2017 September 5

   Jeremy Tatum offers some thoughts on sulphur identification.

   They are supposed to look different in UV light.  Unfortunately, I haven’t got UV eyes, so we have to see what we can do in ordinary light.

   At McIntyre reservoir the other day, we saw some butterflies that were a rich, deep orange, and some that were much paler.  We sort of assumed – not necessarily correctly – that the latter were females.  We would welcome photographs of both colour forms so that we can look at them closely.

  Anyway we have to think about Orange Sulphurs, male and female, and Clouded Sulphurs, male and female.

  The uppersides of both sexes of Orange Sulphur are washed with orange, though the amount of this varies.  It could be a fully, deep, rich orange, or it could be a pale wash that is difficult to convince oneself of.  The Clouded Sulphur is not washed with orange at all, and is a rather paler butterfly.

  This raises the question:  Were the pale butterflies we saw perhaps Clouded Sulphurs, and not female Orange Sulphurs?  Photographs welcome!

  The real difference between the sexes of both species is to look at the black terminal band.  (The termen – adjective terminal – is the outer edge of the wing.)  In the male (both species) this band is solid black.  In the female (both species) this band contains several yellow spots.  That means that, if we can see the upperside, we can tell whether it is male or female – even if we can’t tell which species.

  There is a problem in that some females of both species, known as forma helice, are white, rather than yellow or orange. (This is a form – not a subspecies.)  I do not know what percentage of the butterflies that we see here have the female helice form.   Seen in flight, a helice form could be overlooked and dismissed as a Cabbage White.

  The main difference between the two species is the orange colour, but since the depth and extent of this is variable, are there any other features?  I haven’t discovered any very obvious and distinctive characters, though there are some that are suggestive.

   I think that the width of the black terminal band is broader in the Orange Sulphur than in the Clouded Sulphur, and it extends along the costa (the leading edge) further in the Orange Sulphur than in the Clouded Sulphur.  .   This may not be much help unless you have specimens of each species in the hand  (or good photographs!) – but it may be something of an indication.

  On the underside of each wing there is a row of subterminal small black spots.  I think these are a bit more conspicuous in the Orange Sulphur than in the Clouded Sulphur.

  A further complication – the two species are supposed to interbreed occasionally, or at least intermediate forms are seen.  This raises the question as to whether they really are distinct species.  I’d like to see the caterpillars of both.  From the few photographs I have seen, the caterpillars don’t seem to be readily distinguishable.

  And yet another complication.  I presume the butterflies we are seeing are migrants – although the Forbidden Field has extensive tracts of Alfalfa, and maybe they have bred there. We have a resident (nonmigratory) sulphur on Vancouver Island – the Western Sulphur.  I believe it does not stray far from the alpine meadows, but I suppose we ought to consider the possibility that some of the sulphurs we see down here might be Western Sulphurs.   I haven’t given that much thought.

  Any good photos of the butterflies we saw on Sunday would be very welcome!

  That’s all on sulphurs.  Now for woolly bears.  This is the season for woolly bears, and there are several which can be seen about now – Lophocampa maculata, Spilosoma virginica, Hyphantria cunia, Pyrrharctia isabella.  In English, that’s Spotted Tiger Moth,  Yellow Woolly Bear or Virginia Ermine,  Fall Webworm, and Banded Woolly Bear or Isabella Moth.  The Banded Woolly Bear seems to peak in October, though I saw my first of the season today, at McIntyre reservoir.  We usually see it when it has finished feeding, and it is wandering abroad looking for somewhere to spend the winter.  Because of this, it is hard to discover its favoured foodplants, so I was interested to see that the one I saw this morning was still actively feeding upon a species of Stellaria. 

2017 September 4

   Gordon Hart sends some photographs of butterflies seen on the VNHS Butterfly Walk to McIntyre Reservoir yesterday.

  Jeremy Tatum writes:  I heard several unconventional names that people were calling some of the flowers that the butterflies were nectaring on.  The sulphur and the lady are nectaring on Teasel, and the coppers on Scentless Mayweed.

Male Orange Sulphur Colias eurytheme (Lep.:  Pieridae)  Gordon Hart

Painted Lady Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Gordon Hart

Purplish Coppers Lycaena helloides (Lep.: Lycaenidae) Gordon Hart

Female above.  Male below

Female Purplish Copper Lycaena helloides (Lep.: Lycaenidae)

   Libby Avis sends a photograph of a young geometrid caterpillar from her plum tree in Port Alberni.  We don’t know what it is – it’ll be interesting to find out.

Unknown young geometrid caterpillar  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Libby Avis

   Mike McGrenere writes:  Barb and I stopped at the entrance to Pedder Bay today to pick blackberries and observed a Common Ringlet in the grass near the Pedder Bay marina sign.  [Jeremy Tatum writes: Until the taxonomy settles down, I am calling all members of the Tullia complex on this site Large Heath C. tullia.]

