Training Hikes #3 & #4 - 9/7,8/02

[Mark Walker]

Well, in the spirit of Michael Klein, I'm finally getting around to
documenting the wonderful two days that I spent with Doug Dawn in Santiago,
just south and east of the heart of Monterrey, Mexico.  I was still in
training for my then upcoming backpacking trip to Wyoming, and I was also
drooling to get out and among the butterflies of Mexico.  It turns out that
my trip was aptly timed - just in time to enjoy the second brood of tropical
leps that call Monterrey their home.  Little did I know it, but Doug had an
incredible day planned for me.  My sales associate, LeAnn Larick, expressed
an interest in joining us for a hike in the wildlands of Mexico.  I
explained to her ahead of time that this was not likely going to be much fun
if she wasn't keen on chasing after butterflies (there would be no museum
stops, for example).  She insisted that she was up for the challenge, and
confided in me that she was also interested in personally witnessing just
exactly what it is that a couple of lepidopterists actually do (she IS a
brave young lassie).  When Doug arrived at our hotel on Saturday morning, I
explained that we would have some company.  He looked at LeAnn and asked if
she was crazy.  Why would anyone in their right mind be interested in
spending a day in the bushes with the likes of us?
 
Well, crazy she was - but man did she ever handle it well.  By the end of
the day we had trekked a good number of miles, bushwhacking through most of
them, exposing ourselves to much poison oak and ivy (they have BOTH in the
mountain areas of Monterrey), slipping and falling a good number of times,
putting up with biting insects, and enduring endless hours of steamy
sunshine - all in what turned out to be a butterfly paradise (actually, a
paradise all by itself not counting the butterflies), and LeAnn was all but
leading the pack.  What a trooper.  Of course, I doubt that she will ever
join me on another lep excursion - but hey, experiencing and enduring it
once is impressive enough.
 
The Santiago area is mostly a foothill area at the base of the Sierra Madre
Oriental Mountains (this section has a specific name that eludes me
presently).  It's a pretty well known butterfly area - thanks mostly to Doug
- with hundreds of species being recorded here.  On these two days we found
great numbers of fascinating leps puddling in pockets of rainwater right on
the various unpaved village roads that lead up into the foothills.  Right
away I enjoyed Biblis hyperia (Red Rim) - an unfamiliar but stunning black
and red tropical lep that ended up being fairly common.  These have been
recorded in the Rio Grande Valley, but I have not had the pleasure of seeing
them there.  There were also hundreds of swallowtails everywhere - Battus
philenor, Papilio cresphontes, Papilio ornithyion, Papilio astyalus, and
Papilio pilumnus being the most common.  The latter Three Tailed Swallowtail
was particularly a thrill for me - and was pleasantly quite common as well.
Even with hundreds of puddling cresphontes, I never did positively identify
a Papilio thoas.  I think we recorded Papilio palamedes, but I don't seem to
have written it down.  
 
