June Bugs

A bit surprised to realize the month of June zipped by without any new blog posts, but I’d mentioned in my last post expecting June to be a busy month for butterflies. And indeed it was with a number of outings to a number of good locations and a four day road trip to Southeast Arizona for a few specialties. (If you’re wondering about the title, butterfly folks sometimes refer to butterflies as ‘bugs’, and ‘June Bugs’ seemed appropriate.)

This post is almost totally about those butterflies, but along the way there were a couple of other things that caught my eye. Only two are of birds, first a Cactus Wren about to take flight,

Cactus Wren

and one of a Dark-eyed Junco from Barfoot Park in the Chiricahuas, a species we don’t see in most of New Mexico.

Yellow-eyed Junco

The only other non-butterfly photo this time is of a lizard snacking on a walking stick seen at Rockhound State Park.

Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptail w/Walking Stick

So, on to the butterflies. We made a run out to El Malpais National Conservation Area on June 1 to look for the Rhesus Skipper at our special spot for them, and were pleased to find a very few individuals including this one.

Rhesus Skipper (Polites rhesus)

The next day in Cienega, we had a few more species including an Arizona Sister (This is the ventral view; the next photo is of the dorsal view.)

Arizona Sister (Adelpha eulalia)

Two days later, we visited Canon Monte Largo on the east side of the Manzanos (and discovered a much easier route to get there!). That would turn up more of the Arizona Sister,

Arizona Sister (Adelpha eulalia)

and my first good look at a Weidemeyer’s Admiral this year.

Weidemeyer’s Admiral (Limenitis weidemeyerii)

Two days later in Embudito led me to my best photo this year of a Canyonland Satyr.

Canyonland Satyr (Cyllopsis pertepida)

Saturday had us off to roads west of Torreon and Manzano partly in our unsuccessful quest for Margarita Skipper, but that would turn up a nice variety of other species. Two photos from that day include this Black Swallowtail

Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes)

and a Mexican Sootywing (surprisingly cooperative and giving us that essential ventral view).

Mexican Sootywing (Pholisora mejicanus)

Back in Embudito two days later turned up the first Hackberry Emperor of the year, and oddly, I haven’t seen one there since. This one is pretty special from both a dorsal view

Hackberry Emperor (Asterocampa celtis)

as well as the ventral view.

Hackberry Emperor (Asterocampa celtis)

On June 16, our Nepali friend Sajan, arrived here after almost a month long trip to Panama, and will be staying through July. (Unfortunately, his wife Anisha ran into some serious bureaucratic trouble getting her student visa and was forced to return directly home from Panama to Nepal to try again.) Since he’s arrived, we’ve been out most days off working on continuing to add to his already impressive lifelist of US butterflies. The rest of the photos in this post are some of the photos I’ve gotten on those outings.

One of those was another trip to the road west of Manzano to Capilla Peak. Unsuccessful at first, on our return trip down the mountain Rebecca would spot the Nais Metalmark we’d hoped to see after having had our first one there back in 2020. This individual was quite cooperative and gave me good looks at both the dorsal

Nais Metalmark (Apodemia nais)

and ventral sides.

Nais Metalmark (Apodemia nais)

The next day we were up in the Jemez Mountains, where we’d see some good butterflies including our two target species for the day, Western Green Hairstreak

Western Green Hairstreak (Callophrys affinis)

and the Western Pine Elfin.

Western Pine Elfin (Callophrys eryphon)

Rather surprising for us was seeing several individuals of Pale Swallowtail, a species we’d only seen once before in Eagle Nest last July.

Pale Swallowtail (Papilio eurymedon)

Some of the others we’d see that day included Purplish Copper,

Purplish Copper (Lycaena helloides)

Arctic Blue,

Arctic Blue (Plebejus glandon)

and Draco Skipper.

Draco Skipper (Polites draco)

Two days later, it was off to Water Canyon where the butterflies weren’t quite as good as expected but fun to see a Red Satyr, a species I’d only seen once before in New Mexico but managed to get a photo of this time.

Red Satyr (Megisto rubricata)

From June 24 to June 27 we took a road trip to Southeast Arizona, targeting first some of the species we’d seen before in the Chiricahuas, and then for some surprisingly good sightings on Mt. Graham, before spending the last night in Deming and taking a look around Rockhound State Park before heading for home.

At Barfoot Park in the Chiricahuas we’d get two of our trip targets, the Arizona Pine Satyr (although I’d gotten a much more colorful photo in 2015),

Arizona Pine Satyr (Paramacera allyni)

and good numbers of the Orange-edged Roadside-Skipper.

Orange-edged Roadside-Skipper (Amblyscirtes fimbriata)

On the road back down we picked up a few others, one of which was Nabakov’s Satyr (quite similar to the Canyonland Satyr above that we see around Albuquerque).

Nabokov’s Satyr (Cyllopsis pyracmon)

We had quite a few goodies close to the Portal Peak Lodge where we were staying, such as Arizona Metalmark,

Arizona Metalmark (Calephelis arizonensis)

Arizona Checkerspot,

Arizona Checkerspot (Texola perse)

Leda Ministreak,

Leda Ministreak (Ministrymon leda)

and both Texas Roadside-Skipper

Texas Roadside-Skipper (Amblyscirtes texanae)

and Cassus Roadside-Skipper.

Cassus Roadside-Skipper (Amblyscirtes cassus)

For our last day in Arizona, we changed our plan from going to Sierra Vista to driving north to Mount Graham. Although we’d see some good butterflies at the few places we stopped there, trip highlight for everybody was when Sajan started spotting Arizona Hairstreaks in the blooming Ceanothus bushes. While we’d seen a few single individuals in the past, and usually close to water, this day we’d see several in a single bush. Here’s one of my better photos of one of them.

Arizona Hairstreak (Erora quaderna)

And I just have to share this one of a glowing Juniper Hairstreak in the same area.

Juniper Hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus)

From there, it was on to Deming and a quick look around Rockhound State Park the next morning. Not too many butterflies around, but we did get nice looks at Acacia Skipper (we’d had plenty of these in Arizona)

Acacia Skipper (Cogia hippalus)

and Empress Leilia.

Empress Leilia (Asterocampa leilia)

Just about the last day of June, we were able to meet up with Steve Cary at the Santa Fe Ski Basin, adding another species new for the year, Common Alpine.

Common Alpine (Erebia epipsodea)

Stay tuned…we’ve got a lot more butterfly trips coming up in July that are bound to lead to good photos.