Lower Rio Grande Rarities

[paul opler]

Thanks much Andy,

This is important documentation.  It will be useful in preparing various 
lists and documents, books etc.

Thanks much!

Paul

At 09:40 PM 1/9/2002 -0800, Andrew Warren wrote:
>
>In response to Chris' challenge to post records for rarities from the
>lower RGV, here is what I can contribute.  I have never been in the
>region, but I am good friends with a collector who lived in Pharr in the
>1940's.
>
>While many of Hugh Avery Freeman's unusual and interesting records are
>published, these records are widely scattered, and some interesting
>records have not been published.
>
>In June, 1998, Avery gave me the majority of his USA skipper collection
>(his Mexican skipper collection, as well as his collection of
>Megathyminae, were donated to the American Museum of Natural History long
>ago), including the material from the lower RGV listed below.  All are
>skippers, and all are in my collection (for now anyway- they will all end
>up in a public collection sooner than later).  I have not repeated Avery's
>name as the collector for each record (all are collected by Hugh Avery
>Freeman, unless indicated otherwise).
>
>Most of the interesting records from Pharr are from when Avery and his
>family lived in the valley (Avery is currently living in Garland, outside
>of Dallas).
>
>If anyone has questions / problems with the taxonomy used below, please
>send me a private message.
>
>Proteides mercurius mercurius
>1 near fresh male
>Pharr, 25-IV-1945
>
>Chioides zilpa
>1 fresh female
>Pharr, 19-IX-1947
>
>Aguna asander asander
>1 somewhat worn female
>Pharr, 22-VIII-1945
>
>Typhedanus undulatus
>1 fresh female missing both tails
>Pharr, 19-IX-1947
>
>Polythrix octomaculata
>1 fresh male missing both tails
>Pharr, 10-III-1945
>
>Urbanus doryssus
>1 worn male
>Pharr, 11-III-1945
>
>Astraptes alector hopfferi
>1 somewhat worn female PARATYPE of Astraptes gilberti
>Pharr, 21-X-1944
>
>Astraptes anaphus annetta
>1 nearly fresh female
>Pharr, 9-IX-1944
>
>Cabares potrillo potrillo
>1 fresh female
>Pharr, 2-XI-1947
>
>Celaenorrhinus fritzgaertneri
>1 nearly fresh male
>Pharr, 20-II-1945
>Avery told me that this specimen was collected from inside the gymnasium
>at the school where he taught.  I regularly find this species under
>highway culverts in Mexico...
>
>Celaenorrhinus stallingsi
>1 fresh female
>Pharr, 8-XI-1944
>Collected by Louise Freeman (Avery's wife) off garden flowers while Avery
>was at work.
>
>Spathilepis clonius
>1 nearly fresh male
>Pharr, 2-XI-1947
>
>Cogia calchas (maybe not a rarity, but just for the record)
>2 fresh females
>Pharr, 29-IX-1946, 7-IV-1948
>
>Nisoniades rubescens
>1 somewhat worn male
>Pharr, 23-X-1945
>
>Gorgythion begga pyralina
>1 nearly fresh female
>Pharr, 31-III-1946
>
>Carrhenes canescens
>1 fresh male
>Pharr, 5-V-1945
>1 fresh female
>Pharr, 16-II-1945
>
>Grais stigmaticus stigmaticus
>1 fresh male
>Pharr, 22-VIII-1945
>1 nearly fresh female
>Pharr, 23-VIII-1945
>1 somewhat worn male (not from the valley, but of interest anyway)
>Dallas, Dallas Co., 15-IX-1956
>
>Timochares ruptifasciata
>1 fresh female, Brownsville, 29-VIII-1944
>1 fresh male, Pharr, 21-X-1944
>
>Synapte pecta (often listad as a ssp. of malitiosa)
>4 fresh males and 7 fresh females
>Brownsville XI-1946, VIII-1946
>Pharr, V-1945, VIII-1945, X-1944
>
>Vidius perigenes
>2 fresh females
>T-100 Roadside Park, Cameron Co., 28-III-1964, R. O. Kendall
>2 fresh males
>6.5 mi E Los Fresnos, Cameron Co., 25-VI-1964
>
>Monca tyrtaeus
>2 fresh males, 2 fresh females
>Pharr, III, V-1946
>
>Nastra julia
>1 female PARATYPE
>Pharr, 1-I-1945
>1 male PARATYPE
>Pharr, 2-I-1945
>1 female PARATYPE
>Pharr, 28-I-1945
>1 male and 1 female PARATYPES
>San Marcos, 13-VI-1940
>1 male PARATYPE
>Uvalde, 31-V-1942
>
>Cymaenes trebius (often listed as a ssp. of odilia)
>1 fresh male, 1 fresh female,
>Pharr, 4-V-1946
>
>Decinea percosius
>2 fresh males, 1 somewhat worn female
>Southmost, 4-IV-1948 (males), 7-IV-1948 (female)
>
>Perichares philetes adela
>1 nearly fresh male
>Pharr, 9-XII-1944
>
>not from the lower RGV, but of interest?:
>Adopaeodes prittwitzi
>12 mi N Alpine, TX, on Rd. 118
>1 fresh male, 25-VIII-1961, W. S. McAlpine [ok, it looks a bit like
>Calephelis...]
>1 fresh female, same spot, 11-VI-1949
>1 worn female, same spot, 22-IX-1950, Joe Elkins
>
>Anatrytone mazai
>1 fresh male PARATYPE
>Laredo, Webb Co., TX, 2-VI-1935
>
>Anatrytone logan lagus
>1 nearly fresh male
>Brownsville, 5-VI-1940
>
>Quasimellana eulogius
>1 fresh male, Brownsville, 28-XI-1947
>1 fresh male, Brownsville, 18-XI-1951
>
>Lerodea arabus (= dysaules)
>1 fresh female, Brownsville, 13-XI-1963
