2023 April 4

    Aziza Cooper sends a photograph of a small moth seen on April 3, on a hilltop in Sooke Hills Wilderness Regional Park.  We don’t know what it is – probably a crambid or a pyralid.  Suggestions welcome!

Unidentified moth.  Aziza Cooper

2023 April 1

   No Butterfly Walk Tomorrow.  The first Butterfly Walk of the year will be on the first Sunday in May.

   Barb McGrenere writes:  On March 30, Mike and I saw our first Mourning Cloak of the season perched on the white flowers of a cherry tree along the Lochside Trail north of Blenkinsop Lake.

   Jeremy Tatum posts a photograph of Egira crucialis. The moth, which ecloded (emerged) today, was reared from a caterpillar found last year, and its identity is therefore not in doubt.  This suggests strongly that the two moths shown on March 29 are also E. crucialis as labelled.

Egira crucialis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   On the same day that Gordon Hart (March 28) photographed the bee Bombus melanopygus in his Highlands garden (see March 29 posting), Gordon also photographed there another somewhat similar bee.  We thank Steven Roias for confirming its identification as B. vancouverensis.

Bombus vancouverensis  (Hym.: Apidae)  Gordon Hart

2023 March 30

   Jeremy Tatum reports seeing a Cabbage White this morning on Poplar Avenue, Saanich.   He shows a photograph of a caterpillar of Paraseptis adnixa from near Blenkinsop Lake.

Paraseptis adnixa  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Jochen Möhr sends photographs of moths from his Metchosin home in the last two nights.

   Triphosa haesitata (Lep.: Geometridae)   Jochen Möhr

Triphosa haesitata (Lep.: Geometridae)   Jochen Möhr

Nola minna  (Lep.: Nolidae)  Jochen Möhr

Agonopterix  (probably argillacea) (Lep.:  Depressariidae)  Jochen Möhr

2023 March 29

Jules Thomson writes:   I saw an incredibly beautiful Mourning Cloak, yesterday, in my back garden on the west slope of Mount Douglas.

Mourning Cloak  Nymphalis antiopa (Lep.: Nymphalidae)

Jules Thomson

   Gordon Hart writes from the Highlands:  We saw the first Green Comma of the year on Tuesday March 28, a bit later than most years. There were also many bumble bees around, many of them looking like the one in the photograph below. I called it Bombus melanopygus, although there are one or two other possibilities. [Added later:  Thanks to Steven Roias for confirming that it is indeed B. melanopygus.] There were also some Enchoria lacteata flying along with some smaller moths.

Green Comma Polygonia faunus  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)

  Gordon Hart

Probably  Bombus melanopygus  (Hym.: Apidae)  Gordon Hart

Jeremy Tatum writes that he saw a Cabbage White in Huxley Road, Victoria, today, March 29.  Also there were three woodling moths (Egira sp.) on the wall of his Saanich apartment this morning.

Egira curialis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Egira curialis (Lep.: Noctuidae) Jeremy Tatum

Probably  Egira crucialis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Val George writes: These two moths were on the wall of my Oak Bay house this morning, March 29. Both are rather worn but my best guesses are: Egira crucialis and Hydriomena
nubilofasciata.

  Jeremy Tatum writes:  H. nubilofasciata, yes, no problem.    The problem with E. crucialis is that it is difficult to distinguish from E. simplex.  Libby Avis and I just had a look at my photograph above, and we believe it is E. crucialis, although neither of us is prepared to bet our pension savings on it.  I  (Jeremy) think Val’s is the same species, and therefore probably  crucialis.  E. crucialis is rather long in shape; E. simplex is more compact.

Probably  Egira crucialis (Lep.: Noctuidae) Jeremy Tatum

Hydriomena nubilofasciata  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Val George

2023 March 28

Ron Flower writes:  Today March 28 back at the Goldstream River we found more Mourning Cloaks and four Satyr Commas. There were surely more for it seemed they were everywhere. Nice what a bit of sunlight and heat will do.

   Wendy Ansell writes:  It was a good day for butterflies today.  We (Wendy and Gerry) had our first with a Comma at lunchtime and then a California Tortoiseshell  around 2:00  pm.  These were both in our yard on Cordova Ridge.  Later we went to Mount Tolmie and found your (Jeremy Tatum’s!) California Tortoiseshell on the grass just outside the reservoir.   Also seen by Jeff Gaskin.