2016 April 20 morning

   Rosemary Jorna writes: I saw my first Western Tiger Swallowtail on Kemp Lake Road as we drove out yesterday morning (April 19).  When we arrived at parking lot 2 at Sooke Potholes Regional Park there were two Western Spring Azures puddling in bird droppings and a fresh Mourning Cloak. I took the picture below when we returned some hours later. There were five Western Spring Azures feeding on dog dung and two others flying .

Western Spring Azures Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Rosemary Jorna

   Rosemary continues: When we stopped for lunch at Peden Bluff this industrious spider started spinning a web between my shirt and my back pack.  We watched for quite a while and then moved it off to the bush at trail side. 

    Robb Bennett identifies it for us (thank you. Robb!) as an immature linyphiid of the genus Neriene.

Neriene sp. (Ara.: Linyphiidae)   Rosemary Jorna

   Rosemary continues:  This tiny moth on a Blue-eyed Mary was the only insect obliging enough to hold still long enough to photograph on the slope of Peden Bluff.

Adela septentrionella (Lep.: Incurvariidae)  Rosemary Jorna.

    Wendy Ansell writes: Gerry managed to spot this dragonfly at Layritz Park (Monday Apr 18) and I was wondering if anyone could identify it for me. 

    Yes!   We are grateful to Rob Cannings who kindly identified it for us as a female California Darner Rhionaeschna californica.

California Darner Rhionaeschna californica (Odo.: Aeshnidae)  Wendy Ansell

   Mike Yip sends  photographs of a moth, and two butterflies from Nanoose that had me guessing!

   Jeremy Tatum comments on the moth, Epirrhoe plebeculata.  I am very interested in this moth.  The literature has the larval foodplant as Galium, but I think this is very unlikely. If anyone sees this moth ovipositing, save me the egg or, if you can’t find the egg, please let me know what plant you think it laid on.

Epirrhoe plebeculata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Mike Yip

Western Brown Elfin Incisalia iroides (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Mike Yip

Western Pine Elfin Incisalia eryphon (Lep.: Lycaenidae) Mike Yip

   Aziza Cooper writes:  On Mount Tolmie on April 19 from 5:15 pm to 6:30 pm there were:

California Tortoiseshell – 2

Western Brown Elfin – 2

Sara Orangetip – 1, quite worn and not very orange.

Cabbage White – 1

Western Spring Azure – 2

Painted Lady – 1, perching on a Norway Spruce next to the road north of the reservoir.

Western Brown Elfin Incisalia iroides (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

Painted Lady Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Aziza Cooper

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  We’re in a spell of hot, sunny weather, so there may well be a second posting today, in the evening.  Keep the observations and photos coming!

2016 April 19

   Annie Pang sends a photograph of  Harmonia axyridis – a species introduced from Asia into both North America and Europe, and now one of our most-often encountered ladybird beetles.  It has been given so many names that I (that’s Jeremy Tatum) have taken to calling it the “Many-named Ladybird Beetle”, although it is more often called the “Multi-coloured Asian Ladybird Beetle”.  The spotting is variable.  I usually recognize it by the black W on its thorax.

Harmonia axyridis (Col.: Coccinellidae)  Annie Pang

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Here is a typical double-humped cocoon of a plutellid moth, found on Snowberry at Mount Douglas Beach Park, April 19.

Euceratia securella (Lep.:  Plutellidae)    Jeremy Tatum

   He continues:  There were two California Tortoiseshells and a Mourning Cloak on the Mount Tolmie reservoir at 4:30 pm. April 19.

2016 April 18

   Jeremy Gatten found the clown beetle shown below around the vernal pools in Uplands Park on April 17.

Hister militaris  (Col.:  Histeridae)   Jeremy Gatten

 Hister militaris  (Col.:  Histeridae)   Jeremy Gatten

 Hister militaris  (Col.:  Histeridae)   Jeremy Gatten

   Gordon Hart sends photographs of a female California Darner and a Spear Moth, also known as Argent and Sable.

