2020 February 27

 

    Jochen Möhr sends several pictures of moths from his Metchosin home yesterday and today, a few of which are shown here.  The Egira hiemalis and Phigalia plumogeraria are relatively easy, but Jochen has us all (Jochen, Libby Avis and myself, Jeremy Tatum) working hard over the pugs (Eupithecia) and highflyers (Hydriomena).  The two possible pugs are Eupithecia annulata and E. olivacea, and I don’t think any of us is willing or able to say with 100 percent certainty which they are, so I’ll label them either/or.  The typical early highflyer is Hydriomena nubilofasciata, and some of these have indeed appeared recently.  But some of Jochen’s recent highflyers are H. manzanita.  H. manzanita usually doesn’t appear quite so early in the year, and they are usually rather grey and without much colour.  Yet some of Jochen’s highflyers have appeared deceptively colouful – but the details of the patterns together with the characteristic wing-shape, or way of holding their wings, have shown that they are H. manzanita.  The caterpillars of H. nubilofasciata feed on Garry Oak, and the caterpillars of H.manzanita feed on Arbutus and – unsurprisingly! – on Manzanita.

 

Eupithecia annulata/olivacea (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr

 

Eupithecia annulata/olivacea (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr

 

Hydriomena manzanita (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr

 

Hydriomena manzanita (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr

 

Phigalia plumogeraria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 

 

Egira hiemalis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr