2017 September 11

 

   Jeremy Tatum sends photographs of some caterpillars.  The first from Ocean Spray at Mount Douglas.  The second from Rubus sp. in East Sooke Park, now feeding on willow.

 

Unicorn Prominent Schizura unicornis (Lep.: Notodontidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Peppered Moth Biston betularia (Lep.: Geometridae)

Jeremy Tatum

   The Zale caterpillar that has been shown on August 28 and 30, and September 2 and 7 is now pupating.  We have narrowed it down to Z. lunata or Z. minerea, probably the former.  Its ventral side is interesting:

 

Zale sp. (Lep.: Erebidae – Erebinae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

 

I went to McIntyre reservoir today.  There were still hundreds of Cabbage Whites in flight.  I also saw one (or more?) pristine Orange Sulphur and one (or more?) pristine Painted Lady.  The sulphur was a full, rich orange.  I didn’t see any of the paler sulphurs that we saw during the VNHS September Butterfly Walk.  It would be nice to get some good photographs of these.  Although we assumed that they were female Orange Sulphurs, I am not 100 per cent certain, and I am toying with the possibility that they may have been Clouded Sulphurs – a different species.  In any case today I had a look at the Brussels Sprouts plants to see if I could spot any caterpillars.  I found one caterpillar each of Cabbage Looper and Cabbage White Butterfly.  The adult Cabbage Looper is the Ni Moth.  The mark on the upperside of the forewing is supposed to resemble the Greek letter nu (n);  “Ni” is the Latinized form of Greek “nu”.   The Ni Moth is a plusiine (i.e. belongs to the Subfamily Plusiinae of the Family Noctuidae).  Most of the plusiine caterpillars don’t have the usual complement of abdominal prolegs (count them), and they walk in a semi-looper fashion.

 

Ni Moth Trichoplusia ni (Lep.: Noctuidae – Plusiinae)  Jeremy Tatum

Cabbage White Pieris rapae (Lep.: Pieridae)   Jeremy Tatum

 

Message just received from Ron Flower, who, too, visited McIntyre reservoir today.  He writes:  Around noon at the reservoir we saw 2 Woodland Skippers, 6 Painted Ladies, 4 Orange Sulphurs, 2 Purplish Coppers, dozens of Cabbage Whites, and a new moth to us. There could have very well been more of each for they seemed to be everywhere.  [Jeremy Tatum writes:  I’m not very optimistic, but we’ll try and identify the moth.]

 

Painted Lady Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Ron Flower

 Orange Sulphur Colias eurytheme (Lep.: Pieridae)  Ron Flower

Male Purplish Copper  Lycaena helloides (Lep.:  Lycaenidae)  Ron Flower

 

Jeff Gaskin writes:  Yesterday, Sept. 10, there was a Painted Lady on a Buddleia bush along Gorge Road near Harriet Street.  Today there were no fewer than 6 Pine Whites in East Sooke Park between Aylard Farm and Beechey Head.

 

Gerry and Wendy Ansell write:  Of interest this afternoon (Monday, September 11) was 1 Grey Hairstreak at Panama Flats.   There were also several Woodland Skippers.