2018 April 26

Invert Alert!   Silvery Blues!

   Jeff Gaskin writes: Yesterday, April 25, there were 2 Silvery Blues around the lupines, though the plants were still not in flower on the Galloping Goose trail by the Colwood exit.

   Jeff continues: Today, April 26, there were 2 Satyr Commas on the Lochside trail between Lohbrunner Road. and the Don Mann business or at the trail that connects to Mount Douglas Cross Road.

  Jeremy Tatum writes:  Lots of Western Spring Azures and Sara Orangetips at Munn Road today.  Also one Green Comma.

   Kirsten Mills writes: Jeff Gaskin and I had a Mourning Cloak at the Swan Lake nature house at 5:30 tonight (April 26) . Here’s a photo.

Mourning Cloak  Nymphalis antiopa  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Kirsten Mills

   Val George writes: Yesterday’s (April 25) warm weather finally brought out some butterflies so I took the opportunity to do the official April count for my area, Mount Douglas and the surrounding areas.  My tally was: 10 Cabbage Whites, 5 Sara Orangetips, 2 Propertius Duskywings.

Propertius Duskywing Erynnis propertius  (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Val George

   Aziza Cooper writes: Yesterday, April 25, this moth landed at my feet in Oak Haven Park, Brentwood Bay.  Jeremy Tatum writes:  This is Epirrhoe plebeculata.  This is a day-flying moth, many of which may be seen flying at this time of year.  If you see one, please watch it carefully to see if it is laying eggs.  If it does, I’d love to have then for rearing.  I have been trying to find the caterpillars of this moth for a very long time.

Epirrhoe plebeculata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Aziza Cooper

2018 April 25

    Gordon Hart photographed a beetle at Witty’s Lagoon yesterday, and we are much indebted to Scott Gilmore for identifying it as an Oregon Tiger Beetle.  Gordon also writes that yesterday in his Highlands garden he saw two Green Commas, and a Sara Orangetip as well as a number of Western Spring Azures.

Oregon  Tiger Beetle Cicindela oregona (Col.: Carabidae – Cicindelinae) Gordon Hart

   Jochen Moehr continues to find lots of moths in his moth trap in Metchosin.  He counted 22 Melanolophia imitata this morning.  Here is one of them:

Melanolophia imitata (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Moehr

   Next is a pug, probably Eupithecia ravocostaliata, though since we are not entirely certain how to distinguish this species from E. nevadata, we’ll put both names in the caption.

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

   Next, another pug.  Jeremy Tatum’s best guess is that it is either E. annulata or it isn’t.

Probably Eupithecia annulata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Moehr

Hydriomena manzanita  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Moehr

Triphosa haesitata (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Moehr

Alucita montana  (Lep.: Alucitidae)  Jochen Moehr

Nola minna (Lep.: Nolidae)   Jochen Moehr

Feralia comstocki (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Moehr

Behrensia conchiformis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Moehr

Cissusa indiscreta (Lep.: Erebidae – Erebinae) Jochen Moehr

Adela trigrapha  (Lep.: Adelidae)  Jochen Moehr

    The California Tortoiseshell that has been seen on and off on the Mount Tolmie reservoir since April 19 was still there on April 24 at 3:30 p.m., when Marie O’Shaughnessy obtained this photograph:

California Tortoiseshell Nymphalis californica (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

   Daniel Dönnecke writes:  I finally noticed some butterflies today on a hike in Mount Douglas Park.  There were four Sara Orangetips, a Western Spring Azure and three Propertius Duskywings.

Propertius Duskywing Erynnis propertius (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Daniel Dönnecke

2018 April 24 morning

   Scott Gilmore writes:  On Sunday April 22 I found several tiny rove beetles (Staphylinidae) in the low-mid intertidal zone in Lantzville. Both of these species are flightless and spend most of their time in air pockets of barnacles or rocks when the tide is up and only come out to feed when the tide goes out. Given where I found these they probably are only out of the water for a few hours a day. A rather remarkable habitat to find beetles.

Diaulota fulviventris (Col.: Staphylinidae)  Scott Gilmore

Liparocephalus sp. (Col.: Staphylinidae)  Scott Gilmore

Liparocephalus sp. (Col.: Staphylinidae)  Scott Gilmore

2018 April 23

St George’s Day

   Jochen Moehr sends a picture of the green form of a caterpillar of a Large Yellow Underwing from his Metchosin garden.  And he writes:  I took my dog out to Matheson Lake in the hope to get closer to Western Spring Azures than here.  In the past I had often seen them mud puddling at the beach there.  

   I was not disappointed.  Although – being surrounded by dogs who had nothing but swimming and ball playing on their minds, and constantly disturbing the flutterbys – I was never able to count more than six simultaneously, there may have been as many as a dozen.  There was fluttering blue everywhere, and of course, when they sit down, they pretty much disappear.  

Large Yellow Underwing Noctua pronuba (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Moehr

Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Jochen Moehr

Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Jochen Moehr

Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Jochen Moehr

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I went to Munn Road today, to Pike Lake substation and nearby.  I, too, saw lots of mud-puddling Western Spring Azures, mostly near to the yellow gate, I also saw one Sara Orangetip and one Western Brown Elfin there.  The vegetation of huge parts of that area has been flailed down, so that the area now looks like an ugly industrial wasteland.  Presumably it has been done to ease access to the electricity pylons, and the vegetation, in time, will grow back.  I hope no permanent destruction is in progress.

  The California Tortoiseshell that has been reported off and on from the Mount Tolmie reservoir since April 19 was still there at 4:30 this afternoon.

  Marie O;Shaughnessy sends a photograph of a Mourning Cloak that she saw along the lower trail at Mount Douglas, April 10^th.

Mourning Cloak Nymphalis antiopa (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Marie O’Shsughnessy

2018 April 22

   Jeff Gaskin and Kirsten Mills saw a California Tortoiseshell at 4:00 pm on the Mount Tolmie reservoir today, as well as three Cabbage Whites elsewhere on the hill.  The tortoiseshell was presumably the same individual that Val George photographed on April 19.  However, Val photographed another California Tortoiseshell today on the summit of Mount Douglas. 

California Tortoiseshell Nymphalis californica (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Val George

    Aziza Cooper puts me a little on the spot!  She writes that she saw some commas on the tracks near the Goldstream campground, and she wants to know what species they are.  Well may you ask, Aziza, and you are just as good (or bad) at these things as I am!

Well, I (Jeremy Tatum) shall put a label under the photographs, and if anyone disagrees with them (or even if you agree), please do let us know!  Aziza also saw a Sara Orangetip and a Cabbage White there.

Satyr Comma Polygonia satyrus (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Aziza Cooper

Male Satyr Comma Polygonia satyrus (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Aziza Cooper

Green Comma Polygonia faunus (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Aziza Cooper

Green Comma Polygonia faunus (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Aziza Cooper

   Jeremy Tatum saw only his second butterfly of the year today – a Western Spring Azure at Blinkhorn Lake.  He comments that after a dull winter, he had forgotten how very beautiful these butterflies are.

   On April 20, Nathan Fisk found a bee holding fast to a Flower of Deltoid Balsamroot.  Thank you Sean McCann for identifying the bee as a kleptoparasitic bee of the genus Nomada.

Nomada sp. (Hym.: Apidae)  Nathan Fisk