Just a quick reminder that if you are viewing this website on a mobile or tablet you need to touch the photograph to see the species name and details whereas if you are on a computer then just holding the cursor over the photo displays the details.

Following on from the pictures of a female Western Spindalis yesterday I managed to get some nice pictures of a male this morning in the same place, from the road in front of the Villa Gran Piedra overlooking the forest below. It is also known as Stripe-headed Tanager and is a reasonably common and widespread permanent resident and endemic to the Greater Antilles but the chance to get an uncluttered shot like this without sitting in a hide doesn't come along very often.
Whilst the butterfly pictures that I get are not the greatest as I use a 70-200mm Canon f2.8 it does give me the versatility to take butterflies at a reasonably close range whilst also being able to stand off and get shots from a distance, often a considerable distance, both of butterflies in flight and of birds and other wildlife. If I used just a 100mm macro lens I'd get better butterfly pictures especially of the smaller species but I would get much fewer of them and I'd miss lots of other opportunities. And up to now I've avoided the temptation of carrying another lens with me. I do carry a small Panasonic TZ40 compact in my pocket at all times which I use for scenery and all the close-ups and that works quite well except when as on this trip I had the camera on the wrong settings and couldn't figure out how to change them! And not being able to get on the internet and check the manual online didn't help. Ah well, you live and learn though it does mean that a lot of the close-ups that I took on this trip are rubbish and not worth showing. Lynn uses a TZ70 for scenery shots etc but it lacks certain important features that the TZ40 has.
We had left the outside lights on last night in the hope of attracting some moths. I checked at first light and as as the wind had got up and was blowing strongly onto the wall there was very little to see. A little later when we checked to see if Doug was ready to go down for breakfast he was still photographing the moths that he had attracted to his lights. His room was slightly lower than ours and both walls had been very sheltered from the wind and were absolutely covered with moths - there must have been 100 species or more including 6 species of Hawk-moth.

I have managed to identify some of them but I must say that the quality of moth websites, and of photographs, west of the 'pond' is not as good as it is here in Europe.

OK you get the gist of it, it was amazing! This is just a few species from one family on one night at one place. There were lots of other simply beautiful things. So, to anyone interested in moths that goes there make sure you leave the outside lights on - and get up early in the morning. And if you haven't started studying moths yet then you need to - join the dark side.

Sorry - I couldn't resist just adding a few more. My thanks to Doug for letting me use his pictures and my apologies if I have got some of the identifications wrong which is quite likely.
As we were checking out there a pair of Cuban Green Anoles Anolis porcatus on the balcony wall. Although we have seen them in lots of places it was the first time that we had seen a male displaying by extending its dewlap. The poor chap had lots his tail at some point in the past but at least he got away with his life.

It was a clear sunny morning so after breakfast we set off down the hill towards Santiago de Cuba and the coast. We soon made a stop where there was Tournefortia flowering. There were several Swallowtails but best of all were two female Black-striped White Melete salacia. Unfortunately they were very high up so no chance of any decent shots but one that I got in flight I thought was interesting as it shows the upper hindwing as yellow whereas all the pictures of specimens that I have seen show this white or off-white.

We stopped again for fruit at a roadside stall and there were two young owls in a tree by the road - Cuban Screech-owl which we have only seen once before at Zapata. We also saw a new reptile in the form of Pallid Curlytail Leiocephalus raviceps.

This was the only night for which we had no accommodation pre-booked and as this was Leandro's home turf we left it to him to find us a casa to stay in Siboney. He found us a nice place overlooking the beach so we unloaded our cases and headed east down the coast road to Sigua. Lots of nice finds here including another new reptile Green-blotched Giant Anole Anolis smallwoodi. I think I have the id correct though no doubt someone will put me right if I'm wrong. It seemed to be a youngster and was quite low down when I first saw it but as soon as I started taking pictures it shot off back up the tree out of view. Doug was already finding lots of good larvae including a final instar Antillean Flasher Astraptes xagua about to pupate on Senna sp, Boisduval's Yellow Eurema boisduvaliana on the same plant and Tropical Checkered Skipper Pyrgus oileus. as well as Polydamas Swallowtail Battus polydamas eggs and larvae. 59 species was the excellent butterfly total for the day including eight Swallowtails.

I am very grateful to Carlos de Soto Molinari who has kindly allowed me to use some of his excellent pictures of Caribbean Hairstreak Nesiostrymon celida and Antillean Snout Libytheana terena. Carlos lives in the Dominican Republic and is a superb macro-photographer and so his pictures are taken there. Thank you Carlos.