Other roadside leps seen in huge quantities included Phoebis sennae
(Cloudless Sulphur), Phoebis agarithe (Large Orange Sulphur), Zerene cesonia
(Southern Dogface), Eurema mexicana (Mexican Sulphur), Eurema proterpia
(Tailed Orange), Eurema nicippe (Sleepy Orange), Eurema lisa (Little
Yellow), Eurema nise (Mimosa Yellow), Nathalis iole (Dainty Sulphur),
Hemiargus ceraunus (Ceraunus Blue), Leptotes cassius (Cassius Blue), Strmon
bazachoii (Lantana Scrub Hairstreak), Arawacus jada (Creamy Stripe-streak),
Melanis pixe (The Pixie), Apodemia walkeri (Walker's Metalmark), Calephelis
rawsoni (Rawson's Metalmark), Emesis emesia (Curve-winged Metalmark), Emesis
tenedia (Falcate Metalmark), Libytheana carinenta (Snout), Agraulis vanillae
(Gulf Fritillary), Agraulis moneta (Mexican Silverspot), Dryas julia (Julia
Heliconian), Heliconius charitonius (Zebra Longwing), Thessalia theona
(Theona Checkerspot), Chlosyne lacinia (Bordered Patch), Chlosyne janais
(Janais Patch), Chlosyne rosita (Rosita Patch), Phyciodes phaon (Phaon
Crescentspot), Phyciodes picta (Painted Crescentspot), Phyciodes vesta
(Vesta Crescentspot), what looks like two phenotypes of Phyciodes texana
(Texan Crescentspot), Anartia jatrophae (White Peacock), Junonia genoveva
(Tropical Buckeye), Anartia fatima (Banded Peacock), Adelpha fessonia
(Band-celled Sister), Adelpha bredowii (California Sister), Adelpha
basiloides (Spot-celled Sister), Polygonia interrogationis (Question Mark),
Mestra amymone (Common Mestra), Doxocopa laure (Silver Emporer), Asterocampa
clyton (Tawny Emporer), a distinctively ventrally red Limenitus arthemis
(Red Spotted Purple), Vanessa atalanta (Red Admiral), many Anaea troglodyta
(Tropical Leafwing), Cyllopsis gemma (Gemmed Satyr), Danaus gilippus
(Queen), Danaus eresimus (Soldier), and so many, many skippers.  We stopped
and took some photos of the puddle parties, and attempted to maintain a good
list of sightings, but it quickly became impossible.
 
On Saturday, as part of our two day excursion, we climbed down some very
steep cliffs to gain access to a lush riparian habitat.  This was difficult
to traverse, and even more difficult for pursuing leps, but what an amazing
place to experience.  The terrain was quite hazardous, and proved to be
fatal for one particular bull that we found at the canyon bottom - stinking
to high heaven under the noonday sun.  The animal had obviously become
unloosed from its tether, the broken rope still attached around its neck,
and made for a most unpleasant fall down the steep cliff sides to our canyon
haven below.  We stopped and waited for some unusual lep to rest on this
large piece of carrion, but none seemed too quick to comply.
 
In this canyon paradise we found a few really unexpected surprises.  The
first was a pair of Epiphile adrasta (Dimorphic Bark Wing), aptly named
since we found the sexually different leps fond of alighting on tree trunks.
Another tree trunk percher that I was thrilled to find was a singleton of
Eunica tatila (Large Purple Wing).  This is an insect I've looked for a
number of times in Florida, and there it was in front of my face as I
scrambled down the side of the canyon wall.  There were a few encounters
that were so stunning that they literally knocked me off my feet - something
which should be avoided when hiking in unfamiliar and dangerous terrain.
Needless to say, I ended up on my backside on more than one occasion.  For
some unexplained reason, my two companions never seemed to experience this
sensation.  At any rate, I was pleased to receive Doug's outstretched hands
after enjoying one of these experiences.  One in particular occurred after
watching a glorious individual of Anteos maerula (Yellow Angled Sulphur) fly
above my head.  My feet caught a fallen tree and flipped me over into the
bushes - my head fortunately not finding one of the many boulders that lay
hidden below.  Sheesh.
 
Another really cool butterfly encountered in the lush undergrowth was the
Lasaia sula (Blue Metalmark).  I missed one of these in San Benito, Texas a
few years ago - and have been waiting impatiently for my next sighting.
They were only found in one particular location, but in that location I saw
three in a five minute time span.  This is a really cool bug.  It was
unbelievable how many species of Metalmark we saw.
 
Probably my overall highlight, however, was a gorgeous specimen of Papilio
garamus (Magnificent Swallowtail) - and all I can say is that whoever coined
that common name was definitely not exaggerating.  A large and deep black
swallowtail with rounded yellow bands on both forewing and hindwing, Doug
has described the insect as looking like the halo of an angel flying above
your head.  Not a bad description.  Wow!
 
