterfly Gallery.