2022 July 3 morning

 Butterfly Walk Cancelled

 Because of the cloudy, cool, and possibly later, rainy weather, few butterflies are likely to be flying today.  Consequently the Butterfly Walk scheduled for today at 1:00 pm is cancelled.

   Rosemary Jorna writes:  We hiked up the Matterhorn in Shirley yesterday and saw quite a few butterflies –  a Western Pine Elfin, a  couple of Clodius Parnassians  and  three  Lorquin’s Admirals  behind the summit. We saw both Western  and Pale Tiger Swallowtails  at various points along the hike but they were not in their usual numbers.  I was not able to catch a photo of any butterfly but a female Dimorphic Flower Longhorn Beetle Anastrangalia laetifica posed nicely for me.

Anastrangalia laetifica (Col.: Cerambycidae)  Rosemary Jorna

2022 July 2 morning

 July 3 Butterfly Walk

   Because of the uncertain weather forecast for tomorrow, please check this Website tomorrow morning (Sunday) to see whether the Butterfly Walk scheduled for 1:00 p.m. is still on or whether it is cancelled.

  Jeremy Tatum sends a photograph of Enargia infumata reared from a caterpillar, shown on the May 31 entry on this site, found on Populus at Rithet’s Bog. The adult emerged today.

Enargia infumata (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

2022 July 1

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  Not much news by 5:00 pm on Canada Day, although there was a Painted Lady on the Mount Tolmie reservoir at 4:00 pm, and the Philadelphus shrub by the entrance was attracting Western and Pale Tiger Swallowtails.  I didn’t see any other species there.

2022 June 30 afternoon

    Jeremy Tatum writes: Some viewers have noted that moths have been rather scarce this year compared with other recent years.  I hope the one shown below may compensate to some extent.  Reared from a caterpillar found on Willowherb in the Martindale Valley in July last year, the adult moth emerged today.

Bedstraw Hawk Moth Hyles gallii  (Lep.: Sphingidae)  Jeremy Tatum

  The spellings gallii and galii are to be found in the literature.  Which is correct?  The name comes from the plants known as bedstraws Galium sp., which is one of the larval foodplants.  Therefore, it ought to be galii, oughtn’t it?  The species was first described and distinguished from the Elephant and Spurge Hawk Moths nearly 250 years ago in an obscure and long-defunct German journal. The author, named von Rottenburg, for some reason that is not at all apparent, spelled it, wrongly, gallii.  The Rule is that we must use the spelling used by the author in the original description of the species, even if the author spelled it “wrongly”.  By adhering to this Rule we can be sure that the species that we are talking about is the same species as the one originally described by the author.  Thus, although we could say that the “correct” spelling is galii, the spelling we must use is gallii.

Another wrinkle to this is that the original author’s name is often (usually) spelled Rottemburg.  However, the spelling in the original publication was Rottenburg.

I thank:  Rob Cannings  for finding  the reference (journal and year) of the original publication;  Ryan Glenn of UVic’s McPherson Library for – amazingly – actually finding the 1775 publication; and Jochen Möhr for translating it from German.

Rosemary Jorna writes from Kemp Lake that the moth (which has a very long name) shown below showed up in her garage this afternoon.

Pseudothyatira cymatophoroides (Lep.: Drepanidae – Thyatirinae)  Rosemary Jorna

2022 June 30 morning

    Mike Yip writes from Nanoose:   I had an unexpected visitor on Sunday,  a Hoary Comma,  that was a long way from home.  It was the 21^st  butterfly for my yard list.

Hoary Comma Polygonia gracilis (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Mike Yip

Hoary Comma Polygonia gracilis (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Mike Yip

Four-spotted Skimmer Libellula quadrimaculata (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Mike Yip

Eight-spotted Skimmer Libellula forensis (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Mike Yip

Common Whitetail Plathemis lydia (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Mike Yip