2018 June 8

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Thanks to several people for keeping me informed about recent butterfly sightings.  This will help me in finding them for my Sussex visitor.  Kirsten Mills writes that she has seen a Lorquin’s Admiral at Island View Beach (photograph below), and that there is a group of Cedar Hairstreaks on daisies along the second small path past the gate at the end of Goldstream Heights Drive.  Also there, a Pale Tiger Swallowtail.

 

Lorquin’s Admiral Limenitis lorquini  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Kirsten Mills

 

      Gordon Hart has both tiger swallowtails at his Highlands property, as well as a Cedar Hairstreak.

 

     Aziza Cooper writes:  On Saturday, June 2, at the reservoir on Mount Tolmie, there was a Grey Hairstreak with others which I noted previously.   On Wednesday June 5, on the west slope of Mount Douglas, there was a Cinnabar Moth, one tattered Western Spring Azure, a Western Tiger Swallowtail, a Pale Tiger Swallowtail and a Lorquin’s Admiral.

 

Grey Hairstreak Strymon melinus (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

 

Cinnabar Moth Tyria jacobaeae (Lep.: Erebidae  – Arctiinae)  Aziza Cooper

 

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

 

   We sometimes have difficulty in distinguishing between the several species of Bombus (bumble bees).  Apparently we are not the only ones having this difficulty – evidently the bees don’t always get it right.  The photograph below, obtained by Liz Sparkes in Parksville in August 2017, shows a B. vosnesenskii  and a B. occidentalis in copula. Although the date does not strictly qualify for Invertebrate “Alert”, we thought the photograph was sufficiently interesting to make an exception.

 

Bombus vosnesenskii (male, left) and B.occidentalis (female. right)  (Hym.: Apidae)  Liz Sparkes