2020 April 10 morning

   Jochen Möhr’s moths (all geometrids!) in Metchosin yesterday morning:

2 Anticlea vasiliata

6 Eupithecias

2 Hydriomena  manzanita

1 Perizoma curvilinea

1 Triphosa haesitata

3 Venusia obsoleta/pearsalli

1 Xanthorhoe defensaria

Eupithecia ravocostaliata/nevadata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Anticlea vasiliata  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhrhr

Xanthorhoe defensaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Perizoma curvilinea Lep.: (Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Triphosa haesitata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Eupithecia graefii (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr

   Gordon Hart sends photographs  (Highlands, April 9) of an upperside and an underside of a Green Comma.

Green Comma Polygonia faunus (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Gordon Hart

Green Comma Polygonia faunus (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Gordon Hart

2020 April 9

  eButterfly.    Last year Sonia Voicescu kindly entered all our Invert Alert butterfly sightings into eButterfly, and we thank her greatly for this initiative and for the hours she spent on this task.  This year, Sonia has a heavy workload at UVic and would very much like to be relieved of this task.  If any viewer of this site, perhaps someone familiar with eBird, would like to enter our butterfly observations into eButterrfly this year, please do let me know (Jeremy Tatum:   jtatum at uvic dot ca).  Sonia will be very happy to explain it all to you and to start you off.

   Sonia mentions that she has just seen her first Cabbage White of the year at the corner of Brentwood Drive and Marchant Road, April 8.

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I have just discovered that the Invert Alert for April 8 evening somehow didn’t go out, so I have just posted it now (April 9!) a day late.

   Gordon Hart writes from Highlands:  Today we had the same butterflies as yesterday with the addition of a Mourning Cloak and a possible Green Comma, Polygonia faunus. It seemed smaller and with a black wing band, but I did not see the underside.

Green Comma Polygonia faunus (Lep: Nymphalidae)  Gordon Hart

Green Comma Polygonia faunus (Lep: Nymphalidae)  Gordon Hart 

Mourning Cloak Nymphalis antiopa (Lep: Nymphalidae)  Gordon Hart

  More tomorrow … didn’t quite have time to finish today’s posting!  JT

2020 April 8 evening

   Jeremy Tatum writes that this afternoon he saw three Western Spring Azures and one Sara Orangetip near the pond by the Pike Lake substation on Munn Road.

  Jochen Möhr saw a Sara Orangetip and a Cabbage White at his Metchosin property.

  Ron Flower saw a California Tortoiseshell on Mount Tolmie, and two Western Brown Elfins on a blackberry bush next to the reservoir.

Western Brown Elfin Incisalia iroides (Lep.: Lycaenidae)   Ron Flower

2020 April 8 morning

   Gordon Hart writes from Highlands:  We had quite an exciting day with lots of butterflies and other insects about. We saw our first of the year Sara Orangetip, but it would not stop for a picture. A Moss’ Elfin perched on the ground.  One California Tortoiseshell appeared again and two commas.  There were lots of bee flies around especially on the Red-flowering Currant. I also have a photo of a bee species I can’t identify.

Bee Fly Bombylius major (Dip.: Bombyliidae)  Gordon Hart

Thanks to Annie Pang and Lincoln Best for identifying the bee below as a female mining bee of the genus Andrena.

Andrena sp. (Hym.: Andrenidae)    Gordon Hart

 Comma Polygonia sp.(Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Gordon Hart

Moss’s Elfin Incisalia mossii (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Gordon Hart

   Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

 1 Cerastis enigmatica  

 1 Eupithecia ravocostaliata/nevadata

 1 Hydriomena manzanita

 1 Orthosia hibisci

 1 Spodolepis danbyi

 1 Venusia obsoleta/pearsalli

Cerastis enigmatica (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

Cerastis enigmatica (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

Orthosia hibisci (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

2020 April 7 evening

   Ron Flower writes:  Today April 7 we went to the Munn Road power lines where we saw three Sara Orangetips.

  Jeremy Tatum writes:  Four or maybe more California Tortoiseshells on or around the Mount Tolmie reservoir at 4:00 pm today.  Also, I saw a Cabbage White from the window of my Saanich apartment.