I’ve spent some 2/10,000th of my life in the Lower Rio Grande Valley near the Mexican border. That was the very last week of December 2017. Talk about unforgettable! We kept seeing butterflies I’d never seen before. Several times, here at this National Butterfly Center, we saw butterflies, the handful of folks nearby put out cell alerts, and folks actually drove to the NBC, just for the chance of seeing rare butterflies.

This was one of our Wows!! An Erato Heliconian Butterfly. A “Rare” stray to the USA from Mexico, some less than a handful of miles away.

Yes it’s flown to shade, and yes my Fuji Velvia 100 film was seriously challenged, but . . . the color that we caught here is just fine. That streak across the cells of the hindwing is a sweet yellowish-white. The broad burnt orange streak across the forewing does sing, no?

We enjoyed this Erato, rarely seen in the USA, and usually seen once every few years!

Jeff, a Happy Boy! again and again eye feasting on G-d’s winged beauties.

Jeff