2020 July 1

 

   This may be Canada Day, but it also seems to be Crab Spider Day, for two separate observers have sent a bunch of photos of Misumena vatia.  This spider lurks in flowers and often takes on the colour of the flower within which it lurks, as in this photograph of one on an Ox-eye Daisy:

 

 

Misumena vatia  (Ara.: Thomisidae)  Mr E

   The next one, on Lavender, doesn’t seem to have had much success with any attempt at cryptic coloration.

 

Misumena vatia  (Ara.: Thomisidae) Richard Rycraft

   The next one is also white on a purple flower – except that it does closely resemble the white central part of the Harvest Brodiaea flower, enough to deceive a very substantial prey.

 

Misumena vatia  (Ara.: Thomisidae)  Mr E

   I recognized the next spider as a crab spider, but I didn’t think it was M. vatia (writes Jeremy Tatum) until Dr Robb Bennett told me that it is indeed M. vatia – but a male rather than the more familiar female.   Its first pair of legs are remarkably long (part of the left front leg is hidden by a petal).  The spider is missing its second leg on the right hand side.

 

Male Misumena vatia (Ara.: Thomisidae)  Mr E

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  On June 29 I saw a Pale Tiger Swallowtail nectaring on the Philadelphus bush at the entrance to the Mount Tolmie reservoir – noteworthy only because it was the first one I had seen this year.  On June 30 I saw a Satyr Comma along the Lochside Trail between Lohbrunner’s and Blenkinsop Lake;  I also found another Red Admiral caterpillar on the nettles there.  Today I noticed that the Painted Lady pupa, which was shown on June 24 morning, was showing a lot of colour – next photograph:

 

Painted Lady Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Jeremy Tatum

  After a few hours I noted that the butterfly within was becoming separated from the pupal shell as described by Jochen Möhr in the movie he made last year of the emergence of a Painted Lady butterfly from its chrysalis. This appearance shows that eclosion (emergence) is imminent.  [Biologists please note:  The noun is eclosion;  the verb is eclode.]  Jochen’s movie can be seen in the entry for 2020 January 1 (currently on page 35).  I waited patiently with my camera at the ready.  Then I went to unload my laundry from the washer and put it in the dryer, a process that took three minutes max. When I came back:

 

Painted Lady Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   I didn’t manage to photograph the upperside.  I put the butterfly on the thistles just down the road from the Jeffery Pine on Mount Tolmie, so if you see a pristine fresh Painted Lady there, that’ll be it.

 

Here’s a young caterpillar of a Pale Tiger Swallowtail:

 

Pale Tiger Swallowtail Papilio eurymedon (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Here’s a long-horned beetle photographed by Mr E, and kindly identified by Scott Gilmore as Lepturopsis dolorosa:

 

Lepturopsis dolorosa (Col.:  Cerambycidae)  Mr E

   Mark Wynja writes:  On the afternoon of Sunday June 28th Mike Yip and I found a Roadside Skipper and a Dun Skipper.  Area accessed by NW Bay Logging Road in Nanoose. Follow the signs to Rhododendron Lake;  they were 300 m past the 5 km sign on that road.  These logging roads are open until further notice on weekends from 8am to 6pm.

 

Roadside Skipper Amblyscirtes vialis (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Mark Wynja

 

Here’s a caterpillar found on Ninebark at Swan Lake today:

 

 

Egira crucialis (Lep.: Noctuidae)   Jeremy Tatum