Our last two blogs covered butterflies that we saw at a conservatory in Key West. Today I thought I would show some of the native butterflies we've seen in our 10 weeks here at Key Deer NWR.
Some are widespread species like the Queen and Gulf Fritillary.
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| Gulf Fritillary |
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| Queen |
But many are more limited in range. An example is the Mangrove Skipper, found only on the southern Florida coast.
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| Mangrove Skipper |
The similar Hammock Skipper is a bit more widespread, also occurring in far south Texas and occasionally in SE Arizona.
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| Hammock Skipper |
Still in the skipper family, the Florida Duskywing is found only in the southern tip of Florida and the Florida Keys,
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| Florida Duskywing |
The Martial Scrub-Hairstreak inhabits the same range as the Duskywing above, so is limited to far South Florida.
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| Martial Scrub-Hairstreak |
The Great Southern White occupies much of the Gulf of Mexico coastline. We saw them by the hundreds on South Padre Island in Texas. Here we've seen only a couple, but recognized them immediately by their blue antenna clubs.
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| Great Southern White |
The final butterfly is a Mangrove Buckeye, which is limited to the Florida Coast. Similar to the Common and Tropical Buckeye, it is distinguished by the orange color surrounding the large eyespot on the forewing.
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| Mangrove Buckeye |
Great photos... most of these species I've never seen before.
ReplyDeleteIt's not always easy to get such good shots of those butterflies. Good job!
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