Butterflies of Cuba
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    • Species List >
      • Papilionidae : Papilioninae >
        • Battus devilliers - De Villiers' Swallowtail
        • Battus polydamas - Polydamas Swallowtail
        • Heraclides andraemon - Bahaman Swallowtail
        • Heraclides androgeus - Androgeus Swallowtail
        • Heraclides caiguanabus - Poey's Swallowtail
        • Heraclides oviedo - Oviedo's Swallowtail
        • Heraclides oxynius - Cuban Black Swallowtail
        • Heraclides pelaus - Pelaus Swallowtail
        • Heraclides ponceana - Dusky Swallowtail
        • Neographium celadon - Cuban Kite Swallowtail
        • Papilio demoleus - Lime Swallowtail
        • Papilio polyxenes - Black Swallowtail
        • Parides gundlachianus - Gundlach's Swallowtail
        • Pterourus palamedes - Palamedes Swallowtail
        • Pterourus troilus - Spicebush Swallowtail
      • Hesperiidae : Eudaminae >
        • Aguna asander - Gold-spotted Aguna
        • Aguna claxon - Emerald Aguna
        • Autochton potrillo - Potrillo Skipper
        • Cecropterus dorantes - Dorantes Longtial
        • Chioides marmorosa - Cuban Longtail
        • Epargyreus zestos - Zestos Skipper
        • Phocides pigmalion - Mangrove Skipper
        • Polygonus leo - Hammock Skipper
        • Proteides maysi - May's Skipper
        • Proteides mercurius - Cuban Mercurial Skipper
        • Telegonus anausis - Caribbean Yellow-tipped Flasher
        • Telegonus cassander - Cuban Flasher
        • Telegonus cellus - Golden-banded Skipper
        • Telegonus habana - Frosty Flasher
        • Telegonus talus - Green Flasher
        • Telegonus xagua - Antillean Flasher
        • Urbanus proteus - Common Long-tailed Skipper
      • Hesperiidae : Hesperiinae >
        • Asbolis capucinus - Monk Skipper
        • Atalopedes mesogramma - Mesogramma Skipper
        • Calpodes ethlius - Canna Skipper
        • Carystoides mexicana - Mexican Ruby-eye
        • Choranthus radians - Radians Skipper
        • Cymaenes tripunctus - Three-spotted Skipper
        • Euphyes cornelius - Cornelius Skipper
        • Euphyes singularis - Singularis Skipper
        • Holguinia holguin - Holguin Skipper
        • Hylephila phyleus - Fiery Skipper
        • Lerodea eufala - Eufala Skipper
        • Nyctelius nyctelius - Violet-banded Skipper
        • Oarisma bruneri - Bruner's Skipperling
        • Oarisma nanus - Nanus Skipperling
        • Panoquina corrupta - Corrupt Skipper
        • Panoquina lucas - Purple-washed Skipper
        • Panoquina ocola - Ocola Skipper
        • Panoquina panoquinoides - Obscure Skipper
        • Parachoranthus magdalia - Magdalia Skipper
        • Perichares philetes - Caribbean Ruby-eye
        • Polites baracoa - Baracoa Skipper
        • Pyrrhocalles antiqua - Caribbean Skipper
        • Rhinthon cubana - Cuban Rhinthon
        • Saliana esperi - Perching Saliana
        • Synapte malitiosa - Caribbean Faceted Skipper
        • Wallengrenia misera - Cuban Broken-dash
      • Hesperiidae : Pyrginae >
        • Anastrus sempiternus - Common Anastrus
        • Burca braco - Braco Skipper
        • Burca concolor - Concolorous Skipper
        • Burca cubensis - Cuban Skipper
        • Burnsius crisia - Antillean Checkered Skipper
        • Burnsius oileus - Tropical Checkered Skipper
        • Chiomara gundlachi - Gundlach's Duskywing
        • Eantis munroei - Munroe's Sicklewing
        • Eantis papinianus - Cuban Sicklewing
        • Ephyriades brunnea - Florida Duskywing
        • Ephyriades zephodes - Zephodes Duskywing
        • Erynnis zarucco - Zarucco Skipper
