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Another Central-America-only butterfly, the Hecale Longwing, Heliconius hecale (zuleika) (my gallery link) which I’ve seen all over Costa Rica, but like with most, there are more photos from my garden because I spend more time here! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
A more traditional-looking butterfly today! 🙂 And we do have a really large number of the orange and black butterflies, but I find some of the others “more interesting!” 🙂 The Hecale Longwing, Heliconius hecale (linked to my gallery) is found throughout Central America and could actually be divided into 3 subspecies: Hecale zuleika, Hecale fornarina, and Hecale melicerta. I think this and most of mine are zuleika. Here’s just one shot and you can go to the gallery above for more photos.
¡Pura Vida!
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| Heliconius Hecale Zuleika My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
This is not a new species, but It seems like I haven’t been photographing as many butterflies this year, so wanting to include one. I got a better shot of this Heliconius in August. Butterflies are fun!
Happiness is a butterfly . . .~Nathaniel Hawthorne
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| Heliconius Hecale Zuleika My home garden in Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| ¡Pura Vida! Costa Rica Flag Butterfly Art Not a real butterfly! |
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| Isabella Tiger Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
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| Owl Butterfly Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
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| Malachite Butterfly
Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
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| Bluewing or Blue-Banded Purplewing
Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
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| Colubura Dirce
Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
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| Thoas Swallowtail
Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
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| Postman
Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
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| Heliconius Sara
Monteverde Butterfly Garden, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
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| Blue Morpho Butterfly on Charlie Doggett Selvatura Park, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
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| Heliconius Hecale Zuleika
Selvatura Park, Monteverde, Costa Rica |
The Selvatura Adventure Park Butterfly House was bigger and fancier and maybe landscaped better or prettier but did not have as many species as the smaller, family-run Monteverde Butterfly Garden which also had a more lively insect exhibit, again not as big, but with more live insects shown up close by one of the owners. If you can go to only one of the butterfly gardens, I would recommend Monteverde. Plus if you go hiking in the Cloud Forest Reserve or Curi-Cancha you will see lots of butterflies in the wild.