2020 May 23

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I tried to look for the Field Crescent today, without success.  The field on West Saanich Road about a km north of Stelly’s Cross Road next to the cemetary, where there was a big colony of the butterfly, was, as Ron pointed out late last year, totally destroyed.  Eddy’s storage now has a large number of gigantic trailers and other vehicles parked there, and the area is obviously now very much disturbed.  I don’t think we are going to see Field Crescents there again.  I don’t know of anywhere else in the southern Vancouver Island birdwatching area where they occur.  We may have lost this one.

Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

1 Egira rubrica

1 Eupithecia cretaceata

1 Hydriomena sp.

1 Lacinipolia cuneata/pensilis 

2 Tyria jacobaeae

1 Xanthorhoe defensaria

and an unknown ichneumonid pictured from above and below.

Eupithecia cretaceata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Xanthorhoe defensaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

     Jeremy Tatum writes: In an earlier version of this posting, I had confidently labelled Jochen’s next photograph as Lacinipolia pensilis.  Since then, Jeremy Gatten, Libby Avis and I have had some discussion, and we have concluded that L. pensilis and L. cuneata are not the easiest moths in the world to distinguish!  For the time being I am relabelling this moth and the one from May 22 as L. cuneata/pensilis, putting cuneata first to indicate that we think this is the more likely for both photographs.

Lacinipolia cuneata/pensilis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

Hydriomena marinata/californiata, (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Ichneumonids are notoriously difficult to identify.  I am going to label this one “probably” Ophion luteus, but maybe “probably” is a bit optimistic, and perhaps I should write “possibly”.

Probably Ophion luteus (Hym.: Ichneumonidae)  Jochen Möhr

Probably Ophion luteus (Hym.: Ichneumonidae)  Jochen Möhr

2020 May 22 morning

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  There are quite a few caterpillars of Satyr Comma along Lochside Drive north of Blenkinsop Lake.  I hope this is a sign that the numbers of these butterflies are coming back after a few lean years.  One just hopes that Saanich will not cut or spray the verges.

Satyr Comma Polygonia satyrus (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Jeremy Tatum

    Jeff Gaskin writes:  Yesterday morning,  May 21,  I found 32 Ringlets in their usual location, Layritz Park.

Rosemary Jorna writes:  We were back on the Whiffin Spit today.  We saw one  Seven-spotted Lady Beetle  but the real surprise was two live Pacific Sideband Snails and one empty shell in different  locations.   I associate these snails with the forest,  but these three were under the vegetation well into the gravelly, grassy harbour side  of the trail. This is a harsh exposed environment.  The second live snail was much smaller,  and it was raining too hard to photograph.

Coccinella septempunctata (Col.: Coccinellidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Monadenia fidelis (Pul.: Bradybaenidae) Rosemary Jorna

Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin yesterday and today:

May 21

1 Egira rubrica

2 Eupithecia spp.

1 Eupithecia cretaceata

1 Melanolophia imitata

3 Tyria jacobaeae

1 Venusia obsoleta/pearsalli

1 Xanthorhoe defensaria

May 22

1 Apamea cinefacta

1 Coryphista meadii

1 Eupithecia sp.

1 Lacinipolia cuneata/pensilis

1 Melanolophia imitata

4 Tyria jacobaeae

1 Xanthorhoe defensaria

Lacinipolia cuneata/pensilis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

Apamea cinefacta (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

2020 May 21 morning

  Spelling:   A sharp-eyed viewer pointed out that on the May 18 morning Invert Alert, I had spelled fourteen as quattuordecim in the text and as quatuordecim in the label to the beetle.  I am always grateful to viewers who let me know of possible mistakes of any sort, and I encourage viewers to continue to do so.  Adam Taylor set this site up for the VNHS so that it is very easy for me to correct mistakes. But in this case my two spellings of fourteen were intentional.  In the version of Latin that I was taught, four was quattuor.  However, when it comes to the spelling of scientific names, the spelling we are supposed to use is the spelling that was used in the original formal scientific description of the organism, whether the author used the “correct” spelling or not.  I admit to not having looked up the original description of the beetle in question, but presumably, rightly or wrongly, it was quatuor there.  There are a number of similar examples.  For example, we have a wasp Vespa pensylvanica.  Another spelling difficulty I have to watch out for is the beetle Coccinella septempunctata and the moth Adela septentrionella.  [I have since learned that septem is the number 7, while septentrio is an adjective meaning “northern”.]

   Jody Wells writes yesterday from Saanichton (Cordova) Spit:  Not sure if I have seen this handsome little lad before.    Jody is right – it is a “lad” – i.e. a male,  Purplish Copper:

Male Purplish Copper Lycaena helloides (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Jody Wells

      Val George writes:  Yesterday, May 20, I walked the railway track at Cowichan Station to look for Margined Whites but saw none.  In fact, despite good conditions for butterflies, the only species there were a few Cabbage Whites and Western Spring Azures, and two Satyr Commas.

Satyr Comma Polygonia satyrus (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Val George

   Rosemary Jorna writes:  There were eight or more Seven-spotted Lady Beetles Coccinella septempunctata on a wild black gooseberry bush on the Whiffin Spit yesterday morning.   I was surprised at the difference in size between these two.

Coccinella septempunctata (Lep.: Coccinellidae)  Rosemary Jorna

2020 May 20

   Jeremy Tatum  writes:   I have forwarded to Invert Alert a notice I had received about eButterfly.  If any of you are computer-oriented, we need someone to enter our butterfly observations to eButterfly.   Sonja Voicescu did it last year, and would be glad to help ease someone into doing it.  Let me know if you are interested.

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  Yesterday at 6:00 pm there were five Painted Ladies and a California Tortoiseshell  on the reservoir or around the Jeffery Pine on Mount Tolmie.  Although all of them seemed to be very worn, they could all fly strongly and chase each other vigorously.

  Here is a Paraseptis adnixa (formerly Aseptis adnixa), reared from caterpillar on Indian Plum and released near Blenkinsop Lake:

Paraseptis adnixa (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   And this one was reared from a caterpillar on oak, and it was released today in an oak grove at Swan Lake:

Rough Prominent Nadata gibbosa (Lep.: Notodontidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Val George writes:  Yesterday afternoon, May 19, I did the May butterfly count for my area, Mount Douglas and the surrounding area.  The tally was:  25 Cabbage White, 9 Painted Lady, 6 Western Spring Azure, 2 Western Tiger Swallowtail, and one each of Pale Swallowtail, Anise Swallowtail, Mourning Cloak.

   Mike Yip writes from Nanoose:  Lupines are blooming along the highway and so are the Silvery Blues.

Silvery Blue Glaucopsyche lygdamus (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Mike Yip

Silvery Blue Glaucopsyche lygdamus (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Mike Yip