2021 September 16

    Aziza Cooper writes:  On September 14, this moth was on my garage, in Salsbury Way.

Coryphista meadii (Lep.: Geometridae)   Aziza Cooper

   Val George writes:  Yesterday, September 15, I checked for moths on the walls around the lights at the nature centre in Goldstream Park.  Results:

2 Neoalcis californiaria, 1 Noctua pronuba, 2 Plemyria georgii

Plemyria georgii (Lep.: Geometridae)   Val George

   Gordon Hart sends a photograph of a bee fly, probably Villa sp. from the Highlands.

Villa sp. (Dip.: Bombyliidae)  Gordon Hart

   Aziza Cooper reports that on September 15 she saw one Pine White at Aylard Farm in East Sooke Park.

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  This morning (September 16) I was looking at the flowers in the garden department of Canadian Tire at Hillside Shopping Mall on Hillside Avenue.  Among all the other plants was a small pot with a decorative cabbage in it, and a Cabbage White was ovipositing on it. I was tempted to buy the plant, but I had someone with me so I moved on.

2021 September 16

    Aziza Cooper sends a photograph of a moth that was at her garage light on Salsbury Way on September 13.   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I had no idea what it was, so I sent the photograph  to Libby Avis, and, to my surprise she returned with the news that it is a colour variety of Neoalcis californiaria.  We haven’t had one quite like this in Invert Alert before, but Libby sees them often at Port Alberni.

Neoalcis californiaria  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Aziza Cooper

   Corrigendum:   I had incorrectly labelled a fly in yesterday’s Alert as a syrphid.  Thanks to Jeremy Gatten for giving us the correct identification.  See yesterday’s Alert for the correction.

2021 September 14

Jochen’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

1 Autographa californica

1 Eupithecia unicolor 

1 Neoalcis californiaria

1 Noctua pronuba

Autographa californica (Lep.: Noctuidae – Plusiinae)  Jochen Möhr

Eupithecia unicolor (Lep.:  Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Neoalcis californiaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

   Gordon Hart writes from Highlands:  There have not been many butterflies around, but yesterday, Monday, September 13, we saw four Cabbage Whites and a Grey Hairstreak. It was sharing a clump of Yarrow with some flies  and small beetles.

Grey Hairstreak Strymon melinus (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Gordon Hart

Grey Hairstreak Strymon melinus (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Gordon Hart

Sharing a clump of Yarrow with a fly (Bombyliidae) and a small beetle.  Gordon Hart

2021 September 13

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  Here is a Mint Moth from the garden of my Saanich apartment building this morning.

Pyrausta californicalis (Lep.: Crambidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Liam Singh reports an American Lady hilltopping on Christmas Hill in the late afternoon of September 12.  This is the second sighting of the species this year (see August 26 Invert Alert for August 25 photograph on Mount Douglas).  At 4:00 pm today, September 13, Nyjal Singh tells us that there were at least three ladies at the top of Christmas Hill.  One of them is certainly an American Lady; the other two are probably also American Ladies.  Nyjal has photographs of some these. Liam tells us that Rebecca Reader-Lee found and photographed another American Lady at Rocky Point yesterday, September 12.   We hope to post some photographs tomorrow.

Viewers who visit Christmas Hill to see these butterflies will probably want to keep their eyes open for a Horned Lark that has been there today.

There have been sightings of American Lady for each year from 2017 to 2021 inclusive.  There have been no reports of West Coast Lady so far this year, and none in 2020.  Thus it appears that in recent years the American Lady is commoner than the West Coast Lady.

It would be worth checking some other hilltops in the late afternoon.  I tried Mount Tolmie without luck.  Mount Douglas and Highrock Park should also be checked.

2021 September 12

    Jochen Möhr reports three Neoalcis californiaria  and one Lithophane petulca at his Metchosin home this morning.

Lithophane petulca (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

Neoalcis californiaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Sharon Godkin took some interesting insect photographs at Rocky Point on September 10:

White-faced Hornet Dolichovespula maculata (Hym.: Vespidae)  Sharon Godkin

White-faced Hornet Dolichovespula maculata (Hym.: Vespidae)  Sharon Godkin

Praying Mantis Mantis religiosa (Mantodea:  Mantidae)  Sharon Godkin

Praying Mantis Mantis religiosa (Mantodea:  Mantidae)  Sharon Godkin