Fieldtrip report: July 30th, 2011, Roadside-Skippers around Patagonia by Dave Powell
Saturday July 30th, I led a field trip to the Patagonia, Santa Cruz Co., AZ area to search for Roadside-Skippers. We spent our time along Harshaw and Harshaw Creek Roads, as well as FS 58, which is the road to the San Rafael Valley. This area is probably the best in AZ to find a wide selection of Roadside-Skippers. We also visited the Patagonia Butterfly Garden. There was a reasonable amount of nectar source, but the hillsides remain dry.
While the butterflies were not numerous, we had good success, with 5 species of Roadies. We also had Valeriana Skipper (Codatractus valeriana), which was a lifer for everyone except me. We did not manage to find any Gold Costa Skippers (Cogia caicus), which was a surprise. Acacia Skipper (Cogia hippalus) was extremely common, with almost every individual fresh.
Total list 26 species (names and species from www.butterfliesofamerica.com website):
Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor), Two-tailed Swallowtail (Papilio multicaudata), Sleepy Orange (Abaeis nicippe), Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) my first of the year, Ceraunus Blue (Hemiargus ceraunus), Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae), Dark Tropical Buckeye (Junonia evarete nigrosuffusa), Boardered Patch (Chlosyne lacinia), Tiny Checkerspot (Dymasia dymas) very common, Arizona Checkerspot (Texola perse), Arizona Mottled-Skipper (Codatractus arizonensis) fairly common and very fresh, Valeriana Skipper (Codatractus valeriana), Golden-banded Skipper (Autocton cellus), Desert Cloudywing (Achalarus casica), Drusius Cloudywing (Thorybes drusius), Northern Cloudywing (Thorybes pylades), Acacia Skipper (Cogia hippalus), Golden-headed Scallopwing (Staphylus ceos), Common Sootywing (Pholisora catullus), Arizona Powdered-Skipper (Systasea zampa), Large Roadside-Skipper (Amblyscirtes exoteria), Bronze Roadside-Skipper (Amblyscirtes aenus), may have seen Texas as well, but would need to have caught it to make sure, Elissa Roadside-Skipper (Amblyscirtes elissa), Slaty Roadside-Skipper (see photo) (Amblyscirtes nereus), Dotted Roadside-Skipper (Amblyscites eos), Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus).
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