2016 April 4

   Annie Pang writes:  I was at Gorge Park today (April 3, 2016) in Victoria, BC, when I spotted a wee winged creature that could only have been Mesoleuca gratulata commonly known as White Ribbon Carpet moth.  This one flies by day and man, does it fly!  It led me on a chase all over the park, often hovering over a leaf as if to land, but …well, not quite, and then off it went.  I certainly had a frustrating time of it and actually found myself talking to the little beggar, imploring it to please LAND! Well, eventually it did alight on a leaf …..somewhat further away than I would have liked, but I just took the one shot I got and then it was off.  They nectar on flowers and like to sun if they are cool and I have seen them lay eggs on Blackberry leaves and other members of that plant family during the day.  I’ve heard it said that the color of this moth intentionally makes it look like a bird dropping so as to camouflage it from feathered predators, but I do think it is a pretty little one. 

Song to a White Ribbon Carpet

A tiny little bit of flying cloth
a’flitting all about throughout the day
it is the White Ribbon Carpet moth
that had my heart and legs pounding away.
and when finally it landed on a leaf
I took the only shot that I could take.
It seemed to take delight in all my grief
to chase it all about. That little flake!
Your days are numbered though my little one
and so you make the most of time that’s yours
for soon in time when spring is all but done
your spirit will have flown to distant shores.
So fly and sun and mate and lay your eggs,
while I pursue you, on my aching legs!
© Annie Pang

Mesoleuca gratulata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Annie Pang

   Jeremy Tatum comments:  Butterfly and moth enthusiasts will recognize Annie’s description of so many day-flying geometrids – how they so often look as though they are just about to land – but they don’t!  So frustrating!  Annie’s moth in her photograph above shows the moth bending her abdomen while just about to lay an egg on a blackberry plant. If you look on the blackberry stem just to the right of her right wing-tip, you’ll see an egg standing between two of the blackberry spines.

2016 April 3

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Here is a Western Brown Elfin, just emerged from a chrysalis.  Reared from an egg found last year at Munn Road.  I photographed the butterfly indoors and released it at Munn Road this morning, April 3.

Western Brown Elfin Incisalia iroides  (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Aziza Cooper writes:  Today we went out on the first monthly VNHS butterfly walk of the year. Fourteen people saw seven butterfly species in spite of weak sunshine and cool temperatures. We started at Mount Tolmie where there was a Grey Hairstreak in the Spring Gold patch below and east of the reservoir next to the road.

Our destination today was Camas Hill, Moralea Milne’s home on Sooke Road. She guided us to her resident Moss’s Elfin, which was keeping close to Stonecrop, its larval food-plant. Two Western Spring Azures, one Cabbage White, one Sara Orangetip and four Brown Elfins were also there. The Brown Elfins were hard to see, sheltering in the cupped leaves at the top of a stunted Arbutus and occasionally flying up to skirmish with each other.

Camas Hill is private property. Please check with Moralea if you wish to visit.

We also enjoyed a good show of spring flowers, a few ravens and vultures, and a very aggressive Chestnut-backed Chickadee.

Back at Mount Tolmie, one Red Admiral was on the top of the reservoir.

Thanks for everyone’s participation.  [And thank you for leading it, Aziza.]

Grey Hairstreak  Strymon melinus  (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

2016 March 31  evening

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Late afternoon today – three California Tortoiseshells at the top of Mount Tolmie.   One at the top of Christmas Hill, as well as two (or three?) Grey Hairstreaks, and three Sara Orangetips.  The hairstreaks were hill-topping, alternating between sunning themselves and cavorting in flight with each other or with the California Tortoiseshell. In spite of their small size, they should be easy to find – and perhaps not impossible to photograph.