California Darner Rhionaeschna californica (Odo.: Aeshnidae)  Gordon Hart

Spear Moth, or Argent and Sable Rheumaptera hastata (Lep.: Geometridae)

 Gordon Hart

    Rebecca Reader-Lee sends photographs of some moths from her North Highlands home, April 17.

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

Behrensia conchiformis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Rebecca Reader-Lee

Perizoma curvilinea (Lep.: Geometridae)  Rebecca Reader-Lee

Feralia comstocki (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Rebecca Reader-Lee

   Aziza Cooper writes: Yesterday, April 17, on Knockan Hill there were one Western Brown Elfin, two Spring Azures and one Cabbage White.

   In Beacon Hill Park on April 17 were one Mourning Cloak and one Cabbage White. At about 7pm on April 17, one Red Admiral was shivering in the wind on the reservoir at Mt Tolmie.

Today, April 18, at the railroad tracks just south of the bridge over Goldstream west of the Goldstream campground, there were about 30 Spring Azures, one Cedar Hairstreak and one Western Pine Elfin.

I observed up to 17 Spring Azures grouped together puddling in the mud between the tracks. The formerly flooded area is now only muddy.

  Wendy and Gerry Ansell write that they just had their first Western Tiger Swallowtail in their yard on Cordova Ridge – April 18^th at 12:30 pm.

  Jeremy Tatum writes:  No butterflies on the Mount Tolmie reservoir on Monday (April 18) afternoon, but at about 6:30 p.m. there were two Red Admirals, one California Tortoiseshell  and a Green (I think!) Comma either on the reservoir or near the top of the steps.  The comma, in particular, seemed to enjoy resting on the Escallonia near the top of the steps.  If anyone sees it there, I’d be interested if you agree (or otherwise!) with the identification.

 Western Spring Azures Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)   Aziza Cooper

Cedar Hairstreak Mitoura rosneri (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

Western Pine Elfin Incisalia eryphon (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

2016 April 17

   Gordon Hart sends a photograph of a lacewing, Nothochrysa californica.

Nothochrysa californica (Neu.: Chrysopidae)  Gordon Hart

Jeremy Tatum:  Here is a moth that emerged today from a pupa found on Stinging Nettle at Swan Lake.

Udea profundalis (Lep.: Crambidae)  Jeremy Tatum

 The potter wasp below was in my Saanich apartment today.

Potter wasp  Ancistrocerus sp. (Hym.: Vespidae)  Jeremy Tatum

2016 April 16

   Another Friendly Reminder.  Contributors please do try to remember that it is a huge help if you

     1. Send photographs as an attachment, not in the body of the message.

     2. Say where the animal was.  (Not “in my back yard” – I don’t know where your back yard is!)

     3. Say when you saw it.  (Not “yesterday”.  The date, please!

  Thank you all!

   Scott Gilmore sends from Lantzville photographs of a prominent moth and a ladybird beetle (the latter found by his son), both of which were lifers for him.  To the uninitiated, the moth may look like just another of the hordes of featureless grey or brown noctuids.  But to the enthusiast, it’s an exciting moth.  Not a noctuid at all, but a notodontid, an exciting family known as “prominents”.  The caterpillar of Gluphisia severa feeds on Populus.  The ladybird is the Two-spotted Ladybird.

Gluphisia severa (Lep.: Notodontidae)  Scott Gilmore

Two-spotted Ladybird  Adalia bipunctata (Col.: Coccinellidae)

Scott Gilmore

   Rebecca Reader-Lee writes that on April 15 Emma found the spider shown below on the floor inside the house.  Robb Bennett tells us that it is either Coriarachne brunneipes, or Bassaniana utahensis.  He writes that they both pretty much look the same at the “whole spider” scale.

Coriarachne brunneipes or Bassaniana utahensis  (Ara.:  Thomisidae)

  Rebecca Reader-Lee