Costa Rica is known for butterflies. In just about every corner of the tourist areas, you’ll see signs for butterfly farms, butterfly houses, and butterfly refuges. Naturalists (like me!) go to Costa Rica to build life lists and seek out species we didn’t even know existed. It’s a fun challenge, and we tend to avoid the “captive” butterflies at the butterfly houses and farms. It just is not as much fun or as meaningful as seeing species in the wild.
Our journey to see as much of the wildlife of Costa Rica as we could started in San José then north and east to La Fortuna, then north around Lake Arenal, then south to Monteverde, then wast to Puntarenas, then southeast back to San José. All told, we saw an estimated 80 species over 7 days. The following pictures a just a few of the interesting species sighted.
The rainforests have evolved some interesting species. Glasswing butterflies evolved clear wings to evade predators along the forest floor. We saw several different species in the jungle around the Arenal Volcano.
Darkened Rusty Clearwing (Greta morgane oto) at Cataratas Viento Fresco on the way to Monteverde.
Patilla Clearwing Ithomia patilla at Cataratas Viento Fresco on the way to Monteverde.
Rusted Clearwing-Satyr (Cithaerias pireta) in the jungle just south of Lake Arenal.
With clear wings in the deep shade of the rainforest, getting a clear picture is difficult as you can see from my poor photo quality!
Other species are brightly colored, especially the longwings. Many species feed on plants that contain alkaloids that are toxic to predators. The bright colors say, “Don’t eat me, or you will get sick.”
Heliconius clysonymus subspecies montanus in the cloud forests of Monteverde at about 4,500 ft above sea level.
Crimson-patched Longwing (Heliconius erato ssp. petiverana) at Cataratas Viento Fresco on the way to Monteverde.
Heliconius sara ssp. fulgidus at Pierella Gardens between San José and La Fortuna.
Heliconius sapho leuce at Pierella Gardens between San José and La Fortuna.
Research is not clear why owl butterflies have the large eyespots, but it was once thought that the eyespots deter predators that think the butterfly is another predator such as a frog, reptile or bird. But that seems to not be the case. Other theories say that the eyespots trick predators into trying to eat the wings instead of the body which gives the butterfly a chance to escape with minimal damage. Either way, owl butterflies are huge. We saw quite a few feeding on the fresh fruit set out by Pierella Gardens staff to attract birds and other wildlife.
The mapwings are a striking genus of butterflies. We only saw one species: Spot-banded Daggerwing Marpesia merops
Those are but a few of the many species we saw in Costa Rica. Next up, I’ll share some really cool non-butterfly insects from a night hike in the cloud forests of Monteverde!
