2022 May 9

    Jeff Gaskin writes:  Just a couple of butterflies of note seen in the last two days.  First of all a Western Spring Azure seen on the Royal Roads University grounds.  It was seen while on the VNHS birding trip there.  Today,  May 9, a Mourning Cloak was in the south east corner of Panama Flats which was also where it was, the same spot, a few days ago when Geoffrey Newell saw it

Val George writes:  On May 8, I saw my first Red Admiral of the season. It was on the reservoir at Mount Tolmie. And for viewers of this site who may not have seen the short write-up I did for the most recent issue of the VNHS Newsletter, this past winter I put together a website called Vancouver Island Butterflies – a Photographic Guide. It can be found most easily by going to vancouverislandbutterflies.com.   [See also the April 30 entry on this site – Jeremy Tatum.]

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Val George

Rosemary Jorna writes:  A micro moth and  a small fly from the Galloping Goose yesterday  between Charters and Tod Creek trestles.  Jeremy Tatum writes:  The moth is Adela trigrapha, but I’m afraid I don’t even know the Family of the fly!  If any viewer can help, please do so!

Adela trigrapha (Lep.: Adelidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Unknown dipteran   Rosemary Jorna

2022 May 8

    Here is an upperside shot of Rosemary Jorna’s huge Ceanothus Silk Moth (see the May 6 posting), vibrating its forewings just prior to taking off after laying seven eggs.

Female Hyalophora euryalus (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Rosemary Jorna

   Jochen Möhr writes:  Coming home from an errand yesterday, I was greeted by this crane fly.  Never saw one like this before.   Claudia Copley writes:  It is so cool!  Darren found one ages ago at Goldstream – most likely Ctenophora vittata, also known as Phoroctenia vittata.

Male Ctenophora vittata (Dip.: Tipulidae – Ctenophorinae)   Jochen Möhr

Male Ctenophora vittata (Dip.: Tipulidae – Ctenophorinae)   Jochen Möhr

2022 May 06 morning

    Jochen Möhr set us a puzzle yesterday with photographs from Metchosin of the undersides of several moths – the geometry of the situation prevented him from getting his camera to the other side of the window to photograph the uppersides.  Libby Avis and Jeremy Tatum had a go at identifying them, and, considering how difficult it is to identify moths from their undersides alone, we came to remarkably good agreement – although our proposed identifications remain tentative.

Drepanulatrix?  Spodolepis?   (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Drepanulatrix?  Spodolepis?  (Lep,: Geometridae)   Jochen Möhr

Triphosa?  Coryphista?  (Lep.: Geometridae)   Jochen Möhr

Hypena?  (Lep.: Erebidae – Hypeninae)   Jochen Möhr

   Rather easier to identify was a Ceanothus Silk Moth laying eggs near Kemp Lake and photographed by Rosemary Jorna:

Hyalophora euryalus (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Hyalophora euryalus (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Hyalophora euryalus (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Rosemary Jorna

2022 May 4

    Aziza Cooper sends a photograph of a Honey Bee on Camas at Cedar Hill Golf Course, May 3.

Honey Bee Apis mellifera (Hym.: Apidae)  Aziza Cooper

   Jochen Möhr sends pictures of Gluphisia severa from his Metchosin home, May 3.

Gluphisia severa (Lep.: Notodontidae)  Jochen Möhr

Gluphisia severa (Lep.: Notodontidae)  Jochen Möhr

2022 May 2 afternoon

    Mr E sends photographs of a beetle and a spider, and also a miscellany of tiny creatures, some of which are a challenge to identify.

Scott Gilmore kindly identified the beetle as Syneta albida within seconds of my sending him the image.

Female Western Fruit Beetle Syneta albida (Col.: Chrysomelidae)  Mr E

   Scott writes:  It is occasionally this pale but is often a little darker. There are other species in the genus which look very similar but show more colour variation.

Dr Robb Bennett writes about the spider below:  It’s a female philodromid crab spider. Probably in the genus Philodromus (less likely Rhysodromus) and I’ll stick my neck out and guess that it is Philodromus dispar (in British Columbia, a common introduced species with distinctive, easily identified males and somewhat cryptic females.).

Philodromus (probably dispar)  (Ara.: Philodromidae)   Mr E

Jeremy Tatum writes:  I have labelled the following miscellany of tiny creatures with my best wild guesses of what they might be.  If any viewer can help with these, please let us know.

Possibly a thrips     Mr E

Probably a springtail   Mr E

Just possibly a larval case of a coleophorid moth    Mr E