So that leaves just one species for which there is no photo here yet although the page is there and the links are in. The one outstanding is Chamberlain's Yellow Pyrisitia chamberlaini. I knew little about this species so I contacted Rayner Núñez and he kindly sent me the paper describing its discovery in Cuba in 1995 just outside Baracoa. I do not know if it has been seen since but I don't think so. I wish I had asked him before as we drove past the exact site in June when we were there and were in the area for several days so could have gone and looked for it. Never mind, it gives us an excuse to go back.
I was intrigued to find out why it was given its name and it turns out it was named after the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain! He was born in Birmingham on 18 March 1869 and became keen on natural history. At the age of 21 he was sent by his father to the Bahamas to establish a sisal plantation that his father thought would revive the family fortunes. The plantation, established the following year on North Andros Island, failed in 1896 and he returned home. While there he had collected many butterflies and other insects and in 1898, Butler described a new Eurema endemic to the Bahamas and named it after its collector Neville Chamberlain. The species has subsequently been reassigned to a different genus and is called Pyrisitia chamberlaini. On his return to England Neville Chamberlain entered politics and went on to become the Chancellor of the Exchequer and then Prime Minister from 1937-1940.
And another big thank you goes to Frank Model who has kindly allowed me to use his lovely photo of Mexican Ruby-eye Carystoides mexicana which has been recorded just once in Cuba in 2002. Frank's photo was taken in NE Mexico. Thank you Frank.

Today was another day of climbing the steps and walking the trail around Gran Piedra. Here you can see the 63,000 ton boulder that sits on top of the hill with the radar station just to its right. A few years ago this area must have looked very different before Hurricane Sandy ripped through here early in the morning of 25 October 2012 and destroyed most of the larger trees and stripped the remainder. The standing bare trunks are a stark reminder of what happened that day. It was a Category 3 hurricane as it hit Cuba and this area was right in its path and took the full force of the 115mph winds.

Today however there was no wind to speak of and it was intermittently damp with occasional sunny spells. Its a wonderful view looking south to the coast and we spent some time looking over the balcony watching the butterflies nectaring on the Lantana below.

There were several swallowtails, skippers and whites and I was photographing a Many-spotted King Anetia briarea when a Cuban Green Anole Anolis porcatus shot forward and grabbed a White-angled Sulphur Anteos clorinde. It then spent the next 25 minutes trying to swallow it whole. I thought it would have attempted to rip the wings off with its front legs but it made no attempt to do this. We were then distracted by something else and so I don't know how much longer it took to swallow it completely.

There were Yellow-angled Sulphur Anteos maerula and Large Orange Sulphur Phoebis agarithe as well Caribbean Sailor Dynamine serina, Pelaus Swallowtail Heraclides pelaus, Polydamas, Gundlach's and Oviedo's Swallowtail Heraclides oviedo that was laying on Piper peltatum. There were birds too including Cuban Bullfinch, Cuban Emerald and Western Spindalis.

The view to the north was equally impressive as to the south. We found the larva of a pyralid moth called Sea Grape Moth Epicorsia oedipodalis but even better was a pair of moths in cop on the road which although having a superficial resemblance to the Sesiidae is in fact one of the Arctiinae (now part of the Erebidae). I have narrowed it down to being in the genus Eunomia of which there are three known species in Cuba. It doesn't seem to match E. caymanensis but I can't find photos of E. insularis or E. nitidula both of which are  endemic to Cuba.

Next to the track at the top of the hill was a vertical bank formed when the road had been cut through the hillside. A staccato rattle indicated the presence of a Cuban Tody so we watched and waited as one came to feed its young in a small hole in the bank. They are a common and widespread endemic of woodlands throughout the island and its only once you know the call you realise how common they are. And pretty photogenic ones too. The light wasn't good enough to photograph the adult here, the one below I photographed last month near Guardalavaca.

La Gran Piedra (the great rock in English) is the highest point in the Cordillera of the Parque Nacional and stands 1,225m high (4,020ft). Because of this it has a much cooler climate than down on the coast and it also rains a lot more. The hotel lies just a short way below the summit and the reception and restaurant are in one building and the rooms are in separate individual buildings spread out along the road often with fabulous views over the valley. Looking over the railings in front of the reception building at the vegetation below proved to be a productive area for butterflies and here we saw a Frosty Flasher Astraptes habana and Doug also pointed out the foodplant Erythrina and a larval shelter containing a small larva. A Pelaus Swallowtail Heraclides pelaus cruised up and down and a Polydamas Swallowtail Battus polydamas spent a couple minutes nectaring on the flowers outside the restaurant.

