Lycaenid Butterflies
Theritas mavors, a Lycaenid butterfly in the subfamily Lycaeninae at Finca Cantaros, San Vito, Costa Rica. The fly wasn’t a predator of the butterfly, but seemed to study the white tips of the waving tail–potential minuscule insects to a fly’s eyes?
It was my unlucky day; it was my lucky day. An early morning birding foray into our nature reserve was disappointing–nothing was moving or calling out. When I returned to the house my dog ran toward me with her rubber chicken. Would I throw it? Of course! When I went to pick it up, I saw a butterfly around the Hamelia patens “scarlet bush”, a small ornamental tree just 25 feet from our back door. Holy moly! What is that? I immediately started taking pictures of what turned out to be Theritas mavors, and called my husband to do a video of the Lycaenid butterfly.
As it turns out, after getting help with the ID, I learned that over the years I have taken three photos of Lycaenid butterflies in the subfamily Lycaeninae: two on my own property, and one in Belize. I have much more work to do, as Costa Rica has 248 species in the Lycaeninae. The Lycaenidae Family of butterflies is “cosmopolitan” and enjoys tremendous diversity in tropical regions. About 6000 species have been described worldwide–the second largest family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae), constituting about 30% of the known butterfly species. Lycaenids are divided into five subfamilies, including Lycaeninae, with 511 Lycaenid species identified thus far in Costa Rica.
Evenus batesii, subfamily Lycaeninae, forest near Chan Chich, Belize.
In the subfamily Lycaeninae, most species have hindwing veins which project into one or two hairy antenna-like tails, some with black and white rings (“annulations”). Note the legs in both Theritas mavors (top) and Evanus batesii (above) also have black and white annulation. Evanus batesii was named after Henry Walter Bates, the brilliant entomologist and contemporary of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace. Bates spent eleven years in Brazil between 1848 and 1859, observing and collecting insects and Lepidoptera.
Batesian mimicry, as it came to be called after he published his famous paper in 1861*, could involve something as simple as a praying mantis or a moth mimicking the color and patterns of leaves, or an adaptation as complex as an “edible mimic” gaining some protection from predators by virtue of its close resemblance to a model species which is unpalatable or toxic.** Bates observed that “The Leptalides flew in the same parts of the forest, and generally in company with the species they mimic.”
Interestingly, in another form of mimicry, the tails of these Lycaeninae butterflies are used to confuse and distract potential predators. In Theritas mavors, the butterfly controls the vertical tail movement: the tails on each wing wave in contrast to one another, mimicking antennae. (See the video below.) The butterfly often turns around upon landing, putting its tail uppermost to misdirect the predator from recognizing its true head orientation. This may cause the predator to stealthily approach the butterfly from what is actually the true head end, resulting in early visual detection by the butterfly. A predator may then attack the false antennae rather than the actual head part of the body, allowing the butterfly to escape with only minor wing damage. This mimicry with false antennae provides a distinct evolutionary advantage when the butterfly can escape to live another day and reproduce.
As a Lepidoptera enthusiast, I am always excited when a butterfly appears that I’ve never spotted before. A new arrival is cause for quickening pulse and rapid camera action. It is a matter of working to catch my breath when a stunning creature is posing in front of me. Time becomes irrelevant. Everything else falls away.
The English nature writer, essayist and journalist Richard Jefferies (1848-1887)–always trying to open himself up fully to the beauty of the universe–said it best:
It is eternity now. I am in the midst of it. It is about me in the sunshine; I am in it, as the butterfly in the light-laden air. Nothing has to come; it is now. Now is eternity; now is the immortal life.***
Lycaeninae sp., Finca Cantaros, San Vito, Costa Rica. No ID possible without seeing ventral wings.
References:
*”Contributions to an Insect Fauna of the Amazon Valley. Lepidoptera: Heliconidae“, Encyclopedia.com: Henry Walter Bates.
** For example, Leptalides in the Pieridae Family mimic several unpalatable species in the Heliconidae Family.
*** See his 1883 autobiographical work, The Story of My Heart.
Video of Theritas mavors butterfly tail action by Harry Hull, filmed at Finca Cantaros, Costa Rica.
Mariposas de Costa Rica; Butterflies and Moths of Costa Rica (Order Lepidoptera) by Isidro Chacon and Jose Montero, Editorial INBio, 2007, Costa Rica, pp. 272-277. (Out of print.)
Wikipedia: Lycaenidae; Lycaeninae.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to my friend, Isidro Chacon, for help with identifications.
Note: The Lycaenids are also known commonly as Hairstreaks, Blues, Coppers and Metalmarks.
Roadside Hawk Gets Loud and Flashy
Roadside Hawk. Photo from 2014, Finca Cantaros
Roadside Hawk displaying wing attributes, January 28, 2016
When mating season commences, birds compete to show off their best attributes, and to announce to individuals of the opposite sex where they are–by singing or calling out brashly and repeatedly. Sometimes they are not quite ready to mate, but are just practicing for the real action to come later.
