2024 April 18

Marie O’Shaughnessy writes
April 17:  1 Cabbage White, Martindale Road; 1 Cabbage White, Outerbridge Park;  2 Sara Orangetips, Mount Douglas;  1 Western Spring Azure, (picture below) Mount Douglas.

Male Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

April 18:  Marie O’Shaughnessy and Geoffrey Newell saw the following in Uplands Park: 2 Mourning Cloaks, 2 Cabbage Whites, and 3 Western Spring Azures.

Val George writes: This White -ribboned Carpet Moth, Mesoleuca gratulata, was near the Hartland Landfill this afternoon, April 18. There was another of these moths in the same location. About a dozen Western Spring Azure butterflies were also in the general area.

White-ribboned Carpet Moth Mesoleuca gratulata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Val George

Jeremy Tatum writes:  The moth Epirrhoe plebeculata often flies in the same place and time as Mesoleuca gratulata.  While the immature stages of gratulata are well known (the caterpillar feeds on Rubus), I have never found the caterpillar of plebeculata.  Please watch for this moth, and see if you can catch it ovipositing.  See what plant it lays on.  I’d be very glad of an ovum in order to rear the caterpillar to adult.