March 26
2015 March 25
Libby Avis sends a photo of an almost full-grown Lorquin’s Admiral caterpillar from her greenhouse in Alberni. This is astonishingly early for a caterpillar in this stage; at this time of year they would normally be found in their overwintering stage, which is a tiny first-instar caterpillar. Presumably the combination of greenhouse plus mild winter did the trick. It was feeding on Scouler’s Willow, one of the usual foodplants.
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Libby seems to be getting far more moths up there than we do here in Victoria, for she writes: Starting to get quite a bit of activity at the light now – we`re up to 28 species for March so far, but pretty much the usual suspects:
Lithophane – baileyi, innominata, petulca and georgii
Xylena – nupera, curvimacula
Egira – hiemalis and several crucialis
Acerra normalis, Anticlea vasiliata, Cerastis enigmatica, Ypsolopha falciferella, Pleromelloida conserta (both dark and light versions) and a couple of Zale lunata
Piles of Triphosa, Orthosia (both hibisci and praeses) and numerous Peridroma saucia.
Several Eupithecia including one gilvipennata which is not that common here.