2016 May 8 morning

 

   Mike Yip writes:  Looks like another good year for the “Taylor‘s” Checkerspots on Denman Island. I had no trouble finding about 30 right at the entrance to Denman Provincial Park on Thursday May 5.

 

   Today I spent an hour checking some areas a short way past the Saddle parking spot on Mount Cokely and found 5 Sara Orangetips, 6 Hoary “Zephyr” Commas, 3 Western Brown Elfins, 1 Western Pine Elfin, 2 Cedar Hairstreaks, 3 Mylitta Crescents, and several Silvery Blues. The bonus moths [Thank you, Libby Avis, for the identifications!] and ladybird are also from Cokely. After Cokely I checked the Northwest Bay logging road and found many Western Tailed Blues, Western Spring Azures, a few Silvery Blues, and 4 Mylitta Crescents. I was hoping for a duskywing but had to settle for a few dark, day-flying, duskywing-imitating moths. 

 

The Cedar Hairstreak is from my garden and the Moss’s Elfin from Mount Cokely.

 

Edith’s (“Taylor’s”) Checkerspot Euphydryas editha taylori (Lep.: Nymphalidae) 

Mike Yip

 Hoary (“Zephyr”) Comma Polygonia gracilis zephyrus (Lep.: Nymphalidae)Mike Yip

 Hoary (“Zephyr”) Comma Polygonia gracilis zephyrus (Lep.: Nymphalidae)

Mike Yip

 

 Harmonia axyridis (Col.: Coccinellidae)  Mike Yip

Thallophaga taylorata (Lep.: Geometridae) Mike Yip

 

[“Thallophaga” is Greek for “fern-eater” – which is what the caterpillar does!]

 Mylitta Crescents Phyciodes mylitta (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Mike Yip

Cedar Hairstreak Mitoura rosneri (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Mike Yip

 Moss’s Elfin Incisalia mossii (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Mike Yip

 

 

 

 

   Rebecca Reader-Lee sends a photograph of an American Emerald Dragonfly from the North Highlands.  We are grateful to Rob Cannings for the identification.

 

 

 

    Jeremy Tatum sends a picture of a Spilosoma virginica – the adult of the well-known Yellow Woolly Bear – from the Blenkinsop Valley, May 7.

 Spilosoma virginica (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)   Jeremy Tatum

 

   And a spider, which he spotted in his bathtub just before taking his morning shower: