Is this Myscelia cyaniris or Myscelia ethusa? Can anyone help me out?
Now I'm not sure?
I believe what you are looking at is ethusa. cyaniris has more spots and also white stripes on wings. Good luck.
Thanks for you help I'll double check. :)
Sweet! It's a male Mexican Bluewing. We get those in south Texas. Did you photograph that at a conservation center or were you on a trip to south Texas or Mexico?
http://davesgarden.com/community/blogs/t/TexasPuddyPrint/12559/
~ Cat
This message was edited Jul 15, 2010 1:25 PM
What great pictures! Can I use them in my Master Gardening talk on butterflies. I took the pictures at Hershey Rose Gardens, butterfly house in PA.
Okay with me mgarr - just give credit where it's due. It helps to promote butterflying in south Texas!!! I have other butterfly life cycles on there as well that helps folks with identification.
You can always give out our local NABA Chapter website link http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabast/ to anyone interested in butterflies. We have about 320 recorded species for our area.
I really should have gotten new photos of those Mexican Bluewings. Those are several years old and taken with an equally old camera. I saw several dozen this weekend and several females were laying eggs on the vasey adelia bushes but it was just so dratted hot - we had our local NABA butterfly count this weekend - we must've been crazy to be walking around in 98 degree weather with not a cloud or breeze in sight!
Another helpful website is from Jan & Dave Dauphin (Mission, TX). http://www.thedauphins.net/
They have a huge amount of resource links for butterflies, dragonflies, birds, plants etc. Some are local links but others for the state and federal government and even some links to other countries.
Enjoy!!!
~ Cat
Thanks for all your input.