SE Arizona -September 2018

[Charles Nicol]

thanks for sharing those beautiful pics Sylvie

[Padfield]

Yes, thank you, Sylvie. I've been following your report from Arizona with great fascination. Super butterflies and pictures.

Guy

[Goldie M]

More fantastic Photos Sylvie I bet you've made quite a few people want to visit SE Arizona Goldie

[Medard]

My wife and I visited Arizona mid March 1993 and spent three weeks traveling from the US/Mexican border to Monument valley, Utah, the purpose of the visit was to see cacti in their native habitat, Cacti are another of my passions, I cant remember seeing any butterflies during this visit it was most likely to have been too early in the season, however for any lover of nature Arizona is a paradise, diverse, the desert regions so unlike any habitat we had ever visited, I must say I can fully recommend it .
Please can you give some location details Sylvie, great pics of so many spectacular butterflies .
https://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/

[Sylvie_h]

Thank you all for your replies.
I love your Road Runner, Medard. We did see them also and always crossing the roads. I never managed to get a picture, they were gone by the time we reached the point of crossing.
Cacti are also one of my many interests and I was also very eager to see Carnegiea gigantea known as Saguaro Cactus. They are not everywhere in Arizona but there were many north of Green Valley (South of Tuscon) where we were based, we spent the most part of one day in these areas to see the Cacti but apart from a few Ceraunus blues, we did not see any butterflies, it was also extremely hot. Butterflies seemed to gather in damper places. For all these butterflies, we visited the Atascosa and the Santa Rita Mountains. I will post a few pictures at the end of the post to show the context. There are many different places with streams, ponds and canyons in those mountains which is very good for butterflies. It was also interesting to see the change of scenery going further north towards Phoenix where the terrain is getting very arid and dusty (there were lots of impressive dust tornadoes travelling back to Phoenix Airport).

SATYRS
All 3 satyrs were found in the same place. A woodland canyon.

Nabokov’s Satyr (Cyllopsis pyracmon): found in oak and pine woodlands. Its hostplant is Bullgrass and other grasses. A very wary butterfly very difficult to approach. Its colour blends very well with the leaf litter on the ground, it makes it difficult to see. They don’t open their wings when still.

Nabokov's Satyr

Red Satyr (Megisto rubricata): I found several specimens. With their wings opened, they reminded me of our Meadow Brown. It is not very widespread in Arizona and is only found in the central and South eastern quarter.

Red Satyr

Red Satyr

Red- Bordered Satyr (Tribe Satyrini): I managed to get a picture very early in the morning as they were quite settled and not very active. We saw them later in the day after mid-day and they were restless and impossible to photograph. They would fly low right in front of us showing off their beautiful ups. They have a large bright orange band on the uph and bright white spots on the upf. As soon as they land, they close their wings.

Red Bordered Satyr

Red Bordered Satyr.JPG (80.41 KiB) Viewed 2283 times

MONARCHS: (Danainae)

Monarch (Danaus Plexippus): this is a species that is seen on migration in late summer and early fall in Arizona.

Monarch

Queen (Danaus gilippus): Very similar to Monarch. It was found in 2 different places nectaring on flowers and seeping out minerals.

Queen

Queen

[Sylvie_h]

SKIPPERS (Hesperiidae):
There are 272 species of Skippers in North America, 137 of those are found in Arizona.

Dull Firetip (Apyrrothrix Araxes): it is one of my favourites, not dull at all I think. It is a big butterfly, in fact all the Skippers over there are big in size. We saw many specimens on these sunflowers, the food plant is White Oak.

Dull Firetip

Dull Firetip

Hammock Skipper (Polygonus leo): this is a stray from either Mexico or nearby States. It is a rare sighting in Arizona so we were lucky to spot one specimen in a rather good condition. It is found from middle of July to late October.

Hammock Skipper

Arizona Skipper (Codatractus arizonensis): a very wary butterfly. Only found in a canyon. It would perch on this dead branch for a while but would fly off after any intruder. We saw it on 2 occasions in the same place. I am not sure whether it was 2 different specimens or the same one. The second day, it seems to be a bit more tolerant of our presence so we got some good shots.

Arizona Skipper

Dorantes Longtail (Urbanus dorantes): a very brief encounter with this species. I managed to get a picture from a distance and it flew off again.

Doranted Longtail

Acacia Skipper (Cogia hippalus) : another species looking very much like the Arizona Skipper but more widespread.

Acacia Skipper

Mournful Duskywing (Erynnis tristis): found in Canyons as well as near water in more open areas. There are a lot of Duskywings looking alike so a shot from the underside is always useful for identification.

Mournful Duskywing

Mournful Duskywing

Common Checkered Skipper (Pyrgus communis): There are 3 of these looking very much alike and the common Checkered Skipper cannot be differentiated with the tropical Checkered Skipper where the range overlaps.

Checkered Skipper

Desert Checkered Skipper (Pyrgus philetas) : very much like the Common Checkered Skipper.

Desert Checkered Skipper

Common Sootywing (Pholisora Catullus): found near the Mexican border.

Common Sootywing

Orange Skipperling (Copaeodes aurantiaca) : very much like our Small Skipper but slightly bigger.

Orange Skipperling

Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus): found in the town where we were based.

Fiery Skipper

Toltec Roadside Skipper (Amblyscirtes tolteca) : slightly warned specimen but still a good sighting as they are not so widespread.

Toltec Roadside Skipper

Thanks a lot,
Sylvie

[David M]

Absolutely lovely range of species, Sylvie. Did you research the sites prior to visiting?

It DOES look to be a wonderful area for butterflies as well as other wildlife.

Are you going to share your cactus shots with us?

[Sylvie_h]

Hi David,
Yes, indeed Paul and I have done a lot of reading and research before going (we spent about 8 months researching before going). The research for habitats is I think the most valuable part of the preparation and also picking up the right time to go. We chose different places to go without any expectations of finding any particular species and this, in order to avoid any disappointment. I am very happy with what we saw and I still think about it a lot. Here are some pictures showing the beautiful diversity of species that one can find in this part of the US, some showing my favourite dragonflies and birds and some habitats.
Thanks
Sylvie

Saguaro Cactus

Flame Skimmer

Mexican Amberwing

Painted Damsel

Roseate Skimmer

Four spotted Pennant

Anna's Hummingbird

Black Chinned Hummingbird

Broad Billed Hummingbird

Painted Redstart

Atascosa Mountains Lake

Santa Rita Mountain

Atascosa Mountain

[David M]

Your research certainly paid dividends, Sylvie. That habitat looks extremely interesting. I doubt there's anything like that here in Europe. Your last image is especially evocative, with the high clouds setting off the image perfectly.

No less impressive are your libellule shots. How did you get near them in such hot weather?

[Sylvie_h]

Hi David,

Dragonflies were very active and wary. I have to admit that there is some cropping done on my pictures, I was about half a meter away from the subjects. I use a 150mm Sigma lens with optical stabilizer, it's a great lens for this kind of work.
Sylvie

[David M]

Thanks for that, Sylvie. I'm sure you exercised lots of patience to get those images, and you're right, that lens is perfect for capturing shots such as these.