Carolina Satyr

This one is almost as common in my garden as yesterday’s Banded Peacock, or it was last year especially when I seemed to see it everywhere! It is also common in the Southeastern U.S. west through OK & TX and south through Mexico and all of Central America with a slightly different species in South America. We also have more than 20 other species of Satyrs with color differences and uniqueness of those eye spots. They are mostly quite tiny, like only a bit bigger than my thumbnail, with of course a few exceptions! :-)

Carolina Satyr, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

See more in my Carolina Satyr Gallery.

Or to explore more of the larger Satyr Sub-Family of butterflies scroll down to the bottom of my BRUSHFOOTS FAMILY GALLERY where I have 22 different species of Satyrs photographed! It’s quite an intriguing sub-family of mostly tiny butterflies, though a few are large, like the Moon Satyr, and all have variations of the eyespots seen on this one.

Butterflies are soooo interesting!

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

10 Butterfly Species at Maquenque

Although birds are the biggest category of wildlife for me at Maquenque Ecolodge, there are a lot of other wildlife and on this April trip I photographed 10 species of butterflies with one being a Lifer or first time seen (the Glassy-winged Skipper). Below is 1 photo of each of the 10 species for those who don’t go to separate galleries. Or here’s links to the online gallery with all my butterfly photos from this trip.  https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2023-April-9-14-Maquenque-Ecolodge/OTHER-ANIMALS/BUTTERFLIES

CLICK above image to see all my butterfly photos GALLERY from Maquenque.

Or below see just one photo of each of the 10 species . . .

Continue reading “10 Butterfly Species at Maquenque”

3 Brushfoots from Xandari

The largest family of butterflies is Nymphalidae – BRUSHFOOTS and you can click that link for my galleries in that family where I now have photos of 93 species. I did get one more photo from this family that I cannot yet identify, so not included here.

Banded Peacock – Anartia fatima

Erato Heliconian – Heliconius erato

Erato Heliconian – Heliconius erato at Xandari Costa Rica (also called “Postman”)

Carolina Satyr – Hermeuptychia sosybius

Carolina Satyr – Hermeuptychia sosybius at Xandari Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

And the 2023 Xandari Trip Gallery is now ready for you to see all my photos from this colorful nature resort.

The Final Two Butterflies

Or at least it seems like they are the last two to be active this season, though I know I will have more soon or by January. The most active time for butterflies in my garden has been May to November, roughly the time of our “winter” or Rainy Season, though I do have some year around and see even more at the lodges I visit during our “summer” or Dry Season, December to April. But these two Satyrs, Carolina and White Satyrs, are the only two I’ve been able to photograph on my little hill recently, while thankfully more birds are returning! 🙂 And the rain is slowing down with less of it less often, like we are getting ready for dry season early? I hope not too early! The rain with the sun is what makes it so green and beautiful here!

White Satyr, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Carolina Satyr, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

And, oh yeah, there’s a lot more of these thumbnail-sized Carolina Satyrs than the Whites! 🙂 I have no explanation for why.

¡Pura Vida!

My Carolina Satyr GALLERY

My White Satyr GALLERY

From Intricate Patterns to Plain Brown

There are many different species of the Satyr Butterflies here in Costa Rica with the most common in my yard (on grasses, not flowers) is the Carolina Satyr. With wings folded he’s the size of my thumbnail, sitting on a blade of grass here! You can see this particular Satyr’s pattern of spots and stripes in this feature photo, while there are more than 50+ other combinations of patterns and colors in Satyrs. The second photo below that shows this same butterfly with his wings partially open and part of his plain brown top, then the third with them mostly open. Since I never got a shot of his total topside, I have a fourth photo of a different Carolina Satyr with his wings all the way open to show the simplicity of his topside compared to folded wings! 🙂

Carolina Satyr, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Continue reading “From Intricate Patterns to Plain Brown”

Second Group of Butterflies . . .

. . . from my brief two-night trip to Xandari Resort in Alajuela continues to show the amazing number of butterflies at this forest hotel less than an hour away from my house! I’m still not sure of the total and have four I can’t identify, but I will share 9 or 10 more tomorrow as the final batch of butterflies from Xandari before focusing on those around my house again.

As usual, one photo here for the email announcement of the blog post, then followed online with a gallery of all 10 butterflies. And again 11 photos because I want to show the big difference in the top and bottom side of the wings of one, the Starred Oxeo, even though almost all butterflies have different patterns on top and bottom, with this one just being a more drastic difference. Enjoy!

Ochre-patched Gemmed-Satyr
Continue reading “Second Group of Butterflies . . .”