2017 August 24

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Here is a chrysalis of a Western Tiger Swallowtail.  These swallowtails are quite clever.  The pupae can vary in colour from green to brown, depending on the background upon which they are formed.  If they pupate in a well-lit area among green leaves, they will be green; but if they pupate in a darker area they are brown.  This one chose a particularly dark area, and it is one of the darkest swallowtail pupae that I have seen.  By the way, in case you are wondering, it is facing toward the left.

Western Tiger Swallowtail Papilio rutulus Jeremy Tatum

   Below is the third photograph that I have taken of this caterpillar because at first I thought it was a lifer for me.  By the time that it reached its final instar, however, I realized that it was a Yellow Woolly Bear, or Virginia Ermine.

Spilosoma virginica (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae) Jeremy Tatum

   The  caterpillar below, found on willow at King’s Pond, is quite small, and I am hoping it will grow. It is long and slender and it walks in full looper fashion just like a geometrid.  However, the number of midabdominal prolegs isn’t right for a geometrid.  It has two functional pairs and two vestigial pairs, and it may belong to another family.  [Added later:  As the caterpillar grew, it became obvious that it wasn’t a geometrid.  It is a Zale.]

Zale sp. (Lep.: Erebidae)    Jeremy Tatum

   Aziza Cooper writes:  On Sunday April 20 I went to Forbidden Plateau and walked along the boardwalk. I found four Mariposa Coppers and one Oreas Comma.

   Later I searched the perimeter of the huge gravel parking lot just south of Nordic Road. The parking lot looks east over Mount Washington Parkway, and has slopes with lots of flowers. Along the edge I found what I think are Branded Skippers. There were at least five.

Across the road to the west, I found two Purplish Coppers and two Anna’s Blues.

    Jeremy Tatum comments:  Identifying the commas (especially from the uppersides alone) and the skippers poses some difficult identification problems.  No writer of whom I am aware has given a clear and unambiguous account of the distinctions between the forms Polygonia gracilis, zephyrus and oreas.  Likewise I am unaware of any clear and unambiguous published way of distinguishing between the forms Hesperia comma and Hesperia colorado, and why they are different at the species level.

  Because of these difficulties, from this point and until I learn of further information, I am henceforth treating all reports of the first group on this site under the label Hoary Comma Polygonia gracilis, and all reports of the second group under the label Branded Skipper Hesperia comma.   (The latter species is known in the U.K. as the Silver-spotted Skipper – a name that is used in North America for a quite different species.)  Viewers of this site looking for records of these species should bear this in mind.  We would be very glad to hear from viewers who can give us some further guidance on these species, on how we can distinguish between them, and if any of the photographs on this site should be relabelled.

Hoary Comma Polygonia gracilis (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Aziza Cooper

Branded Skipper Hesperia comma (Lep.: Hesperiidae) Aziza Cooper

Mariposa Copper Lycaena mariposa (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

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

   Gordon Hart sends a photograph of a female Striped Meadowhawk Sympetrum pallipes. We are grateful to Rob Cannings for identifying it for us.

Striped Meadowhawk Sympetrum pallipes (Odo.: Libellulidae) Gordon Hart

2017 August 22

   Jeff Gaskin writes:  Yesterday, August 21, just after 5 p.m. Kirsten Mills and I had 2 Red Admirals and 4 Painted Ladies on Mount Tolmie.  Most of the ladies looked very faded. Also, yesterday in Playfair Park, were 3 Lorquin’s Admirals in the flower garden.

    Kirsten Mills also reports that she had a Western Tiger Swallowtail in the parking lot at the Butchart Gardens.  Also, there were 3 Pine Whites.

  Jeremy Tatum writes: I visited McIntyre reservoir this morning.  I think if one were to make a determined and persistent count of the Cabbage Whites around the reservoir and in the surrounding brussels sprouts fields, one would come up with several hundred, and quite possibly a thousand, Cabbage Whites.  I didn’t see any other butterfly species there, but it is still very much worth a visit – see Jeff’s account of his visit there in yesterday’s posting. 

  Jody Wells sends photographs of what he describes as two colour varieties of  “looks like a grasshopper — flies looking like a butterfly”.  Claudia Copley and Jeremy Tatum agree that these are indeed two colour varieties of Dissosteira carolina.  This species has been given several names, such as Carolina Grasshopper, Carolina Locust and Mourning Cloak Grasshopper  –  the latter because, when in flight, it can indeed be mistaken at first for a Mourning Cloak butterfly.

