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!