        • Gesta gesta - Impostor Duskywing
        • Ouleus fridericus - Fridericus Spreadwing
      • Pieridae : Colladinae >
        • Abaeis nicippe - Sleepy Orange
        • Anteos clorinde - White-angled Sulphur
        • Anteos maerula - Yellow-angled Sulphur
        • Colias eurytheme - Orange Sulphur
        • Eurema amelia - Cuban Yellow
        • Eurema boisduvaliana - Boisduval's Yellow
        • Eurema daira - Barred Yellow
        • Eurema elathea - Banded Yellow
        • Eurema lucina - Smudged Yellow
        • Kricogonia cabrerai - Cuban Sulphur
        • Kricogonia lyside - Lyside Sulphur
        • Nathalis iole - Dainty Sulphur
        • Phoebis agarithe - Large Orange Sulphur
        • Phoebis argante - Apricot Sulphur
        • Phoebis avellaneda - Orange-washed Sulphur
        • Phoebis neleis - Neleis Sulphur
        • Phoebis orbis - Orbis Sulphur
        • Phoebis philea - Orange-barred Sulphur
        • Phoebis sennae - Cloudless Sulphur
        • Phoebis statira - Statira Sulphur
        • Pyrisitia chamberlaini - Chamberlain's Yellow
        • Pyrisitia dina - Bush Sulphur
        • Pyrisitia larae - Confusing Yellow
        • Pyrisitia lisa - Little Yellow
        • Pyrisitia messalina - Whitish Yellow
        • Pyrisitia nise - Mimosa Yellow
        • Pyrisitia proterpia - Tailed Orange
        • Pyrisitia venusta - Pale Yellow
        • Zerene cesonia - Southern Dogface
      • Pieridae : Dismorphiinae >
        • Dismorphia cubana - Cuban Mimic-White
      • Pieridae : Pierinae >
        • Ascia monuste - Great Southern White
        • Ganyra menciae - Cuban White
        • Glutophrissa drusilla - Florida White
        • Melete salacia - Black-striped White
        • Pontia protodice - Checkered White
      • Riodinidae >
        • Dianesia carteri - Caribbean Metalmark
      • Lycaenidae : Polyommatinae >
        • Brephidium exilis - Pygmy Blue
        • Cupido comyntas - Eastern Tailed-Blue
        • Cyclargus ammon - Nickerbean Blue
        • Cyclargus thomasi - Miami Blue
        • Hemiargus ceraunus - Ceraunus Blue
        • Leptotes cassius - Cassius Blue
        • Leptotes hedgesi - Hedges' Blue
        • Pseudochrysops bornoi - Antillean Blue
      • Lycaenidae : Theclinae >
        • Allosmaitia coelebs - Cuban Hairstreak
        • Chlorostrymon maesites - Amethyst Hairstreak
        • Chlorostrymon simaethis - Silver-banded Hairstreak
        • Electrostrymon angelia - Fulvous Hairstreak
        • Eumaeus atala - Atala Hairstreak
        • Ministrymon azia - Grey Ministreak
        • Nesiostrymon celida - Caribbean Hairstreak
        • Strymon acis - Bartram's Scrub-Hairstreak
        • Strymon bazochii - Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak
        • Strymon istapa - Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak
        • Strymon limenia - Limenia Scrub-Hairstreak
        • Strymon martialis - Martial Scrub-Hairstreak
        • Strymon toussainti - Toussaint's Scrub-Hairstreak
      • Nymphalidae : Apaturinae >
        • Asterocampa idyja - Dusky Emperor
        • Doxocopa laure - Silver Emperor
      • Nymphalidae : Biblidinae >
        • Dynamine postverta - Mexican Sailor
        • Dynamine serina - Caribbean Sailor
        • Eunica heraclitus - Cuban Purplewing
        • Eunica monima - Dingy Purplewing
        • Eunica tatila - Florida Purplewing
        • Hamadryas amphinome - Red Cracker
        • Hamadryas februa - Gray Cracker
        • Hamadryas feronia - Variable Cracker
        • Lucinia sida - Caribbean Banner
      • Nymphalidae : Charaxinae >
        • Anaea cubana - Cuban Leafwing
