[louisianaleps] Aruba Butterflies

From: Dave Patton <davepatton122@xxxxxxxxx>
To: LA Leps <louisianaleps@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 18:05:20 -0600
Greetings,
I spent 5 days last week in Aruba with my wife on a get-a-way break from
winter. Sue loves the beach and floating in the warm waters, so she was
fine with me taking the rental car for three days of searching the island
for butterflies and birds. I knew it was a very dry island and was not
expecting much, but was very pleasantly surprised. This is the rainy months
and the arid land scape was in bloom. I ended up with 20 species of
butterflies that I was able to photograph and ID. This was a challenge with
the constant 20-30 mph easterly winds.
I found a paper on line publishing the results of a butterfly survey of
Aruba and neighboring islands in 2000.
A Survey of Butterflies from Aruba and Bonaire and New Records
for Curaçao
J. Y. MILLER, A. O. DEBROT AND L. D. MILLER
Caribbean Journal of Science, Vol. 39, No. 2, 170–175, 2003

I used the species chart to help identify the species I photographed. I
used the scientific names from the paper to label my photographs, but I am
not sure about how to treat the common names. A few have common names, and
many are sub species of butterflies with common names. So I included common
names and listed those as similar. Many were surprising similar to some we
have and others that are found in south Texas and Florida.
The White-patched Skipper was not in the paper, so I am not sure what the
scientific name is on it. The mystery skipper was in the flowers around our
motel, and I have not been able to identify it. It is very distinct and
should be recognized by someone familiar with it. Below is my list and a
link to my pbase web site with the photos.
The temperature was mid 80's every day.
Cheers,
Dave Patton
Lafayette, LA

http://www.pbase.com/pattonpix/butterfliesaruba

*Monarch ssp  -  Danaus plexippus megalippe   -  Aruba -  15*

*Gulf Fritillary ssp  -  Agraulis v. vanilla  -  Aruba  -  15*

*Ligia Hairstreak  -  Ministrymon ligia  -  Aruba  -  20+*

*Muted Hairstreak  - Electrostrymon nubs  -  Aruba  -  1*

*Disjunct Scrub Hairstreak ssp  - Strymon bubastus babastus -  Aruba  -
50+*

*Cassius Blue ssp  -  Leptotes c. cassius  -  Aruba  -  1*

*Hanno Blue   -  Hemiargus h. hanno  -  Aruba  -  50+*

*Straight-barred Grass Yellow* *- Eurema elathea - Aruba - 6 (similar
Barred Yellow)*

*Little Yellow ssp  -  Eurema lisa euterpe  -  Aruba  -  maybe (no photo)
10*

*Lyside  -  Kricogonia lyside  -  Aruba  -  40*

*Large Orange Sulphur  -  Phoebis agarithe* *-   maybe (no photo) 5*

*Dorantes Longtail ssp   -  Urbanus d. dorantes  -  Aruba  -  8*

*False Duskywing (similar)  -  Gesta gesta  -  Aruba  -  5*

*? small dark spreadwing  -  Zopyrion satyrina  -  Aruba  -  8*

*Central American Checkered Skipper -  Pyrgus adepta - Aruba – 1 (similar
White Checkered Skipper)*

*White-patched Skipper (?) – Chiomara georgina (?) – Aruba - 4*

*Erichson’s White-Skipper ssp  -   Heliopetes d. domicella  -  Aruba  -  2*

*Fiery Skipper  -  Hylephila phyleus  -  Aruba   -  4*

*Flavelo Skipper (similar) -   Atalopedes clarkei  -  Aruba  -  15*

*Eufala Skipper  -  Leroda eufala  -  Aruba  -  10*

*Obscure Skipper ssp  -  Panoquina p. panoquinoides  -  Aruba  -  20*

*Mystery Skipper  -  ???  -  Aruba  -  15 around villa*
[louisianaleps] Aruba Butterflies

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