2016 July 17 evening

   Annie Pang sends another bee photograph from Gorge Park.

Halictus rubicundus (Hym.: Halictidae)   Annie Pang

  Bryan Gates writes:  This moth was in my daughter’s house in south Oak Bay.

 Small Magpie Moth Eurrhypara hortulata (Lep.: Crambidae)  Bryan Gates

2016 July 17, morning

   Annie Pang sends some pictures from Gorge Park.  Thanks to Linc Best for Hymenoptera identifications.

Sceliphron caementarium (Hym.:  Sphecidae)  Annie Pang

 Woodland Skipper Ochlodes sylvanoides (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Annie Pang

Woodland Skipper Ochlodes sylvanoides (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Annie Pang

 Lasioglossum sp. (Hym.:  Halictidae)   Annie Pang

 Lasioglossum sp. (Hym.:  Halictidae)   Annie Pang

   Mike Yip writes:  Late spring up Mount Washington. We walked up the ski run on July 15 and saw 8 Western Meadow Fritillaries, 4 parnassian sp., 2  Hoary (“Zephyr”) Commas, and a fly-by possible Silvery Blue. At the top there were several Great Arctics. There are still patches of snow at the top.

Western Meadow Fritillary Boloria epithore (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Mike Yip

 Hoary (“Zephyr”) Comma Polygonia gracilis zephyrus (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Mike Yip

Great Arctic Oeneis nevadensis (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Satyrinae)  Mike Yip

   Bill Savale and Jeremy Tatum walked along the railway line at Cowichan Station on July 16.  Cloudy, so not many butterflies, but we saw 1 Western Tiger Swallowtail, 1 Lorquin’s Admiral and 3 Margined Whites, as well as a Pacific Spiketail dragonfly.

2106 July 15

   Annie Pang sends some pictures from Gorge Park.

Osmia lignaria (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Annie Pang

Hover fly (Dip.: Syrphidae)    Annie Pang

Autographa californica (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Annie Pang

Halictus rubicundus (Hym.:  Halictidae)   Annie Pang

   Rosemary Jorna sends photographs from the Kemp Lake area.  Thanks to Scott Gilmore for identifying the beetle as Leptura obliterata.  The bug is Philaenus spumaria, a spittle bug. The nymph of this bug makes the little masses of frothy spittle that we see on low-down vegetation.

Leptura obliterata (Col.: Cerambycidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Philaenus spumarius (Hem.: Cercopidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Aziza Cooper writes:  In Uplands Park near the corner of Dorset and Midland Roads on Wednesday, July 13, I saw my first Woodland Skipper of the year.

And Jeremy Tatum saw his first Pine White of the year at UVic, July 15.

Woodland Skipper Ochlodes sylvanoides  (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Aziza Cooper

2016 July 14

MONTHLY BUTTERFLY COUNT

Gordon Hart writes:

Hello Butterfly Counters!

The next butterfly count period will begin Saturday July 16 running until Sunday July 24. Please use the submission form on the VNHS website: www.vicnhs.bc.ca/?p=33

Numbers appear to be down now, but there can still be quite a variety on a good day. We should have Woodland Skippers and Pine Whites on this count, as well as some of the continuing species.

If you need suggestions for a place to count, please email me. If we get more than one count for a location, I will use the high numbers for each species. If you want to be removed from this list, please let me know. If you know someone who wants to be on the list, please ask them to email me.

The next butterfly walk will be on Sunday August 7, meeting at Mt Tolmie, at 1 p.m. The trip is weather-dependent and I will send out another reminder closer to the date.

Thanks for participating in the count!

Gordon Hart,

Butterfly count coordinator 

Gordon continues (from the Highlands District:  We were on the back deck Wednesday evening (July 13) looking for bats when we noticed two large Sphinx moths nectaring on pots of petunias. I was not able to get pictures because of the low light, but I found one this morning in the driveway.

Sphinx perelegans (Lep.: Sphingidae)   Gordon Hart

   Jeremy Tatum comments:  Sphinx vashti and S. perelegans  are somewhat similar hawk moths, perelegans being a little larger than vashti.  I used to think that vashti was the common one in our area, but since this website started in 2010, we have had five images of perelegans and none yet of vashti.

2016 July 12

   Jeremy Tatum shows a photograph of a Nycteola species reared from a caterpillar found at Blenkinsop Lake, where the moth was released today.  The species N. frigidana and N. cinereana can be difficult to tell apart.  It is often thought that the caterpillar of the former feeds on willow, and the latter feeds on poplar. I have often felt a little uncertain about that, because willow-feeding caterpillars often feed on poplar as well, and vice versa.  Anyway, I am pretty sure that this moth is Nycteola cinereana, although the caterpillar was found and reared on willow, not poplar, so the above rule is evidently not completely watertight, and not to be relied on for identification.

Nycteola cinereana (Lep.: Nolidae)    Jeremy Tatum

   Two more colouful photographs of a leafcutter bee, in Gorge Park, from Annie Pang:

Megachile perihirta (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Annie Pang

Megachile perihirta (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Annie Pang

   Aziza Cooper reports a Western Spring Azure from Brighton Avenue, July 12.  This is just two days after another one was seen in Sidney (See July 10).