2023 June 16

Jeff Gaskin writes:  Yesterday, June 15, I found a Common Whitetail dragonfly in Cuthbert Holmes Park.  It was by the Colquitz River behind Newbury Street.

Aziza Cooper writes:  On Thursday June 15 there was one Painted Lady at Panama Flats, along the East-West dike on the west side.

Painted Lady Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Aziza Cooper

Ann Tiplady sends photographs of a Sheep Moth seen yesterday

Sheep Moth Hemileuca eglanterina (upperside) (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Ann Tiplady

Sheep Moth Hemileuca eglanterina (underside) (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Ann Tiplady

Jeremy Tatum sends a photograph of a chrysalis of a Satyr Comma.  He writes:  It has pupated on the price tag of one of a bunch of wooden sticks that I bought in a hobby shop, specifically to encourage butterfly caterpillars to pupate on them.  The lady in the shop asked me what I was building and what I wanted the sticks for.  How could I reply?   I felt so embarrassed!

Satyr Comma Polygonia satyrus  (Lep.: Nymphalidae).
Jeremy Tatum

In the photograph below, by Marie O’Shaughnessy, of the batch of Mourning Cloak caterpillars at Cattle Point, all but three of the batch are crowded together on the underside of a single Aspen leaf.  It they look slightly unprepossessing, it is because they are just preparing for ecdysis (skin-change) between second (I think) and third instars, so they are not looking their best.  The remaining three are in my living room, writes Jeremy Tatum.

Mourning Cloak Nymphalis antiopa  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)
Marie O’Shaughnessy