While researching range-restricted, spring-flying butterflies that I might see on my recent California & Arizona Specialities Birdquest tour I was struck by the fact that most of the special butterflies fly in the Arizona ‘second spring’ monsoon season from July to September. However, there are a few that could be seen in the actual springtime of my visit, in early May. One of these caught my eye, Nabokov’s Satyr. Not only as it carries a famous name, but I noted that it belonged to a new butterfly genus for me Cyllopsis, the ‘gemmed satyrs’. Essentially subtle browns, with jewel-like studs embedded on their hindwing borders, like blues. What a wonderful combination! There are more than 30 members of this Neotropical genus, three of which occur in the southern United States: Gemmed Satyr Cyllopsis gemma; Canyonland Satyr C. pertepida and Nabokov’s Satyr C. pyracmon. My pal Craig Robson, who spends part of the year in Southeast Arizona, said the latter was ‘easy anywhere in the mountains on trails/in shade’ and looking at the number of INaturalist.org sightings I thought I should have no trouble in catching up with it in early May. With many pairs of eyes in my group I mentioned that we should be on the lookout for any small brown butterflies and sure enough on our first morning in the Sky Island canyons, at the lovely Madera Canyon near Green Valley, while returning from a successful hike in search of Coppery-tailed Trogon, sharp-eyed Richard spotted one. It was a Nabokov’s, albeit a worn individual with a torn hindwing. Very exciting nevertheless! Thanks Richard! After alighting on a stone, it flitted off quickly uphill and into dense scrub and out of reach. Moving with surprising speed at ground level, it skipped through the bases of thorn bushes, a most annoying habit of this species I was to discover in the coming days.
