2022 April 16

    April Butterfly Count.  For information on April’s Butterfly Count, scroll down to yesterday’s posting, April 15, to see Gordon’s announcement.

 

Aziza Cooper writes:  Yesterday, April 15, I saw a Mourning Cloak fly across Quadra Street near the corner of Tattersall Road. On Monday, April 11 I saw two Cabbage Whites,  and on April 15, I saw one more Cabbage White. Those are the only butterflies I’ve seen this year so far.  Aziza continues:  Here’s a photo of a tiny beetle, from my apartment on Salsbury Way near Tattersall. I took it on April 6.

 

Anthrenus verbasci (Col.: Dermestidae)  Aziza Cooper

 

Rosemary Jorna writes:  I am sending a number of views of the same bumble bee near the Charters Creek trestle in the Sooke Hills.   I left home in sunshine , hoping for butterflies, but I got grey, cool and sprinkles of rain.   The bee was the only insect. The flowers were lovely.

 

Thanks to Gordon Hart for identifying the bee as the Vancouver Bumble Bee.  A lumper taxonomist would regard it as a subspecues of Bombus bifarius, namely  B. b. vancouverensis;  whereas a splitter would give it full species status as Bombus vancouverensis.  Perhaps from a sense of local pride (supported by an impression that the splitters are currently winning, believing that true bifarius is restricted to a few southern U.S. States) we’ll label it in this site as Bombus vancouverensis. There are previous records in this site – In 2020 they were labelled B. bifarius;  in 2021 they were labelled B. vancouverensis.

 

Bombus vancouverensis (Hym.: Apidae)  Rosemary Jorna

 

 

Bombus vancouverensis (Hym.: Apidae)  Rosemary Jorna

 

 

Bombus vancouverensis (Hym.: Apidae)  Rosemary Jorna