We also found a nice population of Flashers down in that canyon.  Both
Astraptes fulgerator (Blue Flasher) and Astraptes alector (Mad Flasher) were
found flying together.  These have a metallic blue and greenish-blue scaling
on the basal area of the dorsal forewing and hindwing.  They are both
stunning, and can be seen darting about from leaf to leaf in the deeply
shaded undergrowth.  There's really something special about walking through
a dense and lush habitat where something new is lurking around every corner.
 
One other skipper worth mentioning is a large brown spreadwing skipper with
rounded wingtips that I can't seem to identify.  It was chocolate brown, as
big as a buckeye, with the wingshape of a Nymphalid and large light patches
on each ventral forewing extending from the median area all the way up to
the margin.  There was also faint mottling on the ventral hindwing.  I'd
appreciate any ideas as to its identification.
 
There were other cool surprises.  Not very many hairstreaks were encountered
- really only three - but with all the larger leps on the wing, it made it
difficult to notice the occasional hairstreak flitting about.  The highlight
was a singleton of a tailed female blue hairstreak with olive green scaling
on the ventral side.  We thought it was Callophrys goodsoni at first, but
that taxa is not tailed.  The ventral hindwing is similar, but has a dark
band along the outer margin, a red spot in the mid-submarginal area, and a
red extension at the tornus.  It could be Callophrys miserablis, but I would
need a better field guide than Scott (anybody have a copy of Mariposas
Mexicanas?).  At the precise time of the hairstreak sighting, along came
another surprise - a Heliconius isabella, a Latin American species that Doug
has not frequently sighted in the Monterrey area.  It was good to see him
get as excited as me, even if for only a fleeting moment.  
 
Actually, that's not true...Doug was amazingly excited the whole two days
through - which sort of sums up the emotional energy of a lepidopterist in
the field.  We're kind of like kids in a candy store, if you don't mind me
overusing the metaphor (Drool drool, hop jump, run to the pottie before
wetting our pants...).
 
Along one dirt road on Sunday we found a tattered Marpesia individual - not
looking much like petreus, but pale orange - so I'm not sure what else it
could have been.  Later Doug spooked out a Siproeta stelenes (Malachite) at
one particular location - a nice sighting at days end.
 
Below I've listed just a few of the skipper sightings.  I have to ask Doug
to fill in any missing sightings (there are many) or corrections.  The two
days were incredible, and we were beat up and tired when we finished.  LeAnn
finished strong, as I panted and wheezed for air - licking my wounds and
aggravating my future outbreak of poison oak rash.  Oh, the joys of
butterflying.
 
I have to thank Doug publicly again, both for his hospitality and
willingness to put up with a particularly crazy lepidopterist.  And I thank
LeAnn for bringing a little sanity and normalcy to the escapade.
 
Partial Skipper list:
 
Epargyreus clarus (Silver Spotted Skipper)
Aguna asander (Gold-spotted Aguna)
Chioides zilpa (Zilpa Longtail)
Urbanus dorantes (Dorantes Longtail)
Numerous other unidentified longtail skippers
Astraptes fulgerator (Two-barred Flasher)
Astraptes alector (Gilbert's Flasher)
Autochton cellus (Golden Banded Skipper)
Celaenorrhinus fritzgaertneri (Fritzgaertner's Flat)
Eantis tamenund  (Bat Skipper)
Timochares ruptifasciatus (Brown-banded Skipper)
Staphylus mazans (Mazans Scallopwing)
Staphylus ceos (Golden-headed Scallopwing)
Cogia outis (Outis Skipper)
Pellicia dimidiata? (Morning Glory Pellicia)
Chiomara georgina (White-patched Skipper)
Helioptes domicella (Erichson's White Skipper)
Pyrgus oileus (Tropical Checkered Skipper)
Too many others to keep track of...
 
Mark Walker.
 
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