2017 June 29

   Ron Flower writes:  We were out on West Saanich Road today (June 28) and did some more hunting for Field Crescents.  We found another population in a field close to Woodwind Farm. There is a small native graveyard on the left side of the road heading north on West Saanich Road before Woodwind. The field to the left of the graveyard holds the crescents. I don’t know the ethics of reporting this location so I will leave that dilemma up to you, but it’s good to know that the population seems to be holding its own.

Jeremy Tatum replies:  I haven’t thought much about the ethics, either, and so I’d welcome any comments from viewers. One danger in reporting sites of rare butterflies is that it brings them to the attention of butterfly collectors – we don’t want to see any butterfly nets being wielded.  Or if the site is on private property, we must respect property rights. The graveyard in question is presumably not only First Nations property, but is sacred to them, and permission should be sought.

Although the Field Crescent is regarded now as locally rare, this was not always so.  It was a not uncommon butterfly fifty years ago.  They were even in Uplands Park.

Val George writes:  This afternoon, June 28, I walked the railway track at Cowichan Station to look for Margined Whites Pieris marginalis.  I counted 7 or 8.  Other butterflies there:  At least a dozen Western Tiger Swallowtails, 1 Pale Tiger Swallowtail, 3 Lorquin’s Admirals, 1 Red Admiral, 2 Cabbage Whites.

Margined White Pieris marginalis (Lep.: Pieridae)  Val George

 Margined White Pieris marginalis (Lep.: Pieridae)  Val George

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  Exciting!   I think the first one is resting on Dame’s Rocket – one of the larval foodplants.  The second is nectaring at Herb Robert – something they apparently like to do.  These are both completely immaculate.  The ones I saw earlier this year had the underside veins strongly accentuated with grey.  I believe there are two generations per year (bivoltine), and that the difference is a generational difference.  Future observations (and photographs of this quality!) will tell.

Jeremy Tatum writes:  Huge numbers of Essex Skippers at Panama Flats this afternoon.  This evening at Mount Tolmie, the usual bunch – several Painted Ladies, Lorquin’s and Red Admirals, Western Tiger Swallowtails, and a West Coast Lady.

   Nick Doe sends a photograph of a male Mylitta Crescent taken on Gabriola Island a few days ago. He writes that they’re quite common in the woods he frequents and they often pose nicely for the camera.

  Mylitta Crescent Phyciodes mylitta (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Nick Doe

   Rosemary Jorna writes: This Golden Bupestrid Beetle Bupestris aurulenta joined us on the neighbours’ deck in the Kemp Lake area June  29 2017. It even let me get in for a close up.

Golden Bupestrid Bupestris aurulenta (Col.: Bupestridae)  Rosemary Jorna

Golden Bupestrid Bupestris aurulenta (Col.: Bupestridae)  Rosemary Jorna

   Rosemary also sends a photograph of a caterpillar from nearby.

Silver-spotted Tiger Moth Lophocampa argentata (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiidae)

Rosemary Jorna

2017 June 28

   Re the Cakile species on which are seen Cabbage White eggs on Jochen Moehr’s June 26 photographs, here’s what Nathan Fisk writes:  Seeing the leaves would help but this photo shows “silicles usually expanded at the joints into projecting wings” – ‎which would put this as C. maritima. It’d be good to see the leaves before I stake my reputation on that ID.  Jeremy Tatum writes:  Thank you, Nathan.  That’s good enough.  I suspect the butterfly isn’t very particular as to which species of Cakile she lays her eggs on.  Cabbage Whites choose a wide variety of Brassicaceae – not just our garden cabbages!

   Samantha Hatfield sends a photograph of a Western Tiger Swallowtail from the North Jubilee area.

Western Tiger Swallowtail Papilio rutulus (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Samantha Hatfield

2017 June 27

   No response yet for our appeal for an opinion on Peter Boon’s commas on Mount Becher (June 25 entry), but Peter has managed to get a good photograph of the underside, and I think most of us would now agree that the butterfly is the Hoary (“Zephyr”) Comma Polygonia gracilis zephyrus (which Guppy and Shepard list as a full species). [Added later:  Mike Yip concurs.]

Hoary (“Zephyr”) Comma Polygonia gracilis zephyrus (Lep.: Nymphalidae)

Peter Boon

Has anyone seen any Satyr Commas recently?  This used to be one of our commonest butterflies, but it now seems to have disappeared.

Nick Doe sends a photograph of a Polyphemus Moth from Gabriola Island.

Polyphemus Moth Antheraea polyphemus

(Lep.: Saturniidae)

Nick Doe

2017 June 26

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  A few Painted Ladies, Red Admirals, Lorquin’s Admirals, Western Tiger Swallowtails and one West Coast Lady on the Mount Tolmie reservoir at 6:00 p.m. tonight.  On looking closely at the West Coast Lady, I became fairly sure that it may well have been the same individual that Val George photographed a few days ago (see June 16 posting).  I find that I can pick out the West Coast Lady in flight – the orange seems a slightly different shade than the orange of the Painted Ladies.

Ken Vaughan writes:  I was out to Beaver Lake on Saturday morning, and I took some photographs.

