2016 May 8 morning

   Mike Yip writes:  Looks like another good year for the “Taylor‘s” Checkerspots on Denman Island. I had no trouble finding about 30 right at the entrance to Denman Provincial Park on Thursday May 5.

   Today I spent an hour checking some areas a short way past the Saddle parking spot on Mount Cokely and found 5 Sara Orangetips, 6 Hoary “Zephyr” Commas, 3 Western Brown Elfins, 1 Western Pine Elfin, 2 Cedar Hairstreaks, 3 Mylitta Crescents, and several Silvery Blues. The bonus moths [Thank you, Libby Avis, for the identifications!] and ladybird are also from Cokely. After Cokely I checked the Northwest Bay logging road and found many Western Tailed Blues, Western Spring Azures, a few Silvery Blues, and 4 Mylitta Crescents. I was hoping for a duskywing but had to settle for a few dark, day-flying, duskywing-imitating moths. 

The Cedar Hairstreak is from my garden and the Moss’s Elfin from Mount Cokely.

Edith’s (“Taylor’s”) Checkerspot Euphydryas editha taylori (Lep.: Nymphalidae) 

Mike Yip

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

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

Mike Yip

 Harmonia axyridis (Col.: Coccinellidae)  Mike Yip

Thallophaga taylorata (Lep.: Geometridae) Mike Yip

[“Thallophaga” is Greek for “fern-eater” – which is what the caterpillar does!]

 Mylitta Crescents Phyciodes mylitta (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Mike Yip

Cedar Hairstreak Mitoura rosneri (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Mike Yip

 Moss’s Elfin Incisalia mossii (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Mike Yip

Euclidia ardita (Lep.: Erebidae – Erebinae)  Mike Yip

   Rebecca Reader-Lee sends a photograph of an American Emerald Dragonfly from the North Highlands.  We are grateful to Rob Cannings for the identification.

American Emerald Cordulia shurtleffi (Odo.: Corduliidae)  Rebecca Reader-Lee

    Jeremy Tatum sends a picture of a Spilosoma virginica – the adult of the well-known Yellow Woolly Bear – from the Blenkinsop Valley, May 7.

 Spilosoma virginica (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)   Jeremy Tatum

   And a spider, which he spotted in his bathtub just before taking his morning shower:

2016 May 7

   Yesterday we posted a picture of the caterpillar of the moth Coryphista meadii.  Coincidentally, today Rebecca Reader-Lee sends photos of two adults of the same species from the North Highlands.  They both seem to satisfy Jeremy Gatten’s criteria (see April 21) for identifying them.

Barberry Geometer Coryphista meadii (Lep.: Geometridae)  Rebecca Reader-Lee

Barberry Geometer Coryphista meadii (Lep.: Geometridae)  Rebecca Reader-Lee

   She also sends a photograph of another geometrid moth – Xanthorhoe defensaria

Xanthorhoe defensaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Rebecca Reader-Lee

and a American Lappet Moth:

American Lappet Moth Phyllodesma americana (Lep.: Lasiocampidae) 

Rebecca Reader-Lee

   Annie Pang sends a photograph of Autographa californica, taken today.

 Autographa californica (Lep.: Noctuidae) Annie Pang

   Val George writes:  This afternoon, May 7, there was a very fresh West Coast Lady on the reservoir at Mount Tolmie.

West Coast Lady Vanessa annabella (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Val George

2016 May 6

   Jeremy Tatum shows two geometrid caterpillars.  The Barberry Geometer from one of the eggs depicted on April 21, from Mahonia near Munn Road.  The Common Emerald on dogwood on the Lochside Trail near Blenkinsop Lake yesterday.

Barberry Geometer Coryphista meadii (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

Common Emerald Hemithea aestivaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Kem Luther sends a photograph of a large caterpillar photographed by Janet Renouf in Matchosin.

 Catocala aholibah (Lep.: Erebidae – Catocalinae)

Janet Renouf

   Here’s one from Mike Yip, May 2, which I’m afraid that I missed in the pile.  Sorry, Mike!  He wrote that although the lupines were only 10 percent in bloom (probably a bit more advanced by now), Silvery Blues were common.  Here is a pair photographed by Mike at the Horn Lake exit.

 Silvery Blues Glaucopsyche lygdamus (Lep.: Lycaenidae)   Mike Yip

 Jeff Gaskin writes:  Today, May 6, I was out on the Lochside trail north of Blenkinsop Lake and I found a Red Admiral. On the bicycling pathway connecting Lochside Drive to Blenkinsop Road, which is south of Blenkinsop Lake, was one Pale Tiger Swallowtail.   Another Pale Tiger Swallowtail was on Mount Tolmie, and my first of year Western Tiger Swallowtail was along Richmond Avenue near Bay Street.

