2022 March 30

   Val George writes:  On the afternoon of March 29, there were three California Tortoiseshells at the summit of Mount Douglas. Considering that this species has also already been reported at Mount Tolmie, maybe it’s going to be a good year for them.

 

California Tortoiseshell  Nymphalis californica (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Val George

   Jeff Gaskin writes:  This morning, March 30, around 10:30 a.m. a Satyr Comma was seen on the Lochside Trail just north of Blenkinsop Lake.  It was seen about half way along the trail.  He tells us that Kirsten Mills saw a Satyr Comma and a Mourning Cloak near Blenkinsop Lake today, and Gordon Hart saw a Satyr Comma at Island View Beach.

   Rosemary Jorna sends a photograph of Mesoleuca gratulata from near Kemp Lake, March 29.   The caterpillar of this moth feeds on Rubus sp.

Mesoleuca gratulata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Rosemary Jorna

   She also sends a photograph of a click beetle, identified by Scott Gilmore as being of the large genus Dalopius.    I was tempted, writes Jeremy Tatum, to write: “To view the image click here”  – but unfortunately (or, you are probably thinking, fortunately) I didn’t know how to do this, so I just post the image instead.

Click beetle Dalopius sp. (Col.: Elateridae)  Rosemary Jorna

   Viewers  may have seen the interesting article in Today’s Times-Colonist about the Taylor’s Checkerspots on Hornby Island – and some may wonder what Taylor’s Checkerspot is.  It is Euphydryas editha taylori, the Vancouver Island race (subspecies) of Edith’s Checkerspot.  Generally we do not give separate English names to subspecies of an organism.  When birders want to refer to a race with an English name they write:  Yellow-rumped (“Myrtle”) Warbler.  I’d suggest that we should follow this convention, and refer to Edith’s (“Taylor’s”) Checkerspot.

   There are additional complications here in that no one seems to know if there was actually a person called Edith after whom the butterfly was named, and also there is a modern trend not to name organisms after people, because some of the people were not nice.  But that would take a further few pages to argue about.

   When I first came to Victoria in the early 1960s, Edith’s (“Taylor’s”) Checkerspot was not rare around Victoria, and indeed I successfully reared a caterpillar feeding on Plantago and I still have a photograph of an adult butterfly.  But it is a long time since they have been seen near here.