Dissosteira carolina (Orth.: Acrididae)  Jody Wells

Dissosteira carolina (Orth.: Acrididae)  Jody Wells

   Jody also sends a picture of a Sympetrum dragonfly from Martindale.  Rob Cannings writes: Gosh, Jeremy, I’m not sure. Few of the really useful characters are in view, although colour of wing venation and stigma, the black on sides of abdomen, elimination of other species, and the fact that it’s by far the most common Sympetrum in late summer in our area suggest that it’s a Striped Meadowhawk S. pallipes. Even a glimpse of the dorsal surface of the thorax (let alone the sides) would show it’s that species or not. Anyway, that’s my guess. 

Sympetrum sp. (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Jody Wells

2017 August 21

   Thanks to Claudia Copley for identifying Nathan Fisk’s August 17 grasshopper to genus level.  Scroll down to August 17 to see.

   Jeff Gaskin writes:   Yesterday, August 20, while I was at McIntyre Road reservoir there were at least 2 Orange Sulphurs amongst the flowers. Also here were no fewer than 7 Painted Ladies, a Ringlet or Large Heath, 3 Purplish Coppers, an Anise Swallowtail a few Woodland Skippers and numerous Cabbage Whites.  Another Orange Sulphur was along Martindale Road about half way down.

Today, August 21, there was a Western Tiger Swallowtail at the Capital City Allotment Gardens on Kent Road right next to the Pat Bay Highway.

2017 August 20

   Jochen Moehr writes:  On Friday, August 18, Chris and I were shovelling at least three cubic metres of hog manure into the base of our newly installed raised beds in Metchosin.  A diversion for me was this beetle that approached us on the cedar of our bed frames.  Thanks to Scott Gilmore for identifying it as Leptura obliterata.

Leptura obliterata (Col.: Cerambycidae)  Jochen Moehr

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I didn’t have to wait long to see the next instar of the Yellow Woolly Bear caterpillar shown on August 18.  It changed its skin (and ate the very hairy old one!) the following day.

Yellow Woolly Bear Spilosoma virginica (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Jeremy Tatum

    Jeff Gaskin writes:  Yesterday,  August 19, at Royal Roads University there were 3 Painted Ladies, 2 Pine Whites, a few Cabbage Whites and many Woodland Skippers.

Along Highland Road next to Thetis Lake Park there were 12 Woodland Skippers, a few Cabbage Whites and one Lorquin’s Admiral.

Val George writes:  This Alfalfa Looper Autographa californica was at Island View Road today, August 20.

Autographa californica (Lep.: Noctuidae – Plusiinae)  Val George

Jeremy Tatum writes that in this, which may (?) be the last of the little notes I am writing about names, I address two points about English names.  As we all know, some insects have been given many different English names by different authors, and there is often no general agreement as to what “ought” to be the “correct” name.  I’m not going to deal with that here, but with two other points.  The first is that, when you use an English name, it should be written with first letters capitalized.  Thus Brown Elfin, not brown elfin. This is a very important point, and I think most viewers, on reflection, will see that there is a distinction between a Brown Elfin and a brown elfin.  A Moss’s Elfin, one must agree, is a brown elfin; but it is not a Brown Elfin.  So please, capitalize the first letters of English names.  Exception:  The second word of a hyphenated pair is not capitalized:  Thus, Eight-spotted Skimmer, not Eight-Spotted Skimmer.

The second point is a smaller one, but perhaps worth making.  In forestry, agriculture and horticulture circles, where the larval forms of some insects are of “economic importance”  (i.e. are regarded as pests!), insects are often given English names after their larval forms.  For example, Variegated Cutworm, Imported Cabbageworm, and even Alfalfa Looper!   It is more often preferred, in natural history circles, to name an insect after the adult form.  This, instead of Variegated Cutworm (it is of course not a worm!), we use Pearly Underwing, and instead of Imported Cabbageworm (horrible name!) we use Cabbage White (or, in the UK, Small White – not small white!).  This is not an invariable rule; rather it is a traditional preference.  There are exceptions – for example we often refer to the hairy caterpillars of arctiine moths as “woolly bears”, and even name the species for their caterpillars:  Yellow Woolly Bear, Banded Woolly Bear, etc. The name “woolly bear”, however, shouldn’t be given to any hairy caterpillar, but only to those of the Subfamily Arctiinae.  After all, “arctiine” means “bear-like”.

As to how many ells you put in “wooly” and “shoveling”, it depends on which side of the border you live!