2019 August 7

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:   Ted Dobie’s caterpillar of Orgyia pseudotsugata, shown on July 21, and again when full grown in close-up on August 1 afternoon, has now pupated in a silken cocoon, incorporating some of the larval hairs.  The adult moth will probably eclode in a couple of weeks.

Orgyia pseudotsugata (Lep.: Erebidae – Lymantriinae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

   Jeremy continues:  This morning I visited the Nature Houses at Swan Lake and in Goldstream Park, and I found one moth at each.  This one at Swan Lake:

Neoalcis californiaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

…and this one at Goldstream Park, confirmed by Libby Avis as a Peppered Moth Biston betularia.  After millions of years of Darwinian evolution by variation and natural selection, this one seems to have evolved perfect cryptic coloration for a concrete background!

 Biston betularia (Lep.: Geometridae) Jeremy Tatum

 

     Two photographs of a Silver-spotted Tiger Moth Lophocampa argentata by Bill McMillan:

Lophocampa argentata (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Bill McMillan

 

Lophocampa argentata (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Bill McMillan

 

   A miscellany from Cheryl Hoyle:

Honey Bee Apis mellifera (Hym.: Apidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

Harmonia axyridis (Col.: Coccinellidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

Eristalinus aeneus (Dip.: Syrphidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

 

Jochen Möhr’s moths in Metchosin this morning:

1 Campaea perlata

1 Eulithis xylina

4 Perizoma curvilinea 

1 Nemoria darwiniata

 

He writes: Pine Whites are now regularly fluttering up here at 160 to 200 m above sea level.