There had been a big thunderstorm during the night but the early clouds soon cleared and it became sunny with broken cloud. We walked down the road to the botanical gardens but did not go in as we had to have a guide to do so. We had hoped to see Cuban Clearwing Greta cubana but failed. We did see a nice male Orange-washed Sulphur Phoebis avellaneda taking moisture on the ground as well as Mimosa Yellow Pyrisitia nise and a male Whitish Yellow Pyrisitia messalina The only one we had seen before was a female and I was surprised how similar this male was to Smudged Yellow P. lucina. The black mark on the forewing was however more clear-cut rather than the smudge of P. lucina as its name would suggest. Doug caught a rather interesting anole and certainly not one we had seen before. I think it is Anole Anolis isolepis though the information I can find on it is rather sparse, and it might just be Anolis imias though that I believe is not known to occur this far west. On being handled it quickly changed colour from very dark to a brownish-green.

After lunch we climbed the 459 steps up to the top of the Gran Piedra on which there is a meteorological radar - again hoping for G. cubana but no luck. There were however magnificent views and an American Painted Lady Vanessa virginiensis at the top. Hernández (2004) mentions that Gundlach had recorded this species here in 1881! And he himself had also collected the occasional specimen here in the late 20th century.

Our room maid was a nice lady called Aurora and Lynn gave her a dictionary to help her learn English. While back at our rooms after a short rain shower Douglas searched the small palms in the gardens for larvae and found a full-grown Caribbean Skipper Pyrrhocalles antiqua larva. It was taking the risky option of feeding during the day which makes it much more obvious to small birds that might prey on it but it would shoot back down the tube shelter at the slightest touch of the palm leaf. The larva was a male as you can see the two yellow testes showing through on its back.

We left Villa La Lupe at Guantanamo this morning and set off for La Gran Piedra which lies south of the road to Santiago. We had already seen 101 butterfly species in eight days and the Parque Nacional de Gran Piedra has a long and varied butterfly list so we were looking forward to seeing some good things. As we drove out of Guantanamo there were amazing numbers of butterflies feeding on the flowers of the Ixora hedge in the central reservation!

I haven’t ever watched for butterflies on a dual carriageway before but this was too good an opportunity to pass up so we pulled over, dodged the heavy traffic and made our way to the central reservation. Heavy traffic here is one car every couple of minutes. We stayed for about 20 minutes and saw 15 species in that time. Most common were the endemic Orange-washed Sulphur Phoebis avellaneda and I spent some time seeing if I could get any flight shots. Most looked like this.. pretty rubbish although they do show the features of the males and females.

I did however manage one reasonable picture of a female in flight. The books I have show a bewildering and overlapping variation in this and the similar Orange-barred Sulphur Phoebis philea and I really hadn’t been clear on the identification criteria but from watching these and subsequent review of my pictures I can now see that the one constant criteria on both sexes of avellaneda is the dark broken bar crossing the under hindwing one third of the way from the base. On philea this is less distinct and more broken.

Next stop was to buy melon and pineapple. Whilst that was being sorted Doug and I looked on the flowers by the side of the road where there was a Cuban Crescent Anthanassa frisia.

Leandro took us to the large and very smart Melia hotel in Santiago to wait while he refuelled the vehicle. Then it was off to Gran Piedra. We stopped on the way for a photo by a river part way up. Some boys playing football with their bare feet! A Boisduval’s Yellow Eurema boisduvaliana was the best find here. Leandro then discovered that the dodgy tyre was now flat so he quickly changed it whilst we had our picnic lunch. It was a steep road up to our hotel at the top and the weather became murkier the higher we went. Our room was very good but Douglas & Leandro had to sort out the problem of the hotel saying that we were not booked in for lunches although our paperwork clearly showed that we had paid for full board including packed lunches. We asked them to phone our agent in Habana and sort it out with them but they wouldn’t saying that they couldn’t make long-distance calls from the hotel phone! So we had to get Leandro to phone the agent and get them to phone the hotel. It got sorted out eventually but it’s a fact that away from the all-inclusive hotels on the coast and in the cities the hotels sometimes have a bit to learn about customer service.

We were rearing several larvae that we had collected on our travels along the way and the Potrillo Skipper Cabares potrillo larva was now quite large and the Mangrove Skipper Phocides pigmalion larva had already pupated.

