Satyr Butterflies from Belize

Folks,
Butterflying in a new part of the world has its challenges. My camera and lens both were not the best companions. The 20D camera is getting old and fussy. My 180mm macro lens needs repair, it now close focuses to 24inches not the 10 inches it used to do, a real bummer when shooting butterflies.

Here is a start of the butterflies we saw the satyr family. In all we had 8 species of satyrs in Belize! The most common butterfly seen one was our Carolina Satyr seen right here in our NC backyard, we see 6 species in our backyard so seeing 8 species in Belize at an off time of year is still pretty good.

White Satyr, Pareuptychia ocirrhoe saw this at three locations. When it flies you see mostly white.

This Westwood's Satyr, Euptychia westwoodi looks a lot like the White Satyr with subtitle differences. I only saw one of these and it was gone before Roger caught up to me. I also saw and photographed a Confused Satyr, the photo of it taking off allowed an ID, but not worth posting here.

This White-banded Satyr, Pareuptychia ocirrhoe was the only one of these we saw.

This Blue-gray Satyr, Magneuptychia libye was not in our book "Butterflies of Mexico and Central America" I got the ID from www.mariposasmexicanas.com This was the only one seen and it would not come out from under a palm bush for a better photo.

Above and below is the Plain Satyr, Cissia pompilia we saw it many places.

Carolina Satyr, Hermeuptychia sosybius the most common butterfly seen in Belize. Some websites gave this one a different name altogether. We see this butterfly in my backyard and is the only satyr of this type that nectars flowers, we saw it on many flowers as well in Belize.

Above and below the Moon Satyr, Pierella luna this was huge for a satyr at about 2 1/2 inches tall, the others shown above are mostly around an inch or less. These photos were taken from about 6 foot away and it left town before I could get close. It was my big mystery butterfly and the angle I took in these photos do not show the unusual shape very well.

OK, you suffered through the satyrs we saw. I just enjoy this family mainly because they bounce as they fly and they are out in the shady forest even on days when it is not sunny.

Below is not a satyr

Little Banner, Nica flavilla we found it along the trail at Blue Hole. Took lots of photos and we wanted to see it fly. Roger touched it with his finger and it just moved away, tried over and over and it just still moved away. We left it on the leaf, never ever had a butterfly do that.

Dutchman's Breeches and Penny's Bend

Over the weekend we had Internet problems, still dropping off too much. Meg and I went on a nature walk at Penny's Bend Nature preserve on the Eno River on Saturday. Dutchman's Breeches, Dicentria cucullaria was one of our targets. We found an entire hillside covered with Dutchman's Breeches most had already bloomed, yet I managed to get these photos.


Below is an Eastern Comma Butterfly I found on Friday here while strolling the grounds.


The Gemmed Satyr below was also found at Penny's Bend, our first for the season.

Painted Buckeye is currently in full bloom, usually our hummingbirds return when these are blooming. We saw lots of buckeyes in bloom but no hummingbirds.

On Friday I also found this Twin-spotted Spiketail next door. These are spring flying dragonflies one of the biggest we see in the spring. I saw one flying, but never saw it land. This one a spotted perched and it allowed all the photos I wanted, they are not at all wary when resting.

Our first salad greens from the garden on Saturday night. The greens included mixed salad greens, mustard greens, arugula and curly kale. On Easter we made a salad for 8 and all was eaten up right away.