Am thinking this is a Two Barred Flasher (astraptes fulgerator). I walked out of my front door and it flew out of the tangle of passion vine and landed on a nearby plants in the front flower bed. It kept flitting to different plants but I was still able to get a few photos. Sent the photos to my local NABA chapter for verification. Either way, this is a new butterfly for my yard :o)
~ Cat
Underside
Congratulations on some great photos. I especially like the second one. It's sooo... exciting to get a new butterfly in the yard!
That's quite good new there, Cat! Congrats on a new beauty visiting your yard. Maybe it will raise a family there as well! :-) :-) :-)
He almost looks like he's posing for the camera! So adorable! Congrats on the new addition.
Lovely butterfly! I looked it up. Do you have a Vitex tree? Book says that's a host plant.
Vitex? really???? No vitex here but some a couple of miles away. I thought they used coyotillo as a larval host. Will have to research and transplant :o)
~ Cat
~ Cat,
those are great picture of a lovely butterfly. We have no pictures of it yet in BugFiles, although we have an entry for it here: http://davesgarden.com/bf/go/1182/
Please add your images to BugFiles,
Kennedy
Cat, what a great picture of a 'flashy' skipper!
Linda...
I found the reference to vitex - says they use coyotillo in Texas but vitex in Mexico. I find that very strange...since there are numerous businesses with vitex in their landscaping. Was thinking I'd transplant a coyotillo from the ranch (it grows wild out there...but I have never seen a Two Barred Flasher there. But now...am thinking perhaps I'll grow some vitex. My brother plants some seeds and they sprouted and grew fairly quickly. Hmmmmm....
Kennedy...it's a done deal - I added those two photos to the bug files. Thanks for the link...makes it so much easier to find. :o)
~ Cat