    Val George writes: The hot weather this afternoon, May 6, brought out a bonanza of butterflies at and near the summit of Mount Tolmie:  3 Pale Swallowtails, 1 Western Tiger Swallowtail, 2 Painted Ladies, 2 California Tortoiseshells, 1 Red Admiral, 1 Propertius Duskywing (photo attached), and 1 Cabbage White.

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

   Jeremy Tatum found a spider in his Saanich apartment, and photographed it before putting it out!  Robb Bennett, who kindly identified it, writes:  Philodromus dispar, a male.  Another introduced species here; the males are easily identified by their highly contrasting dark dorsal surfaces and light coloured sides and legs.

Philodromus dispar (Ara.: Philodromidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Annie Pang sends a picture of a fearsome male robber fly, kindly identified for us by Rob Cannings as Laphria sp., either L. fernaldi or, more likely, Rob writes, L. asturina, “given the extensive dark hairs on the front of the thorax”

 Laphria (probably asturina) (Dip.: Asilidae)  Annie Pang

2016 May 5

    Aziza Cooper writes

   On Sunday, May 1, about a dozen butterfliers, led by Gordon Hart, gathered at Mount Tolmie for the monthly butterfly walk. The weather was perfect: warm and sunny. We visited four sites and saw a total of 12 species.

Mount Tolmie:

Anise Swallowtail

Pale Swallowtail

Western Tiger Swallowtail

Propertius Duskywing

Spring Azure

Cabbage White

Lupin patch next to Sooke Road at Highway 1 overpass:

Silvery Blue – 6 or more

Red Admiral (flyby)

Munn Road powerlines:

Brown Elfin (including an egg on a Gaultheria calyx)

Gordon Hart’s home, Blue Valley Road:

Green Comma

Cedar Hairstreak

Mount Tolmie, 4pm:

Painted Lady

The Silvery Blues gave a wonderful show, with a female on a lupin and two males perched or flying around her. We saw the tiny white eggs on the lupin heads.

To which Jeremy Tatum adds one more species – though unfortunately a deceased one.  One or two of us saw, near the Silvery Blue location, an ant dragging a dead Moss’s Elfin along the sidewalk.

   Annie Pang sends a photograph, taken yesterday, of a potter wasp.  Thanks to Matthias Buck for the identification.

 Potter wasp Ancistrocerus sp.  (Hym.: Vespidae)  Annie Pang

   Rosemary Jorna sends a picture of a bee [which I believe is a Honey Bee – Jeremy] from Scafe Hill, May 5.

Honey Bee Apis mellifera (Hym.: Apidae)  Rosemary Jorna

   Jody Wells sends a picture of a Pale Tiger Swallowtail.

Pale Tiger Swallowtail Papilio eurymedon (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Jody Wells

   Jeremy Tatum writes: I saw two Red Admirals and a Western Tiger Swallowtail (only my second this year) along the Lochside Trail north of Blenkinsop Lake today.  I also met Mike and Barbara McGrenere, who said that they had just seen two Mourning Cloaks along the same trail.   But still no Satyr Comma.  As Enrico Fermi said, in a different context:  Where are they?

   And now, three interesting beetles. Enoclerus eximius  found by Nathan Fisk on the maples ‎backing Esquimalt Lagoon.

   Enoclerus eximius (Col.: Cleridae)  Nathan Fisk

   And two found by Libby Avis.  Of the first, Libby writes:  Anisosticta bitriangularis, the Marsh Lady Beetle. A very small ladybird – only about 3-4mm. We have never seen this before, but found several in a wet meadow. Taken on May 1^st in the Alberni Valley.

Anisosticta bitriangularis (Col.: Coccinellidae)  Libby Avis

And for this one, Libby writes:  Ribbed Pine Borer,  Rhagium inquisitor. Found on newly felled Douglas Fir also in the Alberni Valley on May 1^st. Have seen this before in the interior, but this is the first one for us on the island.

Rhagium inquisitor (Col.: Cerambycidae)  Libby Avis

2016 May 4

   Rosemary Jorna sends photographs of a beetle (from Witty’s Lagoon) and a spider (from near Kemp Lake)- but we’ll have to be content for the time being to naming just their Families. We can’t always name them all!

Long-horned beetle (Col.: Cerambycidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Male jumping spider (Ara.: Salticidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Harvestman Phalangium opilio (Opil: Phalangiidae) Anne Pang

   Jeremy Tatum sends pictures of two moths.  The first is an Indian Meal Moth, found in his Saanich apartment building yesterday.

Indian Meal Moth Plodia interpunctella (Lep.: Pyralidae)

Jeremy Tatum

   The second is a lifer for him. Reared from a caterpillar found on Garry Oak on Christmas Hill last August.  The adult moth emerged yesterday and was released on Christmas Hill.  Thanks to Libby Avis for identifying it as Digrammia muscariata.

Digrammia muscariata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum