2016 June 7

  Guidelines for Submissions.  (Jeremy Tatum) Running this website is great fun and very enjoyable, and I am impressed by the huge variety of insects and other invertebrates reported, and the quality of the photographs.  But it does take a bit of time!  Generally on average it takes about ten minutes to process each photograph – provided there are no problems – and there usually are!  Thus if one day a posting includes, say, 12 photographs, you may assume that it took about two hours to put it together.  Contributors can be an enormous help of they will conform to the following guidelines.

Please send photographs as attachments, not embedded in the main message.

For each photograph submitted, please give:

Name of photographer

Where it was taken (not “in my backyard”  – I do not know where your backyard is)

The date on which it was taken (not “yesterday”, but the date.)

If you know for certain what the species is, please state what the species is – please do not assume that I immediately must know what it is.  If you do not know, I, or one of a handful of experts that I consult, may be able to identify it, and will enjoy doing so, but please don’t put us through the effort of identification if you already know what it is!

If contributors can comply with these, it will be a huge help and greatly cut down on the time that it takes to process your observations.

Gordon Hart writes:  On June 6 while on my way to search for the Chestnut-sided Warbler, I saw several Essex Skippers along the path parallel to Saanich Road. I counted six, but I am sure there were many more in the meadows there. I did see the warbler, too.

Essex Skipper Thymelicus lineola (Lep.: Hesperiidae)   Gordon Hart

   Jeff Gaskin writes:  Today, June 07, the Tuesday Birding Group went to Swan Lake and while I was there I counted the number of butterflies I was seeing.  I had 6-8 Cabbage Whites, 1 Pale Tiger Swallowtail, 14 Western Tiger Swallowtails, 26 Lorquin’s Admirals, and 1 Essex Skipper.  (But apparently Jeff missed the Chestnut-sided Warbler!)

   Mik Yip writes:  Checked out the dogbane along Nanaimo River Road on May 6.  Maybe a week too early for the Dun Skippers and Sylvan Hairstreaks, but certainly worthwhile for other butterflies. Best sightings were a slow flyby Great Arctic, several cruising Western Meadow Fritillaries, and a couple of possible Boisduval’s Blues (rare low elevation sighting?) . Others included 6 well-faded Cedar Hairstreaks, 9 fresh Clodius Parnassians, 2 Grey Hairstreaks, 7 Pale Tiger Swallowtails, 3 Western Tiger Swallowtails, and many Lorquin’s Admirals.

Clodius Parnassian Parnassius clodius (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Mike Yip

Clodius Parnassians Parnassius clodius (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Mike Yip

Western Meadow Fritillary Boloria epithore (Lep.:  Nymphalidae)  Mike Yip

Boisduval’s Blue Icaricia icarioides (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Mike Yip

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

Lorquin’s Admiral Limenitis lorquini (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Mike Yip

Gordon Hart writes:  Today, Tuesday June 7, on the way back from birding the Chemainus Estuary, Rick Schortinghuis and I went to Currie Creek Road off the Lake Cowichan Highway and found the usual selection of butterflies, plus one tattered Mylitta Crescent, the first I have seen in a while. The complete list was:
Pale Tiger Swallowtail 6; Western Spring Azure 9; Lorquin’s Admiral 8, Western Tiger Swallowtail 3, and the one Mylitta Crescent. I have attached a record shot of the Crescent, and a daisy with a collection of tiny insects and one yellow beetle of unknown species.  [Jeremy Tatum writes:  I’ll see if we can get an ID on the beetle, and post it if we can!]

Mylitta Crescent Phyciodes mylitta (Lep.: Nymphalidae)   Gordon Hart