2017 May 20

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I spent three hours this afternoon counting butterflies along the Panhandle Trail at Munn Road.  Two dozen or so Western Spring Azures, a few Cabbage Whites and Sara Orangetips, and one each of Moss’s Elfin, Cedar and Grey Hairstreaks, Painted Lady and Propertius Duskywing.  (Also a Barred Owl, Hutton’s and Cassin’s Vireos, and lots of McGillivray’s and other Warblers.)  Among the day-flying geometrid moths, unfortunately I didn’t see any Epirrhoe plebeculata, though I saw a few Mesoleuca gratulata and several Leptostales rubromarginaria.  I watched the latter for a while in case I was lucky to see one ovipositing, but I had to move on and get on with the Butterfly Count.  I’m sure if someone went there with the sole purpose of watching these tiny reddish moths for an hour or so, he or she would sooner or later advance the boundaries of knowledge by finding out what plants they lay their eggs on.

   I visited Mount Tolmie at 6:10 pm.  There was one Painted Lady basking on the reservoir, and a further three cavorting around near the Jeffery Pine.

   Jeff Gaskin writes:  Today I found a total of at least 8 Silvery Blues amongst the lupines at their usual spot at the Island Highway’s Colwood exit, right next to the Galloping Goose Trail.

   Judy Spearing sends a photograph of a caterpillar of the Silver-spotted Tiger Moth on the Ocean Spray in her garden (Bow Park area).  The usual foodplant is Douglas Fir, but they are by no means restricted to that plant, as recent photographs sent to this site have shown:  Today, Ocean Spray. May 16, Western Red Cedar.  May 7, Thimbleberry.

Silver-spotted Tiger Moth Lophocampa argentata (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)

Judith Spearing