I’ve been watching the butterflies here at home slowly vanish from the landscape as the days grow shorter. Unusually warm weather keeps them coming back, but yesterday I only saw one colias.

On a whim this morning I decided to sketch one of the butterflies I saw seven years ago in the medicinal plants garden run by my Itzá friends and partners in Petén, Guatemala.

The colors reminded me of another butterfly I saw last year in Costa Rica while working with some sea turtle scientists and some of the scientists from South Dakota State University and some scientists at the Sioux Falls Zoo and Aquarium, where I serve on the Board of Directors.

So this morning’s reverie included the butterflies I am no longer seeing here in Sioux Falls, and some that continue to reside in my memory from my many research and teaching trips to Central America.

If these appeal to you, let me encourage you to consider taking a trip to Petén. La Asociación Bio-Itzá does great conservation work on a shoestring budget that is largely funded by ecotourism. Others in the area like Francisco Asturias at Parque Mirador Azúl also do great work that depends on tourism. Check them out. They’re off the beaten path, but they’re good people doing good work, and they can show you why the forest is worth conserving.

Two insects, a Polka-dot Wasp Moth and a Long-tailed Metalmark, are illustrated with accompanying handwritten notes detailing their species and locations.