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.

Costa Rica Butterflies November 2024 - Part 6

It wasn't until my third walk along the track that I saw a Barred Yellow, Eurema diara. Over the next few days their numbers seemed to increase and towards the end of our holiday I would see about 30 of them each time I walked there.

This female Barred Yellow was laying eggs and was being pursued by a male. It isn’t a very good picture, but it shows the bars on the upper side of the wings.

Occasionally I would see a Black Patch, Chlosyne melanarge, drift past and if they did land, it was usually high up in a tree. However, one morning this one was much more obliging, choosing to settle on the hot concrete on the track. For some reason my camera struggled to focus on it, but notice the two red dots at the bottom of the hind wings.

I was a little confused by the butterfly below, which turned out to be a Bordered Patch, Chlosyne lacinia. This is a very variable species, with various forms that have different amounts of orange markings on both the forewing and hind wing, but I have never seen a picture of one which has no orange on it at all. I was hoping to see some of the different orange variants. However, I love that despite it 'just' being a black and white butterfly, it has blue eyes and yellow legs!

I was delighted to see this Tailed Orange, Pyrisitia proterpia. This is a wet season form of the species and the dry season form has longer tail-like projection to its hindwing. The males and females also have slightly different colouration and marking. These whizzed along the vegetation at the side of the track.

A more obliging white was the Lyside Sulphur, Kircogonia lyside. There were a few of these medium-sized butterflies feeding on the smaller flowers along the verge.

I spent a long time trying to get a photograph of a Tropical Buckeye, Junonia zonalis. These were very alert butterflies that would fly off when I got anywhere near them. I noticed them in quite a few locations along the track, but their favourite spot was a helipad. Despite me thinking that the sun was quite intense (when it shone!), they obviously enjoyed the reflected sun from the concrete.

There has been a lot of confusion about exactly which species of Tropical Buckeye occurs in Central America and the Caribbean. It was thought that Junonia evarete and Junonia genoveva both occurred in the area. These species are often confused with books and internet mixing up photographs and common names for them. Luckily, it has now been established that these two species occur in Southern America. The species found in central America and the Caribbean is Junonia zonalis, which makes life a lot easier!

This beautiful little butterfly is a metalmark, or Riodinidae, of the genus Calephelis, but I can't be more specific than that! There are said to be about 40 different species in Costa Rica, many of them very similar-looking. I have three books that show Central American Calephelis and all three of them say that more research is require to determine exactly how many species there are and that it is impossible to separate them without genital examination or DNA analysis. I love the three rows of metallic scales on its wings.

There were so many butterflies flying amongst the vegetation at the sides of the track. The majority of them flew past without stopping, or only briefly inspecting flowers on their way. There was one intensely orange butterfly that I followed backwards and forwards for ages, but I didn't manage to photograph it. I can only assume it was a male Tailed Orange. 

Another butterfly that evaded me for some time was a larger white butterfly. I managed a couple of very distant shots, which were just good enough for me to identify it as a Florida White, Appias drusilla, from its wing shape. I had better views of this species in the hotel grounds later on our holiday.

The last species I saw along this track was the Glaucous Cracker, Hamadryas glauconome. These are very much lighter in colour than the Guatamalan Cracker I had seen at the hotel. Unfortunately, they didn’t stop for a photograph!

Here is a picture of a butterfly that I can’t identify. When I took it I thought that it was a very small sulphur such as a Eurema. It has some features of a Tailed Orange, but the wings don’t appear to be angular enough and it was certainly smaller than the others I saw. It may remain a mystery!

By the end of our two week holiday I noticed that the number of butterflies I was seeing was increasing. I don't know if that is as a result of the season changing, or the slightly better weather we had. I still had to check out each butterfly I saw, just in case it was a new species. I couldn't believe how many Theona Checkerspots there were. They are such beautiful butterflies, but I found myself thinking to myself, "No, just another Theona Checkerspot"!!

As well as all of the beautiful butterflies I have mentioned in my last few posts I saw a number of Skippers, or Hesperiidae. I will try and put pictures of all of them in my next post.