Tule Bluet Enallagma carunculatum (Odo.: Coenagrionidae) Ken Vaughan

Pacific Forkail Ischnura cervula (Odo.: Coenagrionidae)  Ken Vaughan

Red Admirable Vanessa atalanta (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Ken Vaughan

Blue Dasher Pachydiplax longipennis (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Ken Vaughan

Western Pondhawk Erythemis collocata (Odo.: Libellulidae) Ken Vaughan

Banasa dimiata (Hem.: Pentatomidae)  Ken Vaughan

Jeremy Tatum comments:  For those still a little uncertain about beetles and bugs, Banasa dimiata is about as typical a bug as you can get.  The tip of the pronotum in dimiata is usually yellow.  This introduces a note of uncertainty into the identification.  Maybe it is another species.  If any expert out there can help, please let us know.  Ken sees a green chalice on the back.  I see it, too.  Can you?

Ken has chosen to use the name “Red Admirable” for Vanessa atalanta.  Although the name used most often these days is Red Admiral, it has been suggested that “Admiral” was originally “Admirable”, and it has lost a syllable along the way.  It has been advocated that we should restrict the name “Admiral” to the Limenitis  group.  It is true that Moses Harris, in his 1840 book The Aurelian, called atalanta “The Admirable”.  However, if we go back still further, to the seventeenth century, James Petiver, who introduced many of the English names for butterflies, called it the Red Admiral – so it looks as though Harris added a syllable, and today’s “Admiral” agrees with Petiver’s original name.

Rosemary Jorna photographed the beetle below at Jordan River on June 22.  There are more species of beetle than of any other Order in the animal Kingdom – which means, unfortunately, that we cannot always identify each one with certainty.  However, thanks to Charlene Wood, we know at least the Family of this one – Bupestridae.

Bupestrid beetle (Col.: Bupestridae) Rosemary Jorna

Annie Pang photographed a bee-like robber fly in Gorge Park, June 25.  Annie is showing us what a great variety of creatures are to be found even in a rather urban park, without trekking far into the wilderness.  Rob Cannings comments:  This is a female Laphria, either L. asturina or L. fernaldi. I believe there is a good possibility that both these names refer to the same species and any small colour differences used in keys to separate them are insignificant. Anyway, that’s the identification situation concerning the common southern BC Laphria with red hairs on the abdomen!

Bee-like robber fly Laphria asturina/fernaldi (Dip.: Asilidae)  Annie Pang

Bee-like robber fly Laphria asturina/fernaldi (Dip.: Asilidae)  Annie Pang

Rosemary Jorna writes:  Sid found this spider while cleaning the garage today, June 25, Kemp Lake Area.   Sean McCann writes:  This is Steatoda grossa, the False Black Widow.  Very common in places like garages!

False Black Widow Steadota grossa (Ara.: Theridiidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Jochen Moehr writes: I watched a P. rapae busily depositing eggs on some brassicaceous plants on Taylor Beach, close to the cliff drop-off among the drift wood.  I also took some pictures of the plants.  They clearly are some kind of Brassicaceae, but I was unable to get clues to the identification.  Jeremy Tatum responds:  Cabbage Whites quite often lay their eggs on these plants on the seashore.  The plant is Sea Rocket Cakile sp., but it will need a better botanist than I to say whether it is the native American Sea Rocket C. edentula or the European Sea Rocket C. maritima.  I believe both occur here.  If some botanist can help us, please do so!  (More detailed pics of the plant are available.)

Two Cabbage White ova Pieris rapae (Lep.: Pieridae) Jochen Moehr

Cheryl Hoyle sends photographs of two larvae found in Saanich today, June 26.

Silver-spotted Tiger Moth Lophocampa argentata (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)

 Cheryl Hoyle

Giant sawfly larva  Trichiosoma triangulum (Hym.: Cimbicidae) Cheryl Hoyle

2017 June 25

   Reminder:  Please send photographs as attachments in .jpg format.  It makes life so very much easier for me.  Jeremy Tatum.

Jeremy Tatum writes:  Peter Boon photographed an interesting moth in the Nanaimo River estuary on June 23.   Not only could I not identify it, but it turns out that it was one that I hadn’t even heard of!  Libby Avis identified it for us as Leucania dia – and she reports that she had also found one a few days ago in Port Alberni.  This moth was until recently regarded as a subspecies of another species of wainscot moth; it was named a full species only a few years ago, in 2010.

Leucania dia (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Peter Boon

   Peter Boon writes:  During a hike up Mount Becher today I found 4-5 commas patrolling the mid-lower slope trails.  One seemed to like perching on my hat, so I took it off to snap a photo or two. Lower down on the old ski runs I found a fresh Western Meadow Fritillary. Also seen on the lower slopes was a Pale Tiger Swallowtail.

   Butterfly enthusiasts are asked to look carefully at Peter’s comma photographs and to let us know which species you think it is.  Please do let us know what you think, and why. [Added later:  Problem solved.  See June 27 entry.]

Comma Polygonia sp. (Lep.:  Nymphalidae)   Peter Boon

Comma Polygonia sp. (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Peter Boon

Western Meadow Fritillary Boloria epithore (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Peter Boon

Western Meadow Fritillary Boloria epithore (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Peter Boon

   Jochen Moehr writes:  I continue to enjoy the drive up to our new Metchosin property.  I always encounter up to four Papilios and some Pieris rapae.  Today I saw my first Lorquin’s Admiral of the year.  And I was able to take pictures of this Papilio eurymedon. 

Pale Tiger Swallowtail Papilio eurymedon (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Jochen Moehr.