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  This evening at 6:00 there was a Red Admiral on the Mount Tolmie reservoir, and, flying around the rocky summit and the Jeffery Pine were 2 Painted Ladies.  Also flying around the summit and the pine were huge, extended dense clouds of millions (literally) of flying ants.

2017 September 4

   Another Reminder:  Please, please, please! if you can,send photographs as attachments in .jpg format. 

   The VNHS September Butterfly Walk took place yesterday, in very hot weather.  There were 12 participants, who went first to McIntyre Reservoir, and then to Martindale Road, in Central Saanich.  Butterflies seen were:

Cabbage White:                      many

Orange Sulphur:                     several

Purplish Copper:                    2

Painted Lady:                         1

  Also found was a full-grown caterpillar of the White-lined Hawk Moth Hyles lineata:

White-lined Hawk Moth Hyles lineata (Lep.: Sphingidae)  Val George

    We hope to have more photographs and details from the Walk in due course.

     In the meantime, other photographs received –

     We have commented on this site how numerous and widespread the geometrid moth Neoalcis californiaria seems to be this year.  Bryan Gates sends a photograph from Black Creek

Neoalcis californiaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Bryan Gates

    Here is a rather unusual colour variety of a Spotted Tiger Moth caterpillar, from East Sooke Park.

Spotted Tiger Moth Lophocampa maculata

(Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)

Jeremy Tatum

2017 September 3 evening

   Some remarkable caterpillars have been turning up recently.  Here’s an exciting one discovered by Moralea Milne on Camas Hill on September 1, feeding on Ocean Spray Holodiscus discolor.  It is an American Lappet Moth.

American Lappet Phyllodesma americana (Lep.: Lasiocampidae)  Moralea Milne

   And a full-grown caterpillar of a White-lined Hawk Moth found at McIntyre Reservoir during a VNHS Butterfly Walk on September 3.  This is another colour variety of the caterpillar – compare it with the one on June 22.

White-lined Hawk Moth Hyles lineata (Lep.: Sphingidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   From the large to the small, here is a small moth photographed by Jody Wells on Cordova Spit, August 27.  There are lots of these small “grass moths” belonging to the Family Crambidae and (writes Jeremy Tatum) I haven’t yet learned how to identify them to species.

Grass moth (Lep.: Crambidae)  Jody Wells

…and I’m afraid that I still haven’t caught up.  More pictures tomorrow.  Jeremy

2017 September 3

   Dar Churcher sends some recent photographs from Colwood. The first two are colour varieties of Emmelina monodactyla. The first one is unusually reddish;  the second one is more typical.  The caterpillars feed on the flowers of Calystegia.

Emmelina monodactyla (Lep.: Pterophoridae)  Dar Churcher

Emmelina monodactyla (Lep.: Pterophoridae)  Dar Churcher

   Next, an ichneumonid wasp of the genus Pimpla – presumably P. rufipes.  Dar writes:

This ‘Blue deadly-looking’ winged insect moved around so quickly it was very difficult to photograph – I think I took at least 15 shots in my attempt. I’ve never seen this species before. Depending on the angle its refracted brilliant blue colouring was absolutely incredible, especially contrasted with its red legs!  [“rufipes” – Jeremy] 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  This is a parasitoid of lepidopterous larvae.

Pimpla rufipes (Hym.: Ichneumonidae)  Dar Churcher

Pimpla rufipes (Hym.: Ichneumonidae)  Dar Churcher

   Next, a tortricid.  Jeremy Tatum writes, I can’t be 100 percent sure, but I think this is very likely to be one of the many colour forms of Acleris gloverana, whose caterpillars feed on conifers.  It is known in the forestry industry as the Western Black-headed Budworm.

Acleris gloverana (Lep.: Tortrcidae)  Dar Churcher

    Jody Wells got some photographs of Orange Sulphurs at the west side of McIntyre reservoir, September 1.  Uppersides of these butterflies are notoriously difficult to photograph.  One of Jody’s upperside photographs shows very little orange – though there is a little, and other features are typical of the Orange Sulphur.  The other is a bit blurred because of motion, but shows a great deal of orange and is well worth showing to confirm the identity.  See August 18 for another successful upperside shot, by Ron Flower.

Orange Sulphur Colias eurytheme (Lep.: Pieridae)  Jody Wells

Orange Sulphur Colias eurytheme (Lep.: Pieridae)  Jody Wells

Orange Sulphurs Colias eurytheme (Lep.: Pieridae)  Jody Wells

(Note the s at the end of the second word!)

Orange Sulphur Colias eurytheme (Lep.: Pieridae)  Jody Wells

   Jeremy Tatum writes:   What an exciting season!  There’s still a backlog of contributions that I haven’t caught up with.  I’ll try and do a second posting later in the day.