Butterflies in Akumal, Quintana Roo

[John Shuey]

Patric,

 a pretty short list - but its the dry season and to be expected.  The
Morpho is Morpho peleides (if it was blue) or M. polyphemus (if white) -
these are the only two species that occur that far north (and I'm not too
sure if polyphemus makes it that far north or not).  I can't imagine that
you saw an Erynnis at Akumal - probably one of the many other spreadwing
skippers that look similar.  Erynnis tristis tatuis occurs in the
oak/pine/palmetto savannas of northern Belize and in the Maya Mountains (in
oak/pine forest).  I speculate wildly (but fairly safely) that the oak does
not occur in the coastal scrub forest north of the Quintana Roo border.


John A. Shuey
Director of Conservation Science
Indiana Office of The Nature Conservancy
1505 N Delaware Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202
317.951.8818


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leps-l at lists.yale.edu [mailto:owner-leps-l at lists.yale.edu]On
> Behalf Of Patrick Foley
> Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2002 4:18 PM
> To: 'leps-l at lists.yale.edu'; ksr at caribe.net.mx
> Subject: Butterflies in Akumal, Quintana Roo
>
>
> Dear Lepsters,
>
> My family just spent a week in Akumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico, at the
> growing edge of relentless coastal development. While much of our time
> was spent snorkeling and walking around ruins, I did learn a little
> about the local plants and pollinators (Local bookstores are hopeless;
> The Botanic Garden in Puerto Morelos and the Centro Ecologico Akumal are
> of some help). Here is a tentative list of butterflies seen (most of
> them handled and released) in disturbed, secondary vegetation
> (especially near a soccer field) in Akumal.
>
> I used DeVries 1987, The Butterflies of Costa Rica for identification.
> This is a wonderful book for a naturalist in the field, but it lacks
> skippers and lycaenids (I saw no Riodinids). There is a good checklist
> of butterflies from Tulum to Sian Ka'an: de la Maza, E. R. y J. B. Creel
> 1992. Estudio preliminar de la diversidad de mariposaas de la reserva de
> la Biosfera de Sian Ka'an, Quintana Roo. p 217-239 IN Navarro, D. and E.
> S. Morales (eds.) Diversidad Biologica en la Reserva de la Biosfera de
> Sian Ka'an Quintana Roo, Mexico Vol II. Centro de Investigaciones de
> Quintana Roo, Chetumal. Opler's 1999 Western Butterflies (which gives
> lots of neotropical strays and such) and Minno and Emmel's 1993
> Butterflies of the Florida Keys contain most of the species, but leave
> out some. Roberto de la Maza Ramirez 1987, Mariposas Mexicanas is a
> beautiful work with almost all of the species I saw (it does not flirt
> with the common ugly skippers), but is hard to get and not a field guide
> -- too large and not enough discussion of discriminating marks. It does
> have photographs, distributions, phenologies for 651 species including
> some skippers and lycaenids.
>
>
> Butterflies seen at Akumal 27-30 Dec 2001
>
> Papilionidae none
>
> Pieridae
> Ascia monuste, Great Southern White
> Phoebis sennae, Cloudless Sulfur
> Phoebis argante, Apricot Sulfur
> Eurema dina, Dina Yellow
>
> Nymphalidae
> Danaus gilippus, Queen
> Hamadryas guatemala, Guatemalan calico
> Anartia jatrophae, White Peacock
> Anartia fatima, Fatima
> Junonia evarete, West Indian Buckeye
> Heliconius charitonius, Zebra
> Dryas julia, Julia
> Agraulis vanillae, Gulf Fritillary
> Dynamine mylitta, Mylitta Green Wing
> Saw a Morpho? in a spider web, largely wrapped
>
> Lycaenidae
> a couple unidentified
>
> Hesperiidae
> Pyrgus oileus, Tropical Checkered Skipper
> Hylephila phyleus, Fiery Skipper
> Erynnis sp., Duskywing
> glimpsed a long tailed Urbanus
>
> I may easily have missed some orange Batesian and Muellerian mimics
> flying with the numerous Julias, Queens and Gulf Fritillaries, or a
> large sulfur among the Phoebis species that came close enough to catch.
> Someone needs to do a field guide to tropical Lycaenids.
>
> The vegetation was secondary growth. Nearby vegetation included Low and
> Median Tropical Semievergreen Forest and Mangroves.There are no field
> guides to the plants of the Yucatan. Standley's 1930 book has no keys,
> occasional descriptions, many missing species and is sadly outdated. Not
> to mention he hadn't visited the Yucatan! There were several vines,
> shrubs and herbs in flower including Bidens, Eupatorium, Ipomoea,
> Asclepiadacious vines, Caesalpinoid shrubs and herbaceous borages. The
> best single book I know of to get close is Gentry, A.H. 1993, A Field
> Guide to the Families and Genera of Woody Plants of Northwest Sout
> America, Conservation International, Washington, D. C. I wish there were
> a manual Flora of the Mayan lands, and I gather that a brief natural
> history leaves the publisher this spring.
>
> Patrick Foley
> patfoley at csus.edu
>
>
>
>
>
>
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