2024 September 5

We start today with photographs (by Ian Cooper, along the  E&N & Galloping Goose Trails last night) of a magnificent insect.  Hard to believe, until you look at it carefully and critically, that this is a moth. And no, it doesn’t sting.  It belongs to the Family Sesiidae (clearwing moths).  Most of them are excellent at mimicking other insects; many of them, in particular, look very convincingly like Hymenoptera.  The caterpillar of this one is hard to find (unless you are a raspberry farmer) and it is known as the Raspberry Crown Borer.  The caterpillar lives inside the stalks and buds and even the roots of raspberries and blackberries.

Male Pennisetia marginatum  (Lep.: Sesiidae)  Ian Cooper

Female Pennisetia marginatum  (Lep.: Sesiidae)  Ian Cooper

Jeff Gaskin writes:  Today, September 5, in Esquimalt Gorge Park I saw a Black Saddlebags and at least two Paddle-tailed Darners.  The only butterflies I saw were Cabbage Whites.   (Jeremy Tatum writes:  There were still several Cabbage Whites today at Mount View Park, off Carey Road.)  Jeff and Kirsten Mills saw an Autumn Meadowhawk at Cowichan Station yesterday.

The moth below appeared at Jeremy Tatum’s apartment in Saanich this morning, September 5:

Apamea devastator  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Here are four more creatures from Ian’s work last night:

Large Yellow Underwing   Noctua pronuba  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Ian Cooper

Unidentified (so far) micro moth (Lep.)  Ian Cooper

Camel Cricket,  Pristoceuthophilus celatus (Orth.: Rhaphidophoridae)  Ian Cooper

Anyphaena aperta (Ara.: Anyphaenidae)  Ian Cooper

Val George writes:  This Lesser Yellow Underwing Noctua comes was on the wall of my Oak Bay house this morning, September 5.

Lesser Yellow Underwing Noctua comes  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Val George