Observation date: July 28, 2024
Submitted by: LightScavenger
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: Not sure if this is something you all want in your database but I was fascinated. The dung was horse manure and it looked as if the butterflies were puddling on it.
Status: Resident
Verified by: stevecary
Verified date: July 30, 2024
Coordinator notes: LightScavenger, this is a terrific image! Your suspicions about whether BAMONA can use it are justified; we are supposed to only approve one species per submittal, and this image has two. I can ID them for you as Northern Crescent (Phyciodes cocyta) (the large one) and the rest are Russet Skipperlings (Piruna pirus). I'll also overlook the Northern Crescent and simply approve it as Russet Skipperling (Majority rule). I do a regular blog post about NM butterflies and would love to use this image, with your permission and with full credit, when I do a Halloween post in a couple months featuring butterflies feeding on weird sh*t: excrement, dead animals, etc. If you're interested, please contact me at my personal email: sjcary1@outlook.com. If not, no worries. thanks for submitting this!