I am grateful once again to Dr James Hogan of the Hope Entomological Collections at Oxford University Museum of Natural History for sending me photos of the holotype of Antillean Blue Pseudochrysops bornoi. This is the species that we looked for in June at its only known site in the east of Cuba when we were there - but failed to find. This has also prompted me to add the species page for this and the (just) four species for which I don't yet have photographs. I am constantly improving the texts as I learn more and I still have many photos of interesting things to add, so the work goes on. So thank you James and thanks also to Rayner Núñez and Douglas Fernández for their continued  help and support.

We stayed last night at the hotel Villa La Lupe. It is located on the banks of Bano River just outside Guantánamo City. It is described as was somewhat reminiscent of Fawlty Towers! Lots of endearing quirks but these were negated by the exceedingly noisy music from the swimming pool bar. And that wasn’t just when we arrived in the evening but also at 2.30 in the morning! When we spoke to the folk at reception today to ask to ensure that it didn’t happen again tonight they went through the motions but I got the distinct impression that as this was a hotel used largely by Cubans and that this is what Cubans like to do, not much would change.
 
As we hadn’t spent very long at Yateritas yesterday we decided to go back there again today and have a longer search for Antillean Blue Pseudochrysops bornoi. Before we set off our minibus had a slow puncture so the ever-capable Leandro put emergency filler in it. We arrived there at 10.15am and again it was already very hot. We couldn’t find what we were looking for which was a great shame and bearing in mind that this area must have taken the full force of Hurricane Matthew recently I do wonder whether it will ever be seen in Cuba again. I keep telling myself that insects can be remarkably resilient but I have to say I’m not hopeful. We did see some other nice things though. We caught up with several Obscure Skipper Panoquina panaquinoides which I had missed yesterday and there were quite a few Mangrove Buckeye Junonia neildi flying amongst the Black Mangrove Avicennia germinans. This was another new butterfly for us. Doug was telling me how the larvae feed on the small plants just 30cm high and he then promptly found two just to prove the point!

Tropical Buckeye Junonia zonalis is very common and widespread in many open habitats in Cuba. Mangrove Buckeye however is much more restricted to areas around the coast where the foodplant grows though wanderers do occasionally turn up inland. From looking at photos previously I had thought that these two species would be very difficult to tell apart. Nothing of the sort! After a while I realised that they were easily distinguishable in flight. J. zonalis always shows a large pale post-median patch on the upper forewing whereas on J. neildi the wings appear all reddish-brown in flight. I should have realised sooner since Doug had called it correctly from about 30m away in flight only, and long before I had even worked out it was a Junonia.

After lunch we started slowly on our way back towards Guantanamo and made a couple of very productive stops by the road on the way and at each ventured along tracks into woodland to see what we could find. At the first was a very obliging Silver-studded Leafwing Hypna clytemnestra. I had seen one in flight near the start of the holiday but had never seen one settled before. If we got too close it would simply move a few trees away and settle again. Its a member of the Charaxinae (Leafwings) of which there are about 400 species worldwide and are one of my favourite groups. With this obliging individual we have now seen and photographed all five species that occur in Cuba.

Here we also saw Gray Cracker Hamadryas februa, Iphicleola Sister Adelpha iphicleola, Lyside Sulphur Kricogonia lyside. These last two were the only ones that we saw on the whole trip, and only about 30m from the road.

Our final stop not far away produced a new skipper for us Antillean Flasher Astraptes xagua - and what a stunner! Doug then also managed to find several larvae on the foodplant Senna atomaria as well as empty leaf shelters, a hatched egg and a parasitised pupa! Strangely all the larvae seemed to be on the rather mouldy-looking leaves rather than on the young fresh growth. Another brilliant day and then on back to Villa La Lupe on the edge of Guantánamo City for a second night.

The day got off to a good start with Greater Antillean Nightjar calling outside our room as we were getting ready for breakfast. Today was a traveling day with stops, heading first south over the Sierra de Purial down to the south coast at Cajobabao and then turning west along the coast towards Guantanamo where we would be spending two nights. It was a good road and a wonderful journey both for scenery and rewarding butterfly stops. The first of these was just east of Palma Clara still on the north side of the hills at 1240ft. Confusing Yellow Pyrisitia larae was the most numerous butterfly here beside the road. According to Hernández this is a widespread species but this was only the second time we had seen it – as the name suggests it is easy to overlook. Gundlach’s Swallowtail Parides gundlachianus also came and nectared and was obliging in providing good views but didn’t stop so the only shot I got was one in flight.

We had a couple more stops on the way down the other side of the hills. One of these was a near a little house by the roadside. Note the trolley outside - a popular form of transport for goods and people on these hilly roads in Cuba. We saw them being used extensively in the Sierra Maestra mountains in March 2015. Cubans may not be rich in material things but they possess an abundance of resourcefulness.

