Butterfly Bonanza

On Tuesday I went for a walk up to the wee valley above our house to look for butterflies. The last couple of weeks had been a little rainy and cloudy and there always seemed to be wind blowing from one direction or the other. However, on Tuesday it was beautifully sunny, 18 degrees with a slight southerly breeze.

Not far from the gate out of the woodland is a clump of Thyme, which is always popular with butterflies. When I arrived there were two Small Skippers, a Ringlet and a Northern Brown Argus on it.

Almost every Marsh Thistle flower had one or more Small Skipper on them.

If not they would likely be occupied by Ringlets.

In the short walk, of about 500 metres up the valley I counted 373 Ringlets and 199 Small Skippers. This clump of thistles had four Small Skippers, a Meadow Brown and it wasn't until I looked at the picture once I was back home that I noticed a Northern Brown Argus on the flower on the left.

There were two lovely fresh-looking Common Blues.

I counted 23 Small Heaths and 71 Meadow Browns.

There were at least 22 Dark Green Fritillaries around, although they were flying backwards and forwards, so there could have been more. I struggled to get a picture of one without another butterfly photo bombing my shot. The pictures below were all taken within 14 seconds. First a Meadow Brown tried to get in on the act.

Then a Small Skipper joined in.

And then a different Small Skipper landed just below it!

This female Dark Green Fritillary was accompanied by two Small Skippers.

This male seemed to have more extensive dark markings than normal.

I saw a total of seven Northern Brown Argus. They were all quite worn-looking, having been out a couple of weeks earlier than normal.

It was amazing seeing so many butterflies in this special valley. I have been visiting it for about 20 years and I have been watching it slowly evolve since grazing has stopped and trees have been planted. Some species, such as the Northern Brown Argus have not been so numerous in recent years, most likely because their larval food plant, Rockrose, is becoming a bit swamped by other vegetation. But other species, such as the Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary and Small Skipper have increased considerably.

Just as I was leaving I thought I should check out the clump of Thyme again and this time there were six Ringlets and a Small Skipper!

Costa Rica Butterflies November 2024 - Part 8

Because of the repairs to the damaged runway caused by flooding our return flight was delayed by 24 hours. We were actually very lucky, as some other guests had been delayed by six days. I remember them complaining to me that they wouldn’t mind six extra days in Costa Rica if it was decent weather, but they weren’t particularly happy to have six more days of rain!

As it turned out we woke up on our last morning to beautiful blue skies. We had to leave for the airport at midday, but after breakfast we installed ourselves next to one of the swimming pools for the morning.

I was just blown away by the number of butterflies that were flying around the hotel grounds that morning. There were continuously about three or four in vision at any one time. Many of them I was now able to identify as they flew past, but there were quite a few unfamiliar ones, too. Better still, possibly because they had limited opportunities to fly or feed the previous few days, many of them stopped off at plants to feed, or even lay eggs.

Despite really feeling that I should spend the last morning of our holiday with my wife, I couldn’t resist chasing after the odd butterfly with my camera! This White-angled Sulphur, Anteos clorinde, was so absorbed with feeding on this Ixora hedge that it allowed me to get close enough to photograph it. Previously I had only seen them feeding high up in Mimosa trees.

It even opened its wings slightly allowing me to see the yellow mark on its upper wing.

It was joined by another white butterfly – a Giant White, Ganyra josephina, which I hadn’t seen previously.

The Ixora hedge was proving to be a real magnet with various skippers (mentioned in my previous post) and other butterflies feeding from it.

A third white butterfly settled on a nearby plant, allowing me to identify it as a Florida White, Appias drusilla. This confirmed my suspicion that I had seen these along the track through the woods.

A little later a tiny yellow butterfly flew past. I was soon in hot pursuit and luckily it stopped to lay some eggs on a weed in a shady spot. I managed to identify it as a Mimosa Yellow, Pyrisitia nise. I had seen similar little yellow butterflies flying through the grounds earlier in our holiday, but they had never stopped, so this was a bonus for me on our last day!

But to top it off I saw a dark swallowtail flying backwards and forwards over an Orange Jasmine shrub by the pool. As I watched it buried into the hedge and started laying eggs. It turned out to be a Ruby-patched Swallowtail, Heraclides isidorus. Such an exciting butterfly to see as my last species of the trip. I later learned that unusually for swallowtails, they lay their eggs in batches, rather than singly.

Eventually we had to tear ourselves away from the pool and get ready to leave the hotel. The journey to the airport was our only real opportunity to see more of the country. I just couldn’t believe the number of butterflies of all shapes, sizes and colours in the verges and surrounding countryside. I felt a mix of delight at seeing them, but tinged with sadness, as I really would have loved to have stopped all the way along the journey to take closer looks!

Of course Costa Rica had the last laugh. While we were waiting for our plane to arrive at the airport I noticed that it was getting darker. Eventually the plane arrived in a tremendous thunder storm that was still going as we took off. I had expected the flight to be delayed while the storm passed, but that wasn’t the case. I have to admit that I was very relieved once we were off the ground and above the storm and it was interesting looking down on the lightening below!

