2023 June 7 evening

    This will come as a surprise to many butterfly watchers.  Here’s a photograph of a female Silvery Blue nectaring on Great Camas, photographed on May 14 by Steven Roias at Swan Lake:

Female Silvery Blue Glaucopsyche lygdamus (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Steven Roias

Female Silvery Blue Glaucopsyche lygdamus (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Steven Roias

And here’s a Lorquin’s Admiral photographed on June 7 on Mount Tolmie by Marie O’Shaughnessy.

Lorquin’s Admiral Limenitis lorquini  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)
Marie O’Shaughnessy

Next is one first instar caterpillar from a large group of Mourning Cloak caterpillars found by Jeremy Tatum on Aspen at Cattle Point, June 7

Mourning Cloak  Nymphalis antiopa  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)
Jeremy Tatum

   Jochen Möhr writes from Metchosin:  The enjoyable relative abundance of showy butterflies continues.  Today several only in flight: One Mourning Cloak, several P. zelicaon, several P. eurymedon/rutulus, and one Red Admiral.  Incidentally, the first I ever got a picture of despite their being quite frequent.

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta  (Lep.:  Nymphalidae)  Jochen Möhr

Lastly, for those who are interested, the trails through the wooded parts of Swan Lake are very rich with numerous culicids at the moment.  Aziza Cooper and Jeremy Tatum fled.    For those who may not be sure what a culicid is, Google “Culicidae” before you rush off to Swan Lake to see them.