2017 May 8

 

May Butterfly Walk

Gordon Hart

 

   We had beautiful weather for the second butterfly walk of 2017 . Eleven observers saw three species at Mount Tolmie: two Western Spring Azures, two Cabbage Whites, and a Propertius Duskywing that circled around close enough for everyone to get good looks.

 

Eight people continued on to Munn Road powerlines and the ponds by the Pike Lake substation where we saw five species of butterfly: about 10 Western Spring Azures, four Sara Orangetips, a presumed Painted Lady fly-by, and a Western Brown Elfin perched on salal. We also saw a fresh male Spiny Baskettail Epitheca spinigera dragonfly, and a pink lady beetle.

[Jeremy Tatum writes: The beetle was later identified for us by Charlene Wood as a colour variety of Calvia quatuordecimguttata, known as the Cream-spotted Ladybird.  It is very variable in colour, and some varieties (not this one) actually have cream spots!  Latin scholars will note that the specific name means 14-spotted – but that there should be two ts in quattuor. However,the rules of taxonomy don’t allow you to change the spelling of a name once it has been conferred on an organism by its original describer, even if he/she spelled it wrongly.  In fact I believe Linnaeus originally spelled it 14-guttata, but numerals are no longer allowed.]

    Five people travelled a bit further to Gordon and Anne-Marie’s property, where Rick Schortinghuis got a glimpse of an unidentified elfin and two commas. We were able to find one of the commas, a Green Comma, Polygonia faunus, my first of the year.

 

Finally, the three members who returned early to Mount Tolmie saw a Painted Lady near the Jeffery Pine, so that species can safely be included in the total of seven species.

-Gordon

 

 

The next seven photographs are from the Butterfly Walk.

 

 Female Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Two more Ken Vaughan photographs from Beaver Lake Ponds, May 6.   Thanks to Sean McCann for help with the identifications.

 

 

 Mining bee Andrena sp. (Hym.: Andrenidae)  Ken Vaughan

Ichmeumonid wasp (Hym.: Ichneumonidae)  Ken Vaughan

 

 

 

 

Rosemary Jorna sends a picture of a J ohnson’s Jumping Spider from her Kemp Lake area garden, May 7.

 

Phidippus johnsoni (Ara.: Salticidae) Rosemary Jorna

 

 

Aziza Cooper photographed the moth below on the deck of the BC Ferry on May 4.