Costa Rica Butterflies November 2024 - Part 5

Continued from my previous post.

I noticed the odd Satyr among the vegetation in the shadier spots and I assumed they were Hermes Satyrs, like I had seen at the hotel a few metres away. However, when I was looking at my photographs I noticed that they were a bit different and they turned out to be One-pupil Satyrs, Cissia similis.

A couple of days later I discovered that some of them were Two-pupil Satyrs, Cissia themis! It just showed the value of taking pictures of every butterfly I saw.

One day when I was walking along the track I heard a crashing in the trees above me and I was thrilled to see a troop of Spider Monkeys proving that it is less easy to spot wildlife when the trees are in leaf!

We had much better views of Spider Monkeys on our day trip to Nicaragua.

Back to the track where there was a bush with red flowers, possibly Aphelandra, which proved to be a real magnet for hummingbirds and butterflies.

It seemed particularly attractive to yellow butterflies, such as the Cloudless Sulphur, Phoebis marcellina,

the Orange-barred Sulphur, Phoebis philea,

and the Large Orange Sulphur, Phoebis agarithe.

All along the track I saw Banded Peacocks, Anartia fatima, the most common butterfly in Costa Rica and Central America. It is found in open areas and roadsides and is said to benefit from the weeds that grow in areas disturbed by humans. 

I am not sure what this bird is that I saw in a grass field near the hotel. (Thank you David for identifying it as a Double-striped Thick-knee, Burhinus bistriatus)

A shame I can't see its knees!!

Continued on my next post.

Costa Rica Butterflies November 2024 - Part 2

It is difficult to know where to start with the butterflies I saw on this trip. As I said previously the weather was far from ideal for butterfly watching and we were unable to travel inland because the national parks were all closed and many of the roads were impassable because of flooding.

The hotel grounds were lovely, with about 25 acres of tropical gardens with swimming pools meandering through the site. There were quite a few mature trees in the grounds creating a variety of habitats.

We were very lucky with our room, having a corner balcony at the side of the resort, meaning that we were up amongst the trees. Not only did this mean that we had regular visits from Capuchin monkeys, but it gave me a great vantage point to look for butterflies!

On the first morning we were up at sunrise and within an hour I had seen ten different species of butterflies fly past. Not that I could actually identify them at that stage.

The first I saw was a Confusing Sister, Adelpha iphicleola. This had a really rapid flight and always tended to land high in the vegetation, just out of view! Over the holiday I saw quite a few of these and many of them were missing chunks from their hind winds, presumably from birds or lizards taking a bite out of them!

Next up was the Cloudless Sulphur, Phoebis marcellina. I had seen quite a few medium-sized bright yellow butterflies flying around the resort and it was a few days into our holiday before one landed and allowed me to confirm its identification. This one is a male that I snapped on my phone from the pool!

These used to be thought to be a subspecies of Phoebis sennae, but were separated in 2020 following DNA barcode studies. Phoebis marcellina occurs from California to Argentina and sennae occurs from Florida across the Caribbean islands. The picture below is of a female.

I had also noticed another enormous white butterfly with a yellow flash on its wing flying around. It turned out to be the White Angled Sulphur, Anteos clorinde. This was one of the most common butterflies at the hotel and they would often be seen feeding high up on flowering trees and shrubs. They reminded me of a super-sized Brimstone!

I kept seeing a little brown butterfly flying around the shrubs and flower beds. They tended to be very active and easily disturbed. However, I did manage a few distant shots which allowed me to identify them. These were the Hermes Satyr, Hermeuptychia sosybuis. A species that was separated from the Carolina Satyr, Hermeuptychia intricata, in 2014. The former species is considered to be a South American butterfly and the latter North American.

Apparently the most common butterfly in Costa Rica is the Banded Peacock, Anartia fatima. It certainly seemed quite common around the resort and surrounding area.

I was really delighted on my first morning to see a Pale-banded Crescent, Phyciodes tulcis. These were a lot smaller than I had imagined when I had seen pictures of them, only having a wingspan of about 30 to 35mm.

I had read a lot in the past about Cracker butterflies. Something I had considered to be such an exciting tropical butterfly. I had heard that they make a cracking sound when two males are flying around disputing territories. In fact the first I knew of them was hearing a sort of electrical sparking sound above my head as I walked through some trees. They usually land on a favourite sunny tree trunk, usually head facing down. It wasn’t long before I learned which were their favourite trees that they returned to day after day. All of those I saw at the hotel were the Guatemalan Cracker, Hamadryas guatemalena.

As I said in my previous post you really need to take photographs of the butterflies in order to positively identify them, as there are so many similar species. Because there were so many butterflies flying during the sunny spells while we were there it isn’t surprising that I spotted a lot while I was swimming in the pools! With no time to rush back to get my camera, I had to try to study any butterflies I saw in order to try to remember any identifying features. It was interesting that it was quite easy to approach them, as I would be low in the water and they were often just above head height on the tropical plants surrounding the pools. Amongst those that I was able to remember well enough to positively identify were Thoas Swallowtail, Papilio thoas. This is very similar to the Giant Swallowtail, Papilio cresphontes, but it can be separated by the number of dots on the trailing edge of the fore wing. I also saw a Pink-spotted Cattleheart, Parides photinus, and my favourite the Queen, Danaus gilippus, which was like a less stripy Monarch, but with a more intense background colour.

I will continue with more butterflies from the hotel grounds in my next post.

St Lucia - Butterflies - December 2012

We spent just under two weeks on St Lucia in the Caribbean from 22 December 2012 to 3 January 2013.

Although this was a family holiday to a resort I still managed to see a number of butterflies. My ageing father took me, my wife and kids there, which was very generous of him. His need for constant attention limited our exploration of the island a bit, but I can't really complain!!!

