2019 September 3 morning

   On August 31 we showed pictures of a Painted Lady chrysalis that Jochen Möhr found hanging from a garden tool.  Jochen asked me (Jeremy Tatum) when the adult butterfly would emerge, and I think I replied something to the effect that it would emerge as soon as he stopped looking at it.  Jochen took up the challenge and engaged in a three-day staring match with the butterfly – and he won!  After three days the butterfly gave up and emerged while Jochen was still there ready with his camera.  Jochen’s patience was rewarded with a fine sequence of photographs showing the increase in colour of the chrysalis, culminating in the final miracle of the emergence of the butterfly.

3 days before eclosion (emergence)

1 day before emergence

19 hours before emergence

12 hours before emergence

5 hours before emergence

1 hour 20 minutes before emergence

20 minutes before emergence

Starting to emerge

Nearly out

10 minutes after emergence, its wings expanded but still limp

   Jochen noted that the haustellum (proboscis) was initially made of two semicylindrical tubes (see penultimate photograph) which then have to be zipped together to form a single cylindrical tube, which the butterfly then coils into a tight spiral (last photograph).  Jochen also noticed that the newly-emerged butterfly emitted a red fluid (meconium), consisting of waste matter accumulated by the caterpillar.

More this afternoon or evening…

2019 September 2

   Cheryl Hoyle sends photographs of two leafhoppers from View Royal, August 31.

Blue-green Sharpshooter Hordnia atropunctata (Hem.: Cicadellidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

   Jochen Möhr reports a single Pine White from Metchosin, September 1.  Cabbage Whites everywhere.

Jeremy Tatum reports a Lorquin’s Admiral from Swan Lake, September 2.

   Aziza Cooper sends a few photographs from the September 1 Butterfly Walk.

Painted Lady Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Aziza Cooper

Cabbage White Pieris rapae  (Lep.: Pieridae)  Aziza Cooper

Woodland Skipper Ochlodes sylvanoides (Lep.: Hesperiidae) Aziza Cooper

Enallagma sp.  (Odo.:  Coenagrionidae)  Aziza Cooper

   Thanks to Annie Pang for identifying the bee below:

Bombus vosnesenskii (Hym.:  Apidae)  Aziza Cooper

   Bryan Gates sends a photograph of Orgyia pseudotsugata from Saratoga Beach, Black Creek.

Orgyia pseudotsugata (Lep.: Erebidae – Lymantriinae)  Bryan Gates

2019 September 1

   Jeremy Tatum writes that yesterday, August 31, there were a dozen or so Ringlets Coenonympha tullia at Layritz Park.

   Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

2 Ennomos magnaria

2 Eulithis xylina

10 Lacinipolia pensilis

4 Neoalcis californiaria

2 Noctua pronuba

1 Tolype distincta

Jochen writes that in July he had 584 individuals of 73 species

                    and in August  he had 350 individuals of 50 species

  Five optimists attended the Monthly Butterfly Walk for September, optimistically hoping to see some butterflies in Victoria in this month.  Their optimism – and energy – were rewarded with four species, which is not bad for the time of year.  Four Woodland Skippers and five Cabbage Whites  in Finnerty Gardens, UVic.  45 Cabbage Whites, 2 Woodland Skippers, 1 Purplish Copper, and one very fresh Painted Lady at McIntyre Reservoir (where we were glad to see a few small new Teasels in flower), and two not-so-fresh Painted Ladies near the Jeffery Pine on Mount Tolmie.

2019 August 31

     Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

1 Drepanulatrix sp.

2 Ennomos magnaria

2 Eulithis xylina

1 Feltia jaculifera

14 Lacinipolia pensilis

8 Neoalcis californiaria

2 Noctua pronuba

1 Panthea virginarius

1 Tetracis (pallulata?)

2 Tolype distincta

   Jochen sends a picture of a plume moth (Pterophoridae), hard to identify with certainty but most probably Emmelina monodactyla, which resembles the early German monoplane the Rumpler Taube.

Probably Emmelina monodactyla (Lep.: Pterophoridae)  Jochen Möhr

   Jochen also sends photographs of a chrysalis of a Painted Lady, suspended from one of his gardening tools.

Painted Lady  Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae)

Jochen Möhr

Painted Lady  Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae)

Jochen Möhr

   Jeremy Tatum reports that there were still two adult Painted Ladies at the top of Mount Tolmie yesterday evening August 30.

2019 August 30

    September Butterfly Walk:  Gordon Hart writes:

Hello Butterfly Watchers,
The last Butterfly Walk of the season will be this Sunday, September 1, at 1 p.m. . We meet near the Mount Tolmie summit by the reservoir parking lot. After a look around the summit area, we will decide on a destination from there. All welcome.
See you on Sunday,
Gordon

   Gordon Hart sends a picture of the not-so-common Common Green Darner Anax junius from Pedder Bay, August 26.

Common Green Darner Anax junius (Odo.: Aeshnidae) Gordon Hart

      Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

2 Ennomos magnaria

4 Lacinipolia pensilis

8 Neoalcis californiaria

1 Perizoma costiguttata

1 Perizoma curvilinea

2 Tolype distincta

Tolype distincta (Lep.: Lasiocampidae)  Jochen Möhr

Perizoma curvilinea (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Perizoma costiguttata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

   Jeremy Tatum writes: Here is a photograph of a caterpillar of Euplexia benesimilis from East Sooke Park.  The caterpillar is often associated with ferns, and indeed this one was found on the fern Blechnum spicant.  However, ferns are not its only foodplant, and here they show a pronounced liking for Stachys cooleyae (Hedge-nettle or Woundwort).  This one, offered a choice between the fern it started with and the woundwort, quickly transferred to the woundwort.

Euplexia benesimilis (Lep.: Noctuidae) Jeremy Tatum