2023 June 15

June Butterfly Count
Message from Gordon Hart

Hello, Butterfly Watchers,
The June count period starts Saturday June 17 until Sunday June 25. This is an informal census of butterfly numbers and species in Greater Victoria. The area is defined by the Christmas Bird Count circle, extending from Victoria to Brentwood Bay and Island View Road in Central Saanich, and west to Happy Valley and Triangle Mountain, and the Langford Lake and Goldstream areas.
You can submit a count any time over the count period, just use a separate form for each count and location. In the case of repeat or duplicate counts, I will use the higher numbers. To submit counts, please use the form from the VNHS website at https://www.vicnhs.bc.ca/?p=33
If you have difficulty with the form, just send me an email with the information.
Thank-you for submitting your sightings and good luck with your count.

Gordon

Gordon Hart,
Butterfly Count Coordinator,
Victoria Natural History Society

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  Today I spotted a large, full-grown Mourning Cloak caterpillar crossing Carey Road in Victoria.  It was obviously looking for somewhere safe to pupate after having left its willow foodplant.  I was in a hurry on another errand, and I had no container of any kind, so I picked it up and put it in a suitable safe place and l left it there.  I still have a few of the still tiny (second instar) Mourning Cloak caterpillars from the large bunch at Cattle Point (see June 7 evening).

Cheryl Hoyle sends photographs of a pug moth  and a caterpillar of a Vapourer Moth, also known as Rusty Tussock.  Some pugs are difficult to identify, and we can’t be 100 percent certain, but this one may be Eupithecia unicolor

 Probably   Eupithecia unicolor(Lep.: Geometridae)  Cheryl Hoyle

Orgyia antiqua (Lep.: Erebidae – Lymantriinae) Cheryl Hoyle