August 12
2015 August 12
The season seems to be drawing rapidly to a close for most butterflies – with the exception of the Woodland Skipper. There are lots of these around. Jeremy Tatum noted clouds of them flitting around thistle and burdock flowers at UVic yesterday. Today Anne Murray writes from Saturna Island (a welcome contribution – we get few reports from there): There are suddenly dozens of these little butterflies around our lavender flowers on Saturna Island. Am I correct in identifying them as Woodland Skippers? [Yes, you are! – Jeremy] I am trying to attract native butterflies to our garden here. Any suggestions for other good larval/nectar plants would be most helpful. [I’ll try and reply sometime. In the meantime, Lavender is as good a nectaring flower as any (see postings of July 23 and July 30 for association of this butterfly with Lavender) – though I’ll have some other suggestions later – and the foodplant of the Woodland Skipper caterpillars is grass! They are probably not all that particular as to species of grass, though I haven’t investigated that at length.] And Rosemary Jorna sends a photograph of an adult from near Kemp Lake. The “Woodland” in its English name is merely a translation of its Latin name sylvanoides. The butterfly can be seen in almost any habitat other than woodland!
Rosemary sends several other photographs of insects and spiders. We show some of them here. We are still trying to identify some of the others before posting them. If any viewer can identify those below that are incompletely identified, please do let us know.
Bumble bee Bombus sp. (Hym.: Apidae) Rosemary Jorna
Thanks to Scott Gilmore for identifying the beetle below.
Megapenthes sp. (Col.: Elateridae) Rosemary Jorna
Scott Gilmore sends photographs of a moth caterpillar and two beetles from Upper Lantzville.
Phyllodesma americana (Lep.: Lasiocampidae)
Scott Gilmore
Phyllodesma americana (Lep.: Lasiocampidae)
Scott Gilmore
American Lappet Moth
Phyllodesma americana (Lep.: Lasiocampidae)
Scott Gilmore
Scott Gilmore
Jeremy Tatum reports a Lorquin’s Admiral today from Bow Park, Saanich.