We stopped at a view point parking spot on the right with a concrete balustrade. Below that there was a steep area of natural habitat with many butterflies flying in the hot sun and we could see the sea in the distance looking south. We saw Cuban Black Swallowtail Heraclides oxynius, Pelaus Swallowtail Heraclides pelaus, Two-spotted Prepona Archaeoprepona demophoon, Confusing Yellow Pyrisitia larae, Cuban Checkerspot Atlantea perezi and about ten Dusky Emperor Asterocampa idyia. Doug also found a larva of Oviedo's Swallowtail Heraclides oviedo.
We had yet another stop when we were down on the flat and very hot coast road. On the road verge was another male Banded Yellow Eurema elathea. You can see the straight not curved black bar showing through from the upper forewing. We went into an area of trees just above the beach. Gundlach’s Swallowtails Parides gundlachianus were very numerous and seeking shade communally on the hanging branches of a large tree. We also saw a few anoles with Cuban Whiptail Pholidoscelis auberi with their blue tails being the commonest and a pair of Oriente Warblers were building a nest in the bush above me where I spent some time trying to photograph the various Pierids that were nectaring on the white flowers of a large bush. Amongst these were Cuban White Ganyra menciae and Cuban Sulphur Kricogonia cabrerai which was new for us. Both of these are endemic to Cuba and the latter is restricted to the eastern end of the island. Not the best of shots but they were quite high up and it's a start! You can see the two main identification features of Cuban Sulphur - the mottled appearance of the underside hindwing in both sexes and the yellow at the base of the upper forewing of the male reduced to a narrow yellow streak. On male K. lyside the yellow is more extensive.

We drove on again and as it was now lunch-time Leandro then stopped at La Chivera just east of Playa Imías at a small outdoor restaurant next to the sea where he could park in the shade. We were able our have our picnic lunch under palm leaf umbrellas overlooking the sea and enjoyed nice cold fizzy orange. Any idea of having a rest in the shade was quickly abandoned as Doug and I were lured back out into the frying pan of a car park where two flowering trees were attracting lots of butterflies. Although most were Great Southern White Ascia monuste there were several more Cuban Sulphur K. cabrerai and we watched a female laying on Guaiacum officinale. Several swallowtails and skippers were present as well as Queen Danaus gilippus, Caribbean Banner Lucinia sida and Cuban White Ganyra menciae. We also saw Dainty Sulphur Nathalis iole near the picnic tables which turned out to be the only one of the trip.

We continued along the coast to Yateritas. The reason for coming here was that it is the only place on Cuba where the Antillean Blue Pseudochrysops bornoi yateritas has been seen. It was first discovered here on 1 October 1991 and I’m not sure how many times it has been seen since. The only pictures on the internet are of the holotype which is held in the Oxford Museum of Natural History. Strangely I didn’t see it there on our previous visits so I will have to make contact and make another visit to photograph it. Separate subspecies are known from Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. It resembles a Hairstreak in having tails on the hindwings and has been known to nectar on the Acacia bushes in the area. I spent some time searching these but only found Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak Strymon istapa. It was a bit of a long shot looking for it in June though on Hispaniola it is thought to be triple-brooded (Smith, Miller & Miller). Whilst standing quietly watching one of the Acacias I noticed a pair of the endemic Cuban Gnat-catcher feeding and was surprised when they came out in the open to investigate me. This is by far the best views I have ever had of this.

There were two Southern Dogface Zerene cesonia flying around and Doug caught it to show us the upperwing pattern resembling a dog's face, a poodle perhaps, before releasing it. He then found a larva of Gulf Fritillary Agraulis vanillae feeding on Passiflora foetida and also several adults of Obscure Skipper Panoquina panoquinoides. Time was getting on so we set off for the Hotel Lupe. It had been a great day and despite spending quite a bit of time in the vehicle we had seen butterfly 56 species today including no less than nine Swallowtails! We had now seen 94 species in seven days.

It was around this time in the holiday that we were approached by a jeep and two military bods came over and asked what we were doing. I explained that we were looking for and photographing butterflies. They told me that we weren't allowed to go more than 50m from our vehicle! And if we did they would know as they had hidden cameras watching us. Yeah right - pull the other one. I'm not sure what threat they thought two Brits in their sixties watching butterflies posed to Cuba! Come on - this is the 21st century! Having said that I wonder whether Trump will pull back from his recent rhetoric on future relations with Cuba when he gets in the White House...