        • Archaeoprepona demophoon - Two-spotted Prepona
        • Cymatogramma echemus - Chestnut Leafwing
        • Hypna clytemnestra - Silver-studded Leafwing
        • Siderone galanthis - Red-striped Leafwing
      • Nymphalidae : Cyrestinae >
        • Marpesia chiron - Many-banded Daggerwing
        • Marpesia eleuchea - Caribbean Daggerwing
      • Nymphalidae : Danainae >
        • Anetia briarea - Many-spotted King
        • Anetia cubana - Cuban King
        • Anetia pantherata - Great King
        • Danaus eresimus - Soldier
        • Danaus gilippus - Queen
        • Danaus plexippus - Monarch
        • Greta cubana - Cuban Clearwing
        • Lycorea halia - Tiger Mimic Queen
      • Nymphalidae : Heliconiinae >
        • Agraulis vanillae - Gulf Fritillary
        • Dryas iulia - Flambeau
        • Eueides isabella - Isabella's Heliconian
        • Euptoieta claudia - Variegated Fritillary
        • Euptoieta hegesia - Mexican Fritillary
        • Heliconius charithonia - Zebra Heliconian
      • Nymphalidae : Libytheinae >
        • Libytheana carinenta - American Snout
        • Libytheana motya - Cuban Snout
        • Libytheana terena - Antillean Snout
      • Nymphalidae Limenitinae >
        • Adelpha iphicleola - Iphicleola Sister
        • Limenitis archippus - Viceroy
      • Nymphalidae : Nymphalinae >
        • Anartia chrysopelea - Cuban Peacock
        • Anartia jatrophae - White Peacock
        • Anthanassa frisia - Cuban Crescent
        • Antillea pelops - Antillean Crescent
        • Atlantea perezi - Cuban Checkerspot
        • Colobura dirce - Mosaic
        • Historis acheronta - Tailed Cecropian
        • Historis odius - Stinky Leafwing
        • Hypanartia paullus - Antillean Mapwing
        • Hypolimnas misippus - The Mimic
        • Junonia coenia - Common Buckeye
        • Junonia neildi - Mangrove Buckeye
        • Junonia zonalis - Tropical Buckeye
        • Phyciodes phaon - Phaon Crescent
        • Polygonia interrogationis - Question Mark
        • Siproeta stelenes - Malachite
        • Vanessa atalanta - Red Admiral
        • Vanessa cardui - Painted Lady
        • Vanessa virginiensis - American Lady
      • Nymphalidae : Satyrinae >
        • Calisto aquilum - Cuban Dark Calisto
        • Calisto bradleyi - Bradley's Calisto
        • Calisto brochei - Broche's Calisto
        • Calisto bruneri - Bruner's Calisto
        • Calisto disjunctus - Western Cuban Calisto
        • Calisto dissimulatum - Mimic Calisto
        • Calisto gundlachi - Gandlach's Calisto
        • Calisto herophile - Cuban Common Calisto
        • Calisto israeli - Israel's Calisto
        • Calisto lastrai - Lastra's Calisto
        • Calisto muripetens - Guamuahaya Calisto
        • Calisto occulta - Hidden Calisto
        • Calisto sharkeyae - Sharkey's Calisto
        • Calisto siguanensis - Sand Calisto
        • Calisto smintheus - Cuban Rusty Calisto
        • Calisto torrei - Torre's Calisto
    • Download Species List
    • Thumbnails >
      • Papilionidae - Swallowtails
      • Hesperiidae - Skippers
      • Pieridae - Whites & Yellows
      • Riodinidae / Lycaenidae - Metalmarks, Hairstreaks & Blues
      • Nymphalidae - Nymphalids
    • Hostplants >
      • Picramnia pentrandra
      • Stachytarpheta jamaicensis
    • Other Wildlife >
      • Mammals
      • Reptiles
      • Amphibians
      • Birds
      • Odonata
      • Moths >
        • Tineoidea
        • Gelechioidea
        • Alucitoidea
        • Pterophoroidea
        • Schreckensteinioidea
        • Urodoidea
        • Choreutoidea
        • Tortricoidea
        • Sesioidea
        • Zygaenoidea
        • Pyraloidea
