2016 May 6

   Jeremy Tatum shows two geometrid caterpillars.  The Barberry Geometer from one of the eggs depicted on April 21, from Mahonia near Munn Road.  The Common Emerald on dogwood on the Lochside Trail near Blenkinsop Lake yesterday.

Barberry Geometer Coryphista meadii (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

Common Emerald Hemithea aestivaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Kem Luther sends a photograph of a large caterpillar photographed by Janet Renouf in Matchosin.

 Catocala aholibah (Lep.: Erebidae – Catocalinae)

Janet Renouf

   Here’s one from Mike Yip, May 2, which I’m afraid that I missed in the pile.  Sorry, Mike!  He wrote that although the lupines were only 10 percent in bloom (probably a bit more advanced by now), Silvery Blues were common.  Here is a pair photographed by Mike at the Horn Lake exit.

 Silvery Blues Glaucopsyche lygdamus (Lep.: Lycaenidae)   Mike Yip

 Jeff Gaskin writes:  Today, May 6, I was out on the Lochside trail north of Blenkinsop Lake and I found a Red Admiral. On the bicycling pathway connecting Lochside Drive to Blenkinsop Road, which is south of Blenkinsop Lake, was one Pale Tiger Swallowtail.   Another Pale Tiger Swallowtail was on Mount Tolmie, and my first of year Western Tiger Swallowtail was along Richmond Avenue near Bay Street.

    Val George writes: The hot weather this afternoon, May 6, brought out a bonanza of butterflies at and near the summit of Mount Tolmie:  3 Pale Swallowtails, 1 Western Tiger Swallowtail, 2 Painted Ladies, 2 California Tortoiseshells, 1 Red Admiral, 1 Propertius Duskywing (photo attached), and 1 Cabbage White.

Propertius Duskywing Erynnis propertius (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Val George

   Jeremy Tatum found a spider in his Saanich apartment, and photographed it before putting it out!  Robb Bennett, who kindly identified it, writes:  Philodromus dispar, a male.  Another introduced species here; the males are easily identified by their highly contrasting dark dorsal surfaces and light coloured sides and legs.

Philodromus dispar (Ara.: Philodromidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Annie Pang sends a picture of a fearsome male robber fly, kindly identified for us by Rob Cannings as Laphria sp., either L. fernaldi or, more likely, Rob writes, L. asturina, “given the extensive dark hairs on the front of the thorax”

 Laphria (probably asturina) (Dip.: Asilidae)  Annie Pang