If there is no response, of course, the initiator will move on and try its luck elsewhere. Courtship is so urgent and vital that some birds don’t care very much if human beings with cameras are in the immediate vicinity. The tritely-named Roadside Hawk is one of those birds that stays fairly low in the forest canopy or on medium-height isolated trees and is quite “tranquilo” about nearby witnesses to its behavior.
One of the most common hawks visible on our property in the mid-elevation Southern Pacific Zone of Costa Rica is the Buteo magnirostris, or Roadside Hawk. On January 28th around midday at Finca Cántaros a handsome specimen attracted my attention in the backyard while I was eating lunch. I raced out with my camera as it continuously called in what is described by Skutch and Stiles as “an excited-sounding nasal, barking keh-keh-keh-keh”, likely to be a courtship call.
Fluffing mantle and covert feathers.
Calling for attention.
Not only did it call for a quarter hour, but it also performed a stunning display of moves designed to show the strength, number, color, and flexibility of its wings. There was fanning and flapping of wings and raising and lowering of tail feathers—the avian equivalent of a tango dancer. After about ten minutes I heard another Roadside Hawk calling and shortly thereafter the other bird arrived. Adults are identical in size and color, so I don’t know if the performing bird was male or female. In any case, instead of an interesting encounter between the two birds, the talented performer promptly flew off, leaving the new arrival distinctly alone after taking the trouble to fly in for closer inspection. Was it as disappointed as I was?
Bobbing up and down and fanning feathers.
In any case, I was there to fully admire the show, and hope there will be more acrobatics and feather-waving displays coming soon to a tree near me.
Note: Roadside Hawks range from Eastern Mexico to Western Ecuador and Northern Argentina.
Reference: A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica by F. Gary Stiles and Alexander F. Skutch. Comstock Publishing Associates, a Division of Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1989, p. 107
A Flowery Tribute
Passiflora edulis. Native to Brazil but widely cultivated throughout the tropics.
When one gets close to ninety-five years of age, things can start to go wrong.
My mother, Georgette Hewson, landed in the hospital January 1st, for the first time in fifty-five years, just a few weeks before her birthday. She does not live on the Mediterranean coast on a diet of olives, fish, pomegranates and nuts, but rather has been a resident of Massachusetts for most of her life, where she enjoys a tenderloin steak most Saturday nights and some form of sweet dessert daily. Until her trip to Santa Fe, NM, for Christmas, she was preparing all her own tasty and healthy meals, but with ample butter when necessary.
Drymonia macrantha. Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama.
My mother decided early last year it was probably time to sell her car after she had a minor accident, her fault, but she didn’t like losing her wheels and independence even one bit, and groused about it well into the fall of 2015. She only started using a cane about the same time, and has never had an injury due to a fall. She wanted her cane painted with bright, colorful flowers, an assignment I accomplished for her. Her love of flowers is well known, and her avocation ever since I can remember has been perennial plantings to produce flowers spring through fall.
So what has been my Mom’s secret to successful aging? A combination of factors motivate her: vanity about her clothing and appearance which made her very stylish; physical activity daily as she moved around her building, garden, library, and favorite stores; friends with whom to garden, share a cocktail and chat, and interest in news, sports, and celebrities’ lives. She follows Red Sox baseball, the Boston Patriots, and certain pro golfers set her heart practically racing. All these factors have contributed to her well-being and astonishing mental acuity.
Amaryllidaceae: Euchrosia bicolor. Native to Ecuador and Peru; growing in Finca Cantaros.. Thanks to David Janus, Wilson Botanical Garden, for ID.
Mom could not rely on a daily basis on my sister and me, since we both moved far from home after college and could only visit once or twice annually, though more often in recent years. We stayed close by phone—though my sister was always better about this tender duty than I.
That physical remove from her daughters required Mom to generate an iron will to master her environment after my Dad died in 1987. For twenty-nine years she has been on her own, but always with a number of friends, neighbors, and relatives not too far away, to give and receive essential support. She often acted as chauffeur until last year to help friends get to medical and hair appointments. Sadly, though, several close friends and family members have died in just the last few months and years.
Georgette, or GiGi to her grandchildren, in Massachusetts, October, 2015
Commelina erecta in the Commelinaceae Family. Seven species in Costa Rica. Seen by lake at Finca Cantaros.
Big changes now: Georgette is now a resident of Santa Fe, living with my sister Sue and brother-in-law, Joe. I spent time with them there after Mom became ill, and we made the decision together as a family that it is time for her to relax and release a tad bit her tenacious grip on independence. Her room looks out to the desert, with the Sangre de Christo Mountains in the distance, but for most months of the year there is, close to the house, a colorful garden, filled with flowers and desert birds. It is a wonderful place to rest.
NOTE TO MOM:
The tropical flowers in the photographs here are likely new to you, Mom, and I hope they bring you bouquets of good cheer as you continue to recuperate from your medical challenges. These flowers come with love and tremendous admiration for your optimism and motivation to get back to enjoying your beautiful life.
Bromeliad at Finca Cantaros
Firecracker vine: Pyrostegia venusta. Originally from Brazil and Paraguay but now widely grown throughout the tropics.
Foto Diarist 