        • Lasiocampoidea
        • Bombicoidea
        • Geometroidea
        • Hedyloidea
        • Noctuoidea
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Day 18 - 30 March - Flight home from Habana

23/10/2017

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We spent our final morning walking the area just to the east of our hotel Memories at Jibacoa, which lies about an hours drive east of Habana. We added Mesogramma Skipper Atalopedes mesogramma to the list and saw more Phaon Crescent Phyciodes phaon and a Polydamas Swallowtail Battus polydamas. The final total for the butterflies was just 66 species but that was down to the time of year, the end of the dry season, and except for Santa Clara, where there had been some rain the previous week, there seemed to have been little or no rain for months. We had expected it to be wetter in the Escambray mountains but that's a lesson learnt. And we had had a great time and seen some wonderful things, thank you Doug for your company and your expertise.
Picture
Brown Pelican 30 March 2017 Jibacoa © Tim Norriss
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Day 17 - 29 March - Santa Clara to Jibacoa

23/10/2017

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We packed up our things and said thank you and goodbye to our lovely hosts Jorge and Sheila at Casa Grillo. Like many people in Cuba keeping birds as pets is quite a big thing. Jorge had several including Cuban Bullfinch and a Cuban Parrot or Cuban Amazon. The first is endemic to Cuba and the parrot is nearly so, being found also in the Bahamas and Cayman Islands. It is rare and endangered because they are valued highly as pets and despite being protected we have heard that people will cut down the trees in which they are nesting to get the chicks. I don't like seeing rare and declining birds like this in captivity - much better to protect them and their habitat in the wild. Today was a travel day so we set off for Jibacoa on the north coast with Robert our driver.
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Day 16 - 28 March - Santa Clara excitement

22/10/2017

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On 11 January 2002 Robert Anderson from Manitoba in Canada was seeking butterflies in Santa Clara and caught a skipper which was later identified, with help from John Shuey from Indiana in the USA, as a Mexican Ruby-eye Carystoides mexicana. This is to date the only time this butterfly has been recorded in Cuba. Part of the reason for this trip was to go and see if we could find the location - and the butterfly! It was a long shot as it was a different time of year and although I had been in correspondence with both of the authors of the paper written about this occurrence I didn't have the name of the park in Santa Clara where it was seen. I did know however that it 'was  within a city park in Santa Clara dedicated to a revolutionary battle won by Che Guevara'.
Using the internet before the trip I thought I had worked out where it was but when we got there it was clear that this was not the place so we resorted to asking the locals and within 15 minutes we were pulling up in the car-park at Loma del Capiro just inside the city ring-road on the east side. 
The habitat here looked quite promising and had it not been the height of the dry season we felt that we would have been even more butterflies. As it was we saw several De Villiers' Swallowtail Battus devilliers and a single larva on an Aristolochia, one Orange-washed Sulphur Phoebis avellaneda, a Dainty Sulphur Nathalis iole and a female Statira Sulphur Phoebis statira laying on a Melicoccus tree.
