I should stress at this point that this was not a butterflying holiday, but given our surroundings it was inevitable that some interesting species would turn up, and as this was my first time out of Europe, I was like a kid in a sweetshop! Of course, there was the added bonus that every butterfly species seen would be a life tick...
We spent much of the fortnight in and around our hotel, taking a daily early morning walk of a couple of hours along the tracks through the jungle before the heat forced us back to the pool for cocktails and some R&R. I was glad to have with me a copy of Jeffrey Glassberg's excellent book, "A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America". This book manages to pack the maximum amount of information on a large number of species into a relatively small field guide and is very cleverly designed and laid out. Even so, there were some species that I struggled to identify, and I shall be requesting assistance from anyone with experience of central American butterflies in due course! Also, if anyone disagrees with any of my tentative IDs I would value any imput.
The following species were all photographed within a couple of kilometres of our base, at elevations between sea-level and 50 metres:
I didn't have to wait long on our first morning for the excitement of seeing my first new non-European butterflies. A walk through the hotel gardens produced the following three delights.
The tracks through the forest were alive with butterflies - I didn't know where to point my eyes first! One of the species to catch my attention early was the diminutive Elf butterfly, which was flying in good numbers along the side of the track. They are delightful insects, constantly opening and closing their wings, and quite active.
There were also some tiny blues moving about. I eventually managed a few photographs and identified them as Ceraunus Blues - they wouldn't look completely out of place in parts of Europe.
A little further along, the forest track opened up into open grassland, and along the edge were a number of small fritillary-like butterflies, soon to become a personal favourite of mine, with stunning underside patterns and rather nice uppers also! These were Theona Checkerspots.
But hang on a minute, we were in the tropics here, and so far all the butterflies we had seen had been pretty small. Shouldn't there be some larger ones flying about? This thought had just gone through my mind when a huge Morpho flew through the trees alongside us. It wasn't stopping for a picture but it was a stunning sight as it flew low down and flashed its irridescent blue at us several times on its way past!
Over the coming days, this forest track became our regular morning haunt, and produced more and more species of interest.
The Malachite was commonly seen in ones and twos, usually up in the tree tops, but occasionally descending lower down. It took me a whole week to get a photo of one at nectar without severe wing damage, as most of them were way past their best.
Another sizeable butterfly, although not quite as big as a Monarch, was the Soldier.
There was a good selection of whites and sulphurs on the wing, but getting anywhere near them was not easy, as they were mostly restless. I should mention that there was a stiff breeze blowing most days, so even if a butterfly did land briefly closeby, it was often challenging to get a camera on it. Below are a few shots of varying quality.
One morning we walked upon a huge emergence of Barred Yellows - they were everywhere, flying over and around some vetch plants, with many mating pairs - the previous day we hadn't seen a single one.
I had hoped to bump into one of the Buckeyes during our visit, and I wasn't disappointed. These were fairly common.
The next species was a complete revelation. I had read about "Cracker" butterflies, but seeing them in the wild doing their thing was amazing. As two rival males interact and fight over territories, they make a surprisingly loud "cracking" noise as part of their battle, which can be clearly heard from some metres away.The sound has been likened to that of a firecracker going off, but to me it was reminiscent of the sound of a high voltage electric discharge, like the sound that accompanies a Van der Graaf Generator spark. At first I thought that these were the Variable Cracker, Hamadryas feronia, but on closer examination I believe this is the Guatemalan Cracker.
A larger narrow-winged fritillary had been eluding me for a few days before I was able to get close enough to photograph the gorgeous Mexican Fritillary.
This one also caused me a few headaches to begin with - quite appropriately - which Sister was this? I am fairly confident of this ID now.
Swallowtails were surprisingly thin on the ground, and the only species we saw was this one.
Another species that appeared out of nowhere one morning was the Black Patch. We saw these on just one day, in small numbers.
And to finish this first part of my report, a species which according to Glassberg is endemic to Mexico, so I have either got the ID wrong, or this butterfly also flies in NW Costa Rica. I have this down as a worn example of the White-tipped Pixie, but stand ready to be corrected!
In PART TWO I shall share my experience with the Skipper butterflies that we encountered. I think they really were the highlight of the trip for me, and I am not known as a huge skipper fan usually! There was a fascinating range, from the "near familiar" ones that closely resemble some of our European Skippers, through to the "otherworldly" the likes of which you could scarcely imagine!
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