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

[Grkovich, Alex]

See comments inserted.

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Mark Walker [SMTP:MWalker at gensym.com]
> Sent:	Thursday, October 10, 2002 9:57 PM
> To:	leps-l at lists.yale.edu; 'lepstalk'
> Cc:	David Fine
> Subject:	Training Hikes #3 & #4 - 9/7,8/02
> 
> 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.   
	[Grkovich, Alex]  Mark, you should get one of those hand held pocket
coimputers that the MassLeps folks use to record their "sightings" in the
field: You know, they have all the species pre-inserted/input ahead of time
intot he computer so they can't miss or forget any. I SAW this personally in
the field: my fellow butterflier at the Milford powerlines had one, and he
had them all listed: "Cabbage White; Orange Sulphur, Common Sulphur, Common
Wood Nymph, Common Ringlet; Large Brown Butterfly..."
>  
> 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.
> 
> 
	[Grkovich, Alex]   Mark, personally, I would have rather had LeAnn's
outstretched hand.

> 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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