Observation date: April 05, 2015
Submitted by: LLJohnson
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: I was only able to photo this butterfly in flight. I saw it several days in row just before lunch, but not in the same location earlier or later in the day.
Status: Unknown
Verified by: M. Reith
Verified date: April 12, 2015
Coordinator notes: Dear Lisa Johnson, your photo, while being a little blurry, shows a bluish skipper with a striped body and three white lines in the forewing. This is without doubt, as you suggested, the Hispaniolan subspecies of the Mangrove skipper (Phocides pigmalion bicolora). Your submission is the first BAMONA sighting of this species in the Northern Dominican Republic. And it is the first BAMONA sighting of this species in the mountains of Hispaniola. Congratulations!
Status: Unknown. Details: The known foodplant of this species is red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle), a plant found on coasts only. Schwartz (1989) suggests that the Hispaniolan subspecies of this skipper has residental populations in the mountains of Hispaniola, feeding on a unknown plant species.