>1 fresh female, Brownsville, 18-XI-1951
>
>Panoquina lucas (=sylvicola)
>1 fresh female, Pharr, 12-X-1946
>1 fresh male, Pharr, 15-X-1944
>
>Panoquina panoquinoides
>3 fresh males and two fresh females
>6.5 mi E Los Fresnos, 2-VIII-1964
>
>Panoquina evansi
>1 fresh female, Pharr, 2-XI-1947
>1 fresh male, Pharr, 12-X-1946
>
>Panoquina hecebolus
>1 fresh pair, Pharr, 15-X-1944
>1 fresh male, Pharr, 16-IX-1944
>
>Nyctelius nyctelius
>1 fresh female, Pharr, 15-IX-1945
>1 fresh male, Pharr, 9-IX-1944
>
>out of order:
>
>Cogia outis
>1 fresh female
>Brownsville, 14-X-1974, J. B. Vernon
>
>and one final record, a unique record for the USA (see News of the
>Lepidopterists' Society 39(3):41,60 for details and color photos):
>
>Urbanus belli
>1 fresh male
>Brownsville, 23-VI-1968, collector unknown (specimen in American Museum of
>Natural History)
>
>I hope this will be of some use to some of you...
>
>Best,
>
>Andy Warren
>
>On Mon, 31 Dec 2001, Chris J. Durden wrote:
>
> > As Mike points out, there has been a recent run of truly remarkable
> > rarities sighted and photographed in the lower Rio Grande Valley. This is
> > not only due to a favorable episode in the climatic cycle but to the
> > recruitment of many new observers to the butterflying movement. We can 
> view
> > this as a positive aspect of a movement that has also been responsible for
> > fostering a decline in the number of active collectors in the field - a
> > negative aspect in my opinion.
> >     I suspect many of the readers of this list have at some time, made a
> > trip to "The Valley". I would like to challenge you to post your collected
> > records to this list. I shall compile them as they come in. Maybe we can
> > determine the phase of the climatic cycle that promotes the occurrence of
> > these rarities in the US. I would suggest reporting your records from the
> > 13 southernmost counties of Texas. Some of you may know of specimens in
> > other collections (some of which may have been taken without 
> property-owner
> > permission). I would hate to see these records disappear because of their
> > legal (or retroactive legal status) so I would suggest reporting them in
> > some anonymous manner. A specimen photo would raise some of these records
> > from the level of hearsay to the level of acceptable record. The 1981
> > redefinition of the U.S. Legal term "wildlife" renders all un-permitted
> > collections of butterflies on Wildlife Refuges illegal contraband for the
> > period both after and before 1981 by present interpretation, even though
> > the concept of anterior culpability appears to be unconstitutional.
> >     There was good collecting in the RGV  in the 1960's-70's. Mike Rickard
> > and Bill McGuire published a checklist based on these records. Roy Kendall
> > also published many new records from this period. Raymond Neck scoured the
> > literature for published records before this period and summarized some of
> > his findings in his Field Guide to Butterflies of Texas.. There was good
> > collecting in the RGV in the 1940's and H. A. Freeman published many of
> > these records. There was another beneficial spell around 1900 which led to
> > some of the inclusions by Holland in The Butterfly Book, some of which 
> have
> > not been seen since. The first beneficial spell on record was at the time
> > of the International Boundary Survey and the Emory Expedition, the results
> > of which were published by Scudder in the 1870's.
> > ...............Chris Durden
> >
> > At 03:47 PM 12/31/2001 -0600, you wrote:
> > >Over the last few years, the local Valleyites have come to develop an
> > >awareness of the incredible butterfly diversity that exists along the Rio
> > >Grande. They've built numerous gardens and are now sending in regular
> > >reports to the TX-Butterfly Listserv. The first link below has photos of a
> > >portion of the recent rarities reported from along the Rio Grande. Mike
> > >
> > >Recent Rio Grande Valley Rarities
> > >http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabast/recent.html
> > >
> > >NABA-South Texas
> > >http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabast/
> > >
> > >NABA Butterfly Park
> > >http://www.naba.org/nababp.html
> > >
> > >TX-Butterfly Listserv
> > >http://listserv.uh.edu/archives/tx-butterfly.html
> > >
> > >-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> > >Mike Quinn
> > >New Braunfels, TX
> > >ento at satx.rr.com
> > >
> > >
> > >
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> >
> >
> >
> >
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> >
> >


 
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