2018 May 26

    The Cabbage White caterpillar shown on May 24 has now pupated.  Here is its chrysalis:

Cabbage White Pieris rapae (Lep.: Pieridae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Rebecca Reader-Lee writes:  As I arrived home in the North Highlands I found this moth on the door:

Neoterpes trianguliferata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Rebecca Reader-Lee

   Kirsten Mills writes:  Jeff   I counted 22 Field Crescents at Eddy’s Storage on Stelly’s Cross Road this afternoon:

Field Crescent Phyciodes pratensis (Lep.: Nymphalidae)   Kirsten Mills

   Val George writes:  My May official butterfly count for Mount Douglas and the surrounding area was done on May 21 and today, May 26.  It produced the following:  Cabbage White 18, Western Spring Azure 8, Painted Lady 4, Red Admiral 2, Propertius Duskywing 2 (photo), Western Tiger Swallowtail 5, Pale Tiger Swallowtail 1, Anise Swallowtail 2.

Propertius Duskywing Erynnis propertius (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Val George

   Correction:  Jeremy Tatum writes:  On May 25 there was reference to the yellow colour on T2 of Annie Pang’s bee photograph.  I suggested that T2 referred to the second thoracic segment, which is the normal notation used to describe a moth caterpillar.  This was wrong.  Thanks to Jeremy Gatten who pointed out that, in the description of adult insects such as bees and wasps, the notation has a quite different meaning. The abdominal segments of these insects are made of two plates stapled together; the upper plate is a tergite, the lower plate is a sternite.  The T refers to the tergite, and the 2 refers to the second abdominal  segment.  I checked with Lincoln Best, and he confirms that it was this latter interpretation that he intended, which is apparently usual with adult insects. 

   How you pronounce tergite would occupy another small essay!

   When I was editor of a scientific journal I had a strict rule that all abbreviations must be defined on first mention – no exceptions, no ifs, ans or buts.  No author was allowed to assume that everyone understood what an abbreviation was intended to mean, or that a particular abbreviation was “standard” and need not be defined.   (And by the way, I meant “ans” and not “ands”!)

2018 May 25

   Kirsten Mills writes that at 2:30 yesterday afternoon she saw a Cedar Hairstreak at the end of Nicholson Road at the edge of Christmas Hill.  She saw and photographed a Painted Lady on Mount Tolmie at 7:00 p.m.

   Jochen Möhr writes that he had one each of Biston betularia, Nadata gibbosa, Tyria jacobaeae [for English speakers, writes Jeremy Tatum,  that’s Peppered Moth,  Rough Prominent, Cinnabar Moth] on his wall last night, as well as an unidentified pug:

Eupithecia sp.: (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

      Andrew Simon writes:  From time to time I come across this diurnal firefly, in the genus Ellychnia, invariably sitting on a frond of moss.  Here it is in a forested grove at the height of land in Bluffs Park, Galiano Island, seen yesterday on a frond of Hylocomium splendens by myself and Quirin Hohendorf, May 24.

Ellychnia sp. (Col.: Lampyridae)  Andrew Simon

   Annie Pang sends a picture of a bee, which Lincoln Best suggests is probably Bombus sitkensis.  Lincoln writes:  Note the complete yellow band on T2.

   …and in case any viewer is wondering what T2 means, writes Jeremy Tatum, try “Second thoracic segment”.  [Added later:  But apparently this is not what Lincoln meant!  See discussion on May 26.  Jeremy Tatum.]

Bombus sitkensis (Hym.: Apidae)   Annie Pang

   Jochen Möhr writes:  This fellow greeted me this morning in my bathroom:

Phidippus johnsoni (Ara.: Salticidae)   Jochen Möhr

Phidippus johnsoni (Ara.: Salticidae)   Jochen Möhr

   Judy Spearing sends a photograph of a Catocala caterpillar, most likely C. aholibah.  Like the one shown On May 18, this one was probably looking for some quiet spot to pupate.  That is when they are most likely to be found.  When they are still living on oak twigs, feeding on the leaves, they are to all intents and purposes invisible – one of the best disguised of all caterpillars.

Catocala aholibah (Lep.: Erebidae – Catocalinae)   Judy Spearing

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Here, from Melcroft Street, Saanich, is a Hyphantria cunia – the adult of the well-known “fall webworm” caterpillar.

Hyphantria cunia (Lep.:  Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Jeremy Tatum

2018 May 24

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  This moth was outside the door of the Elliott Building at UVic this morning:

Cyclophora dataria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

   As requested (see story, May 23 morning) I put a number of Cabbage White caterpillars out today on some wild Brassica species, though I retained one and photographed it:

Cabbage White Pieris rapae (Lep.: Pieridae)  Jeremy Tatum

2014 May 23 afternoon

   Sonia Voicescu writes:  More sightings at Rithet’s Bog! I was doing some restoration work there on Sunday and from the Fir Glen parking lot to the wet meadow area of the bog I saw the following:
2 Cabbage Whites, 19 Ringlets, 1 Western Spring Azure.

Ringlet or Large Heath Coenonympha tullia (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Satyrinae)

Sonia Voicescu

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Here is a small geometrid moth reared from a caterpillar found last year.  The moth emerged today and was released at University of Victoria.  I don’t know whether it is Cabera erythemaria or C. exanthemata.

Cabera erythemaria/exanthemata(Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

2018 May 23 morning

   Ron Flower writes:  Yesterday May 22 Nora and I went to Island View Beach and found two Anise Swallowtails at the boat ramp,  a Tiger Swallowtail and numerous Ringlets in the back field. Then we stopped at Eddy’s storage and found at least a dozen very active Field Crescents.

Field Crescent Phyciodes pratensis (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Ron Flower

Field Crescent Phyciodes pratensis (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Ron Flower

   Sheryl Falls writes:  Several (at least 3) Cinnabar moths Tyria jacobaeae  at Harewood Plains, Nanaimo, on May 21.

Cinnabar Moth Tyria jacobaeae (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Sheryl Falls

   While viewers have correctly interpreted my exhortation  to “concentrate their attention on the less frequently photographed species” as meaning “please do not flood me with dozens of photographs of Cabbage Whites and the like” during the conference, I was not to get off so lightly.  I was engaged in an earnest discussion last night with a Victoria astronomer on the latest trends in astrophysics, when she changed the subject and told me that she had lots of Cabbage White caterpillars on her cabbages.  She did not want to kill the poor things, but she did not want them to eat her cabbages, and would I kindly deal with the problem.  I haven’t ever revealed my interest in caterpillars to my very professional colleagues, so I don’t know which Invert Alert viewer must have tattle-taled.  Anyway, the outcome is that, instead of being flooded with dozens of photographs of Cabbage Whites, I am now to be flooded with dozens of Cabbage White caterpillars.  I am going to have to sneak out of the conference and place them carefully on one of the several other species of wild Brassicaceae that grow on the Saanich peninsula and on which I know the caterpillars will feed.  J

   Anyway, keep on sending observations and photographs – though expect some delays during this conference week.   Jeremy