St Lucia Puzzler

[DavidD]

I have returned from a holiday in St Lucia where I saw a good variety of butterflies etc. While birdlife on St Lucia is well documented, butterflies are less well covered. So I would be very grateful for any help with identification of these puzzlers.

A skipper which I think is not a Fiery Skipper, of which I saw many.

Skipper 1

Another skipper 2 views.

Skipper 2

Skipper 2

A very fine leafwing 2 views

Leafwing

Leafwing

When this leafwing flew, it seemed predominantly orange to deep orange.
There were several of these nectaring on a single tree which also had a Orion Cecropian - Historis odius aka Stinky Leafwing similarly engaged on the other side.

White moth with black spots

All sightings were close to sea level near the coast.

Thanks in advance for any help

[Padfield]

Hi David. I think your leafwing is Memphis dominicana luciana, an endemic of St. Lucia. See http://www.butterfliesofamerica.com/L/m ... cimens.htm.

Guy

EDIT: I'm not sure there are any good, up-to-date books on the butterflies of the West Indies, but out of date, authoritative and outstanding (with illustrations by Richard Lewington) is:

https://www.pemberleybooks.com/product/ ... ida/33594/

Even more out of date but also good is:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Field-Guide-Bu ... 0002192829

[DavidD]

Thanks Padfield
I had been thinking of Memphis dominicana, but had not been able to convince myself. Must learn how to navigate the North America site more effectively!
Thanks for the tip re the OUP butterfly book. I hope I can find a library that has it.
See below a link to an interesting write-up of the MDL, which references the OUP book!
Thanks for your help
David

http://www.shnlh.org/ressources/pdf/ent ... uciana.pdf

[DavidD]

I have been doing some further research and come to some conclusions.

I now think that Skipper 1 is a particularly bright Fiery Skipper

I think that Skipper 2 may be a Delaware Skipper - Anatrytone logan.

I believe that the moth is probably a Yponomeuta Moth,

Any comments?

[NickMorgan]

David,
Skippers can be quite tricky, but I would suggest that Skipper 1 could be Polites dictynna. Skipper 2 looks like Wallengrenia otho ophites, which were quite common when I was there a few years ago.
The book that Guy recommends is fantastic, but not easy to come by. My library had to order it in and it was loaned from Cambridge University, with the understanding that I couldn't remove it from my local library. I have since managed to buy a copy, but they are not cheap!
My aged father treated us to a family holiday in St Lucia about 8 years ago. This was very generous of him, but we were limited to staying mostly at the resort, so I wasn't able to get out and about as much as I would have liked. I saw quite a few species, but was a little disappointed generally with the number of butterflies there. I would be interested to hear about what other species you saw while you were there.