The West Coast

After Arizona, we headed west into California and up into Oregon and Washington.  Although we didn't have a lot of time to work bugs, I took a lot of pictures of what I could find.

Starting in California, we had some luck with butterflies at the San Elijo Lagoon which is north of San Diego.  It was there that we saw:

Lorquin's Admiral:

Fatal Metalmark:

The MARINE BLUES continued to be abundant:

Gray Hairstreaks apparently occur here as well:

We eventually got up into Oregon for a quick trip through northward.  I pulled my camera out at a rest area along the interstate and came away with pictures of this COMMON RINGLET:

... and this PINE WHITE:

Later on that day, I ventured outside again for bflies and found this pair of SACHEMS:

I think it was the next day that we took a stroll near Eugene, Oregon and stumbled on things like this WESTERN TAILED-BLUE:

From what I can tell, WOODLAND SKIPPERS are perhaps the most abundant grass skipper during this season in Washington:

It's clear that this WESTERN TIGER-SWALLOWTAIL had seen better days:

We spent a brief day at Mount Rainier and saw things like this SILVER-BORDERED FRITILLARY:

There were a LOT of checkerspots/crescents around.  I'm not totally convinced that these four photos are all VARIABLE CHECKERSPOTS but a part of me thinks so.  Thoughts?

There were also some blues around up in the higher elevation including this MELISSA BLUE:

... and this BOISDUVAL'S BLUE:

I'll close with a butterfly in Sacramento that stumped me.  There aren't THAT many skippers possible here this time of year and with this butterfly being so worn, I wonder if it's just a SACHEM?

The next post will be devoted to some of the dragonflies/damselflies from our AZ/CA/OR/WA trip.  Stay tuned...

Second AZ post

I have become backlogged with bug photos from this summer.  Because of this, I might not insert maps for this post; I need to just catch up!  Anyway, this post is devoted to the second half of my Arizona butterfly pics.

We can start with sulphurs.  A common species in Arizona was the CLOUDLESS SULPHUR; this one was near Portal:

I only saw one hairstreak the whole time and I eventually came to the conclusion that it was a JUNIPER HAIRSTREAK.  Let me know if you think differently:

Moving to blues, this lifer WESTERN PYGMY-BLUE was at Willcox Lake in Arizona:

I didn't see many metalmarks but the one I did see was easily identified as an ARES METALMARK.  It was in Garden Canyon near Sawmill Canyon:

I was happy to stumble on this ELADA CHECKERSPOT, also a lifer, at Catalina State Park near Tucson:

I posted earlier about the BORDERED PATCHES we saw.  Well, they are one of the most variable species we have and now I know why.  This individual has no other colors but black and white:

Switching gears to anglewings, the only species I saw in Arizona was this SATYR COMMA at Ramsey Canyon Preserve:

A very common species on this trip was the ARIZONA SISTER.  We saw a wide range of wear on this species.  Here is a crisp one:

... and a really worn one:

A butterfly of the south/southwest is this type of emperor, known as an EMPRESS LEILIA.  This individual was at Catalina State Park:

Moving now to spread-wing skippers, Florida Canyon in the Santa Ritas had a lot of activity.  It was here that I found my lifer MOON-MARKED SKIPPERS:

There was also this individual that gave me a lot of issues with identifying it.  I settled on ACACIA SKIPPER but you might be able to convince me otherwise:

Even in Arizona it's easy to recognize the widespread SILVER-SPOTTED SKIPPER:

 In terms of grass skippers, this plain and simple ORANGE SKIPPERLING in Patagonia was a lifer:

Near a forested stream higher up in the Chiricahuas were many TAXILES SKIPPERS.  Here is a male;

The one species I was most happy to see on our entire trip happened in Garden Canyon.  With an extremely small world range, it is quite local and I was happy to see several MANY-SPOTTED SKIPPERLINGS:

My next post on this blog should be devoted to butterflies I found in California, Oregon, and Washington.  Stay tuned!