This was meant to be a one-off, holiday of a lifetime. Despite the tropical storm for virtually the whole time we were there, it was an amazing experience. I have never been anywhere where there is so much wildlife, which doesn’t seem to have any fear of humans. And of particular interest to me were the butterflies and I have certainly never been anywhere where I have seen so many. It took me a while after I got home to identify them all, but I managed to identify 68 different species. I can only imagine how many more species I could have seen if the weather had been good and if we had managed to travel to other parts of the country. Now I feel I have unfinished business!

I will definitely have to go back!!

Costa Rica Butterflies November 2024 - Part 7 Skippers

If the butterflies I saw on this trip proved a bit difficult to identify the skippers were certainly the most challenging. Apparently over 650 species of Hesperiidae have been identified in Costa Rica. Many of them are so similar that inspection of the upper side and underside of the wings is necessary.

Of course, usually I tended only to see the top side of the butterflies, but by a long process of elimination I think I have the identification correct for the Skippers I managed to photograph.

Before we went away I poured over butterfly books and noticed that many of the Skippers found in Costa Rica are wonderful colours, however most of those I saw were brown!

Below is a bit of a photo dump of the Skippers I was lucky enough to see.

The first Skipper I saw in the hotel grounds was the Liris Skipper, Lerema liris.

And shortly after I saw a Dusted Spurwing, Antigonus erosus. These turned out to be quite common, being seen in shaded areas of the hotel grounds and on the track through the woods.

I spent ages trying to identify the butterfly below, which didn't appear to match any shown in the books I had, or on the internet. Eventually, I discovered that it is a female Dusted Spurwing!

I saw this Pale Mylon, Mylon pelopidas, on vegetation right next to the beach on my first morning.

The Fiery Skipper, Hylephila phyleus, was regularly spotted around the hotel grounds.

I saw this Common Glassywing, Pompeius pompeius, on the same shrub.

The Violet-banded Skipper, Nyctelius nyctelius, is very similar to the Common Glassywing, but the small dark spot on the underside of the wing helps to separate them.

I saw this Fantastic Skipper, Vettius fantasos, from our balcony.

This Mexican Sandy Skipper, Zopyrion sandace, was along the track.

The Tropical Checkered Skipper, Pyrgus oileus, was definitely the most common Skipper, actually probably the most common butterfly I saw.

Some areas of low vegetation along the track were swarming with them!!

I had read other enthusiasts' accounts of their visits to Costa Rica and one person who stayed at the same hotel had seen Dorantes Longtail, Urbanus dorantes. I was delighted to see one of these myself.

I saw a few other Longtails after this and assumed that they were all Dorantes, but when I reviewed my pictures in the evenings, I discovered that there were several other species in the area. After that I photographed every Skipper I saw, as that was the only way to be sure of identifying them! This is the Mottled Longtail, Cogia undulatus.

The Teleus Longtail, Spicauda teleus.

The Plain Longtail, Urbanus simplicius.

The Dark-spotted Polythrix, Ectomis asine.

And the Tanna Longtail, Spicauda tanna.

Even the Coyote Cloudywing, Achalarus toxeus, had a similar appearance to the Longtails.

This is a Saturnus Skipper, Callimormus saturnus. They were really small and I thought it was a fly when I first saw it landing!

And here is a Clouded Skipper, Lerema accius.

There are a number of very similar-looking Bollas and Sootywings. I think this is an Aztec Sootywing, Staphylus azteca.

This is a Rounded Sootywing, Bolla imbras.

And I think this is an Obscure Bolla, Bolla brennus.

This is a Glassy-winged Skipper, Xenophanes tryxus. It is very different from the Common Glassywing higher up the page.

This Mimosa Skipper, Cogia calchas, could almost be confused for a longtail that has lost its tail!

The Obscure Skipper, Panoquina panoquinoides.

And its close relative the Hecebolus Skipper, Panoquina hecebolus.

And two lovely mottled skippers, the Morning Glory Pellican, Pellicia dimidiata.

And a Variegated Skipper, Gorythion begga.

There was a very rapid white butterfly that appeared to live in the tree next to our balcony. Frustratingly, it always seemed to land just out of sight, until the one occasion when I was able to get this shot and identify it as a White Enops, Polyctor cleta.

One day I saw three of these Laviana White-skippers, Heliopetes laviana. They were all laying eggs.

On the last day of our holiday I spotted this beautiful Hammock Skipper, Polygonus leo, on the sand at the edge of the beach.

And this Rusty Skipper, Lerema Micythus, was in the hotel grounds also on our last morning.

Despite most of the skippers I saw being brown, I quite enjoyed the challenge of identifying them. I managed to photograph and identify 31 species, which I find quite amazing considering that I wasn't able to get out as much as I wanted because of the weather and they were all spotted within about 300 metres of each other.