2016 June 01

 

   Mike Yip sends an interesting photograph of a moth from his Nanoose Bay garden.  It is a Large Yellow Underwing, which has only in the past very few minutes emerged from its pupa, and its wings have not yet hardened and expanded to their full size.

 

Large Yellow Underwing Noctua pronuba (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Mike Yip

 

Devon Parker writes:  My Dad and I were at Jordan River again today (May 31) looking for Johnson’s Hairstreak. We managed to find one in the spot you visited with us and another specimen 0.5 km away. We also found a butterfly we haven’t seen there before, Western Spring Azure. There was also a species of diurnal moth nectaring on the willows.  Total for the day was.

2 Johnson’s Hairstreak
2 Western Spring Azures
1 Silvery Blue
6 diurnal moths (photo below)
4 Western Pine Elfins
1 Two-banded Grizzled Skipper
10 Comma sp. (Ear shaped white marking)

 

 

Thanks to Libby Avis for identifying Devon’s diurnal moth as Drasteria divergens.   For a photograph of the upperside, see June 5.

 

 Drasteria divergens (Lep.: Erebidae – Erebinae)  Devon Parker

 

Jeremy Tatum writes: Devon mentions the ear-shaped “comma” on the underside of the comma sp. hindwing.  I think that this rules out oreas and gracilis (which have a V-shaped “comma”).  I think the “ear-shaped” mark indicates either satyrus or faunus.  Amazingly I still haven’t seen a Satyr Comma this year. but Gordon Hart writes that he saw one on May 31 in his Highlands yard – a bit faded, but noticeably different from the smaller and darker Green Commas.