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Now I have Monarch Caterpillars on one group of Milkweeds and I expect them to eat most of the leaves like the Queen Caterpillars did a month ago and that milkweed grew right back. So whoopee! More Monarchs! 🙂 And I post my caterpillar shots in the same gallery with their butterfly, so see these and one more caterpillar from San Gerardo de Dota in my gallery Monarch!
¡Pura Vida!
Whether a bird, butterfly or other animal or plant, photographing a new species is always special for me! And living in the country with the most species per square kilometers makes that a continuous possibility, even after 10 years of living here! 🙂 During the week of a visit from Nashville friends, Gary & Kenna Eaton, I got photos of two: a butterfly and a moth caterpillar, with still some uncertainty on the ID of the caterpillar, while hoping for a confirmation of my ID by a scientist or naturalist on iNaturalist or on butterfliesandmoths.org. Here’s the two photos . . .
Read more about this butterfly on iNaturalist Costa Rica which calls it a “Brightwing” butterfly (in Spanish of course) where you can see many other photos of this “uncommon” butterfly in Costa Rica. There are also two more photos on butterfliesandmoths.org, one other from Costa Rica and one from Cuba, where incidentally it appears on a postage stamp! 🙂
Now the humble little caterpillar . . .
See all of my 313 identified Butterflies & Moths of Costa Rica GALLERY.
¡Pura Vida!
The other morning I had about four species of birds feeding on the flowers of my Cecropia or Guarumo Tree and one of them was a new species for me! A White-winged Becard, Pachyramphus polychopterus (linked to eBird). He is smaller than the Rose-throated Becard I’ve seen several of here and like that one is less colorful as a male. In this species the female is a golden orange or tan and more colorful than this male photographed here. Here’s three shots including one of him eating a caterpillar:
Here’s some butterflies I photographed on the hotel property during my stay there. The only two that are new species to me (if labeled correctly) are the Felder’s White and the Blue & White Heliconian. Love them all!
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE.
The caterpillar among the photos appeared on my leg right at the hem of my shorts. The Hot Springs attendant took a flat rock and scooped him up then on to the flower on which I photographed him. He looked scary at first, thus today’s quote:
“Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.”
― The Little Prince
¡Pura Vida!
And by the way, I’m home now for at least 3 weeks! I’ll wrap up these reports, a gallery and photo book soon on this interesting “wild west” vacation. Then prepare for a relaxing repeat visit to Arenal Observatory in November.
This morning a quick walk through my garden gave me photos of these four butterflies plus I kept seeing a bright yellow one (probably one of the Sulphurs) who would never slow down enough for a photo. But here’s the four I got (CLICK to see larger):
There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.
~R. Buckminster Fuller
See all my butterflies in my Costa Rica Butterflies Photo Gallery!
¡Pura Vida!
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| Our guide told us a lot about plants as well as animals. I’ll do a separate post about plants & flowers in the forest. The 2 young men behind the guide are from Chicago. 3 of us on hike. Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Parsa or Synchlora gerularia Moth I’ll research more when I get home. Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Unknown Insect, a little beetle Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Unknown Insect, a little beetle Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Stink Bug Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Unknown Caterpillar Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Unknown Caterpillar Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Unknown Butterfly Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Glasswing Butterfly Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Red-tailed Dragonfly Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Walking Stick Insect Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Paw Print of Ocelot At least our guide thought so. See three toe prints right of beige leaf. Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Nature Reserve San Ramon, Costa Rica |
And the next morning this guy was in hotel garden – he fits with day hike varmits:
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| Hooded Mantis Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort & Nature Reserve San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Hooded Mantis Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort & Nature Reserve San Ramon, Costa Rica |
We saw a lot more stuff and he told us about plants used for medicines, not only by natives, but also by modern pharmaceutical companies. Interesting but I will never remember most of that! 🙂
https://www.facebook.com/diane.stewartcarrier/videos/vb.1240732740/10205325645240886/?type=2&theater Click the arrows and watch it full screen!
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| Caterpillar to Chrysalis in still photo stages. (From internet-not my photo) |
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| The resulting Monarch Butterfly (this is my photo) La Paz Waterfall Garden, Costa Rica |
And in some ways, we people are metamorphosing
as our world changes around us! Even that can be profound!
As Paul said:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.
2 Corinthians 5:17 HCSB