Before heading off I did my usual research into what butterflies I might see on my holiday, but I was amazed at how difficult it was to find much information. I managed to buy a used copy of Norman Riley's "Field Guide to Butterflies of the West Indies", but this was published in 1975, so much could have changed since then. Further internet research revealed that "Butterflies of the Caribbean" was written by David Spencer Smith in 1994, but the only copy I could find for sale was almost £2,000!! My local library eventually managed to get a loan of a copy from Cambridge University Library, which I was able to read at my library, with strict instructions not to take it out of the building!! I spent several lunch hours writing copious notes from this book during the two weeks it was available to me.

The best web site I could find about butterflies in the area was Focus on Nature Tours' web site http://www.focusonnature.com/CaribbeanButterfliesList.htm. This lists all of the butterflies that occur in the Caribbean and beside each there is a code for which islands they occur on.

I also spent a long time e-mailing various individuals and organisations in St Lucia, but amazingly no one was able to give me any information about butterflies there. The only person who was able to help me was a professor in Canada who had studied beetles in St Lucia and he sent me a list of the butterflies he had seen.

Using the above sources, and also searching Flickr and other web sites for pictures of butterflies taken in St Lucia, I put together a list of butterflies that could occur in St Lucia. There were a total of 67 species on the list, but further research showed that one of them was a single record from 1913 and various others were rare vagrants. I think that there are probably about 50 species of butterflies regularly occurring on the island, which is amazing given that it is only 27 miles long by 14 miles wide!

Of course, I had no idea if December/January was a good time of year for butterflies, or how localised any populations may be.

The temperature varied between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius while we were there and it was very humid. There was a constant breeze making it very pleasant. There were regular heavy downpours, usually in the early hours of the morning or in the late afternoon. None of the showers lasted very long and the ground quickly dried up again. Most of the time it was sunny, with the occasional cloud.

I was delighted that when the sun shone there was usually at least one butterfly to be seen flying past. The problem was that they did tend to just fly past and rarely settled! It seemed that the larger the butterfly the less likely it was to land and many butterflies seemed to hop from flower to flower only settling for a second at a time, which was not long enough for me to take a picture!

The most common butterfly that I saw was the Great Southern White, Ascia monuste eubotea. 

They had amazing bright turquoise clubs on their antennae.

The Great Southern White was easily confused with the Tropical White, Appias drusilla comstocki. To make matters worse, the Tropical White occurs as a wet season or dry season form and the males and females differ. So the upper side of the wings can be anything from completely white, to yellowish, with either a very narrow grey margin or a lot of grey! They also have some turquoise on the antennae, but not as pronounced as the Great Southern White.

There are also five larger Sulphurs occurring on St Lucia. They vary from bright orange/yellow to pale greenish/white. For me it was impossible to identify anything until it landed, which didn't happen often. Even when they did land, I found it difficult to know what they were without taking a picture and then studying it against my old book.

The most common yellow butterfly seemed to be the Apricot Sulphur, Phoebis argante argante. Along with the Great Southern White, there would rarely be a sunny moment when there wasn't one flying in view.

I learned that the only way to get a picture of these was to watch them when the sun was about to go behind a cloud and wait for them to settle. They usually disappeared into the vegetation, but occasionally they remained in view.

The Large Orange Sulphur, Phoebis agarithe antillia, was incredibly similar to the Apricot Sulphur. They are very slightly larger, but the main difference is the extent of the kink in the line of brown markings leading from the apex of the fore wing. The Large Orange Sulphur was also inclined to settle high in the trees, rather than in lower vegetation.

The Cloudless Sulphur, Phoebis sennae sennae, was a bit easier to identify. It was quite large and bright yellow. It would flit from flower to flower, rarely settling for longer than a second, managing to frustrate anyone trying to take a picture!! I did manage the odd shot, but it never settled at a good angle! To add to my confusion, the female Cloudless Sulphur is more heavily marked, making it quite similar to the two species above!

It seems that there are six different species of Eurema occurring on St Lucia. Eurema are amongst my favourite butterflies. They are mostly bright yellow with black markings on the upper side of their wings and I find their diminutive size very endearing. The Pale Yellow, Eurema venusta emanona, seemed to be the most common one I saw.

I really love these! The forewing of the Pale Yellow is only 17mm long and we have nothing like them back home in Scotland. As they fly along, close to the ground, it is possible to make out the upper side of the wings, the forewing being a brighter yellow than the hind wing with a narrow black border.

I was surprised to see this one behaving a bit strangely on a flower one evening, but then noticed that it had become the victim of a little Orb Spider. Later I found its discarded and shrivelled body on the ground below the flower.

  

This poor picture is of a False Barred Sulphur, Eurema elathea. They are very similar to the Pale Yellow, but they have a black bar along the bottom of the upper forewing. It can just be made out through the hind wing on this picture . I had expected these to be more common, but this is the only one I am aware of seeing.

I also saw some Little Yellows, Eurema lisa euterpe, but didn't manage to photograph one. They have more brown markings on the underside of the wings.

The picture below intrigues me! I think that the black mark at the top of the wing is because a bit of wing is missing, showing the black from the upper side of the other wing. Even so, there appear to be no markings at all on the underside of the wings, so I can't be sure what it is. Unfortunately, I couldn't get close so this very cropped picture is the best I could manage. I will have to do a little more research to see if I can identify it.

There are 13 different species of whites and yellows, and very often I saw one flying past that looked as though it was a slightly different shade of yellow or cream. I think that to seriously try to identify them it would be necessary to take a net and catch them, although there are very few places where this could be done without permission.

(I'll continue this on a separate post.)