2017 September 25

 

   Aziza Cooper writes:  Yesterday, Sunday, September 24, I saw four Painted Ladies at the tip of Whiffin Spit. The photo shows one on a log flattened down against the cold wind of the ocean. Two other observers saw at least four other Ladies in the grassy area at mid-spit. It certainly is a good year for Painted Ladies.  [It is indeed – though occasionally in past years we have had truly massive invasions, with caterpillars in almost every thistle patch.  Jeremy].

 

Painted Lady Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Aziza Cooper

    Following my appeal yesterday for photographs of one of the paler sulphurs, Val George writes:  Here is a (not very good) photo of one of the pale sulphurs at McIntyre Reservoir that I took a few days before our butterfly walk.  I wondered then whether it could be a Clouded Sulphur.  However, I concluded that it probably wasn’t possible from this photo to tell the species with certainty.  What do you think?

 

Jeremy Tatum writes: I think I have to agree with Val.  It is tempting to say that it is a Clouded Sulphur, but honesty compels me to say that I cannot be certain.  Is it a male or a female?  (Can’t quite see whether the terminal band contains yellow spots.)  I don’t see any sign of orange. What about the dark ST spots on the fw und?  (That’s jargon for subterminal spots on the forewing underside.)  The one spot is fairly well defined (therefore probably Orange Sulphur) but there is only one of them (therefore probably Clouded Sulphur).  So we remain tantalized!  More photos needed.  We’ll figure it out eventually!

Sulphur Colias sp. (Lep.: Pieridae)  Val George.