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An amazing way to end the day. Greg was bringing a gift to his friend Mike. He dropped Mark and myself off where he'd seen this species prior. We found it rather quickly. Weird-looking Hesperia for this Californian.
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An amazing way to end the day. Greg was bringing a gift to his friend Mike. He dropped Mark and myself off where he'd seen this species prior. We found it rather quickly. Weird-looking Hesperia for this Californian.
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An amazing way to end the day. Greg was bringing a gift to his friend Mike. He dropped Mark and myself off where he'd seen this species prior. We found it rather quickly. Weird-looking Hesperia for this Californian.
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An amazing way to end the day. Greg was bringing a gift to his friend Mike. He dropped Mark and myself off where he'd seen this species prior. We found it rather quickly. Weird-looking Hesperia for this Californian.
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Woody Hollow, BCP, Austin, Travis Cty, TX USA
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Woody Hollow, BCP, Austin, Travis Cty, TX USA
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Woody Hollow, BCP, Austin, Travis Cty, TX USA
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Murphy Ranch, ca. 7 mi W of Bee Cave, Travis Co., Texas 16 September 2016 This is a known location for this species. I have had them here several times in the past, both spring and fall. It is an uncommon to rare species in the Austin area.
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Same specimen as http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5446122
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Same specimen as http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5446122
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Finally!!! I've been searching for this rare and poorly-known species for over two years. Horrible photo, I only saw this individual for a few seconds, and only got this one shot. But the underwing pattern is clear enough. Note that the 'top-most' spot is small and isolated, where Green Skipper would have another large spot overlapping that one. Also note that the row of lower-most spots are fairly small. In the field, I noted that these spots were in-line with one another, not curved as in Green Skipper. Compare with female Sachem, and with the Green Skipper I observed on the same day: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2098554 High-quality photos of the central TX form of Apache Skipper are available here: http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/L/hesperia_woodgatei_ctexassegregate_live.htm Note that these central TX individuals have much smaller spots than what the field guides might illustrate. There was past discussion of splitting this into a different species, but it was never formally described and published as such.
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I REALLY appreciate aredoubles alerting me to the possibility of finding this very local skipper at Balcones right now. I was scouting for a NPSOT field trip on the (closed) Post Oak Creek tract of Balcones Canyonlands NWR (Travis Co.) in the morning when I saw this individual. It was nectaring on frostweed. If not for Roger's alert observations, I might not have even been looking for this species. It was the *only* Hesperia that I saw today; no Green Skippers. Note, among other marks, the diagnostic white patches under the antennal clubs in the close-up in the 2nd image.
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I REALLY appreciate aredoubles alerting me to the possibility of finding this very local skipper at Balcones right now. I was scouting for a NPSOT field trip on the (closed) Post Oak Creek tract of Balcones Canyonlands NWR (Travis Co.) in the morning when I saw this individual. It was nectaring on frostweed. If not for Roger's alert observations, I might not have even been looking for this species. It was the *only* Hesperia that I saw today; no Green Skippers. Note, among other marks, the diagnostic white patches under the antennal clubs in the close-up in the 2nd image.