celery

[celery]

Cleopatra Gonepteryx cleopatra

Clouded Yellow Colias croceus

Cloudless Sulphur Phoebis sennae

Dina Yellow Eurema dina

[celery]

I'm posting these in batches of around 4 species - simply because if the data is lost before I post I don't want to have to re-do a large and complicated upload. This posting of multiple replies in one session means, however, that sometimes things go unseen - particularly when one's diary 'flips' over a page.

So, just in case anyone who might be interested missed them, the first four Pieridae species - Barred Yellow, Berger's Clouded Yellow, Black-veined White and Brimstone - appeared on the last space in page 5 of my diary. More importantly, that post also contained my thanks to Guy Padfield for his help with ID and all-round good-eggedness. Onwards...

Green-veined White Pieris napi

Large Orange Sulphur Phoebis agarithe

Large White Pieris brassicae

Little Yellow Eurema lisa

[celery]

Orange-barred Sulphur Phoebis philea

Wood White Leptidea sinapis

[celery]

Lycaenidae

Adonis Blue Polyommatus bellargus - I saw a lot of Adonis Blues this year!

[celery]

Atala Eumaeus atala

Baton Blue Pseudophilotes baton

Black Hairstreak Satyrium pruni

[NickMorgan]

Fantastic selection of pictures. I have to admit that I really struggled to separate the different Sulphurs when I was in the Caribbean.

[celery]

Hi Nick - apologies for the late reply... weekend and all that

I know exactly what you mean - I have particular difficulty with Statira Sulphur Phoebis statira - luckily I didn't see one of them in 2016, so no worries there!
Florida has around 50 types of skipper - including two Pyrgus that can only be reliably differentiated by close examination of the genitalia and six Duskywings that most enthusiasts just call Horace...

[celery]

Brown Argus Plebeius agestis

Cassius Blue Leptotes cassius

Ceraunus Blue Hemiargus ceraunus

Chalkhill Blue Polyommatus coridon

[celery]

Common Blue Polyommatus icarus

Geranium Bronze Cacyreus marshalli

Green Hairstreak Callophrys rubi

Holly Blue Celastrina argiolus

[celery]

Lang's Short-tailed Blue Leptotes pirithous

Martial Scrub-hairstreak Strymon martialis

Provençal Short-tailed Blue Cupido alcetas

Reverdin's Blue Plebejus argyrognomon

[celery]

Small Blue Cupido minimus

Small Copper Lycaena phlaeas

Sooty Copper Lycaena tityrus

Turquoise Blue Polyommatus dorylas

White-letter Hairstreak Satyrium w-album

[bugboy]

Thoroughly enjoyable recent posts but that Scrub-hairstreak is something else! Not only a stunning insect but you also managed some excellent shots of a mint one, those tails can't last for more than a day or two

[David M]

Thoroughly enjoyable recent posts but that Scrub-hairstreak is something else! Not only a stunning insect but you also managed some excellent shots of a mint one, those tails can't last for more than a day or two

Agreed. Where did you see that, Celery?

[MikeOxon]

A splendid collection for the diary. You've clearly been doing a bit of globe-trotting over the year. I'll echo David and suggest you could append location data for all of these. Some do seem to be UK

[celery]

Thanks for the interest fellas

I was lucky enough to have three foreign trips last year. Dordogne for a week in late May - which I enjoyed so much I went back for another week in mid September, then south and central Florida for ten days in late November.

Any species you don't recognise from your Tolman you can bet was taken in the U.S.

The Martial Scrub-hairstreak shots are from a place called Gumbo Limbo Nature Preserve in Boca Raton, Florida. Gumbo Limbo is a tropical hardwood tree noted for its red-coloured peeling bark. The species is tropical - native to the Bahamas, Cuba and the southern-tip of Florida. It's scarce and very vulnerable - colonies are often destroyed along with their host plants thanks to the frequent hurricanes in the Keys.

Luckily, Florida hasn't suffered from many high-category storms recently and the species is spreading northwards. Boca Raton is at the very northerly tip of its range, some 45 miles up the coast from Miami. Gumbo Limbo Preserve is a remnant of a tropical hardwood hammock - sandwiched in just a few acres between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway. Most butterfly enthusiasts go there to see Ruddy Daggerwings - pics of which are to come when I reach the Nymphalidae - seeing these half-a-dozen Martial-Scrub-hairstreaks was a tremendous surprise and a lifetime first for me.

Thanks for looking and your kind comments. More species to come as soon as I can find the time to post. Cheers

[Wurzel]

Looking forward to the next sets Celery if they're even a patch on the last ones they'll be brill The Martial Scrub Hairstreak is a beut but I was most impressed by the Dina Yellow amazing cryptic patterning

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[celery]

Thanks Wurzel

Yep, I'm particularly proud of that Dina Yellow shot - but I'd be even prouder if it was me that had actually taken it!
That shot was taken by mrs. celery... here's the story...

First day of our holiday and we showed up at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens in Coral Gables, just south of Miami. The place was packed - it turned out it was their yearly 'Ramble' day. Special events, music, tombolas, stalls, all that kind of rigmarole - every scrap of wildlife scared silly by the shrieks of tiny children and the rumbling footfalls of their heavy-set grandparents.

Anyhoo, one of the stalls was the Miami Chapter of NABA (North American Butterfly Association) - manned by ancient wrinkly Floridian lepidoptera enthusiasts - dispensing information and raising awareness to the local community. Imagine your local branch of BC in 50 years time with all the same people as now and no-one had ever died - that's kinda how it was.

So, I was nattering to them about the colony of the nationally-scarce Baracoa Skipper which frequents the short-cut grassland beside the main lake when up pops the missus keen to show off her just-taken photo and get it identified by the experts. "That's a Cloudless Sulphur" says one old-fella. Well, I have a look... clearly it ain't a Cloudless Sulphur. Too small, wrong wing shape... he has a book on his table - the same one I use (Jeffrey Glassberg's Butterflies Through Binoculars - Florida) I leaf through and point to Dina Yellow. "Well, I'll be darned... it is a Dina!" exclaims the same dude, "We ain't seen one of them here since 2008!".

[celery]

Riodinidae

Duke Of Burgundy Hamearis lucina

Little Metalmark Calephelis virginiensis

[celery]

Papilionidae

Not a great year for Swallowtails in Florida, with barely passable pics of only 4 of the 9 (8 if you discount the possibly extinct-in-the-wild Schaus') resident species. Thanks, in-all-likelihood to the zealous and indiscriminate anti-mosquito spraying prevalent in southern Florida since the arrival of Zika virus.

Black Swallowtail Papilio polyxenes

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Papilio glaucus

Giant Swallowtail Papilio cresphontes

Polydamas Swallowtail Battus polydamas

Scarce Swallowtail Iphiclides podalirius

Swallowtail Papilio machaon

[Wurzel]

Ain't it always the way Celery - it's like the people that have American birds in their garden for 6 weeks before anyone from the Twitching fraternity finds out about it Still at least your missus shows some interest, mine just rolls her eyes and plays the part of a 'butterfly widow'

That little metalmark is even more of a cracker than the Scrub Hairstreak It really lives up to it's name with teh bands of metallic silver running over it's wings

Have a goodun

Wurzel