Loma del Capiro, Santa Clara 28 Mar 2017 © Tim Norriss
Loma del Capiro, Santa Clara 28 Mar 2017 © Tim Norriss
Dainty Sulphur Nathalis iole Loma del Capiro, Santa Clara 28 Mar 2017 © Tim Norriss
Anolis jubar Loma del Capiro, Santa Clara 28 Mar 2017 © Tim Norriss
There was also a few Mexican Fritillary Euptoieta hegesia, and a Mangrove Skipper Phocides pigmalion doing a territorial display flight over the vegetation. We have seen this strange behaviour once before at 950m in the Sierra Maestra mountains. The whole place had a good feel about it and there were lots of foodplants so I'm sure there would be lots more butterflies to see here in a different season. And I got some nice pictures of an obliging Loggerhead Kingbird.
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Loggerhead Kingbird 28 Mar 2017 Loma del Capiro, Santa Clara © Tim Norriss
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Loggerhead Kingbird 28 Mar 2017 Loma del Capiro, Santa Clara © Tim Norriss
After lunch we explored along the road to the east out of the city (Carr. Central de Cuba) and stopped for a few minutes after 3km beside the road where there were quite a few butterflies flying. Here there was Fiery and Baracoa Skippers, Mexican Fritillary, Barred Yellow Eurema daira, Great Southern White Ascia monuste and about ten Phaon Crescent Phyciodes phaon including several females nectaring and laying on the Phyla plants.
Phaon Crescent Phyciodes phaon eggs on Phyla sp 28 Mar 2017 Santa Clara © Tim Norriss
Picture
Phaon Crescent Phyciodes phaon female 15 Mar 2017 Cienfuegos Botanic Garden © Tim Norriss
We continued up the road a short way and stopped by a track going off to the right. Here Doug made the most exciting discovery of the day/week/trip, Gundlach's Duskywing Chiomara gundlachi (previously mithrax), and sent Lynn running back to get me. Luckily it was still sitting in the same place when I got there. This is only the fourth place that this species has been seen in Cuba. There are two in the far west of the country, one in the far east, and now here in the middle. And it was just a short distance from the road in a small manky bit of regenerating scrub/woodland near a small stream - in fact just like thousands of other places in Cuba. We had had the good fortune to come across it with Rayner Núñez at Guanahacabibes two years ago but it was a new species for Douglas so he was understandably very chuffed.
Picture
Gundlach's Duskywing Chiomara gundlachi 28 Mar 2017 Santa Clara © Tim Norriss
In the shade of the woodland it just looked all black but the flash from the camera shows up the colours. We also saw Cuban Leafwing Anaea cubana here and further up the track was an Anole that I thought at the time was Anolis centralis but this may prove to be something more interesting but I'm waiting for confirmation. What a great day - 29 butterfly species which is not bad for the time of year, and several new ones for the trip, plus a new site for one of the rarest resident butterfly species on Cuba that very few people have ever seen. 
Gundlach's Duskywing Chiomara gundlachi 28 Mar 2017 Santa Clara © Tim Norriss
habitat Mithrax Duskywing Chiomara mithrax 28 Mar 2017 Santa Clara © Tim Norriss
Anolis sp 28 Mar 2017 Santa Clara © Tim Norriss
Anolis sp 28 Mar 2017 Santa Clara © Tim Norriss
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Day 15 - 27 March - Topes to Santa Clara

19/10/2017

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Picture
We had one final check of the moth trap this morning and Lynn had one last swim in the new hotel pool before saying our goodbyes to Luidmile and Rafael and the staff at the hotel.
Macaria distribuaria 27 Mar 2017 Topes © Tim Norriss
UNID Macaria sp 27 Mar 2017 Topes © Tim Norriss
Epicorsia oedipodalis 27 Mar 2017 Topes © Tim Norriss
UNID moth 27 Mar 2017 Topes © Tim Norriss
UNID moth 27 Mar 2017 Topes © Tim Norriss
UNID moth 27 Mar 2017 Topes © Tim Norriss
We were picked up at midday for our transfer to Santa Clara where I had booked a Casa for two nights. We arrived at 1.45pm, checked into our rooms and Doug and I then went out for a walk into town. The central park had a few trees but the only wildlife was a couple of Mourning Doves.
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