Rayetta’s Butterflies - A Report on the Tailed Orange (Pyrisitia proterpia)

Rayetta! I saw a new butterfly at werk. You should come to werk with me and take its picture. It may still be hanging around in those parts. It is black and orange on top, and has a distinctive tail.

Interesting Ray. Only the tailed orange (Pyrisitia proterpia) fits that description. Yet that particular butterfly is absent from the possibly antiquated checklist of butterflies in these parts.* Yes Ray. I shall accompany you to your diurnal work environment, maybe. We need a picture of that one. But before I go to all that trouble, let us be clear. Did this butterfly have a cell spot in the forewing?

Noper.

Did this butterfly have any black on the trailing edge of the hindwing?

Uh. I’m not sure about that. I don’t think so.

Hmmm. Did this butterfly have a dogface?

Noper.

And this butterfly was orange Ray. You are sure it was orange.

Yepper.

One more thing, Ray. When did you last espy this butterfly.

Uh. That would have been last Friday, maybe.

Hmmm. Well Ray, that is too long. I can not interrupt my busy schedule chasing down that butterfly. That butterfly may be a mariposa by now. Tell you what. Take this cell phone to work. If you see that butterfly again, call me.

But Rayetta, I may not be able to operate a cell phone by myself.

Nonsense. Well, come to think of it Ray, I understand. So what I am fixing to do is give you a lesson in cell phone operation. Watch Ray. I am disabling everything on this cell phone except, the call your sister button. Now Ray, all you have to do is press this button. It’s foolproof. Here.

All righty then.

Ray. Don’t break my cell phone. Don’t drop it in the mud either.

All righty then.

Don’t lose it. Hmmm. Ray, how is it you have time to watch butterflies at work?

Everyone gets to take short butterfly watching breaks. It’s a fringe benefit.

That’s nice. Give me my cell phone back a minute. See what I am doing Ray. I am reprogramming the cell phone so that any button you press, automatically dials me. That means, Ray, you can’t call anyone else, but me.

All righty then.

*The checkllist may be antiquated, but not on account of the tailed orange. Here it it. I just overlooked it, specimen records for this very nonce in time.

Meantime, we need a tailed orange at the CB where the butterflies continue, sparse. And now, with another dry norther blowing, they may become sparser. Of the few butterflies present at the CB at this time in space, the common mestra is the most common, making do with the Aster subulatus and Aster ericoides. Where are the ubiquitous snouts?