Butterflies from Costa Rica

Although Alberto and I returned from Costa Rica several days ago, here is one last post on Costa Rica, this time on butterflies. All four species shown here were photographed in the wild, not in the aforementioned butterfly garden. I photographed them at one of our GCWA field sites, near the town of Acosta. And, interestingly, all four species, according to the excellent Butterflies of Costa Rica (Philip J. DeVries), are associated with cloud forest, even though we didn't consider the humid, montane forest in the hills around Acosta to be cloud forest per se.

The species illustrated above is Anetia thirza insignis, which according to DeVries occurs locally from 900 to 2,600 m on both slopes, in association with cloud forest. (DeVries doesn't give common names, only scientific names.)

This is Hypanartia arcaei, which occurs from 1,200 to over 2,000 m on both slopes.

This dartwhite is Catasticta nimbice bryson, a common species on both slopes from 1,000 to 2,500 m.

And finally this gemmed-satyr is Cyllopsis argentella, which is found from 900 to 2,000 m in cloud forest habitats, and is very common throughout the country.