2024 May 29

Scott Fowler found this spectacular, but unfortunately dead, Ceanothus Silk Moth along Forest Hill Road,  May 18.

Hyalophora euryalus  (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Scott Fowler

   No Butterflies. There have been no butterflies reported to this site since May 23.  Is this a real lack of butterflies, or just a lack of reporting?   I have not been out a great deal, writes Jeremy Tatum, though I haven’t seen any myself.  What are others finding?

2024 May 28

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  During the Uplands Park Insect Bioblitz on May 12, I found a small caterpillar on dogwood.  It has now transformed into an adult moth, kindly identified by Dr Jason Dombroskie as Pandemis cerasana, shown below.

Pandemis cerasana  (Lep.: Tortricidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Here’s a caterpillar found on a blackberry bush near Blenkinsop Lake:

Aseptis binotata  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

2024 May 27

   Jeremy Tatum writes: This crane fly flew into my bedroom yesterday.  It is not the usual European Tipula paludosa, but a large, handsome native Tipula pubera.

 Tipula pubera (Dip.: Tipulidae)   Jeremy Tatum

2024 May 26

   In contrast to the particularly strikingly-patterned snout moth Hypena bijugalis shown on May 24, this snout is almost without any pattern.  Because of its lack of pattern, it was difficult to identify, but Jeremy Tatum and Libby Avis agree that it is Hypena californica.  Both of these snout moths were reared from caterpillars found within a few yards of each other along the Lochside Trail north of Blenkinsop Lake.  The bijugalis caterpillar was found last fall feeding on dogwood.  It spent the winter as a pupa, and the moth emerged two days ago.  The californica caterpillar was found just a few weeks ago feeding on nettle.  The adult moth emerged just two days after the emergence of the bijugalis.

You can see why they are called snouts.

Hypena californica (Lep.: Erebidae – Hypeninae)   Jeremy Tatum

2024 May 24

Heather Trondsen sent this photograph of a moth pupa that she found in her Sooke garden under a bunch of maple leaves.  It is difficult to identify a moth from its pupa, but Jeremy Tatum makes a wild guess at possibly the hawk moth Smerinthus ophthalmica.  If it is, the foodplant was unlikely to be maple – they usually feed on willow.  We shall see, in due course, what it turns out to be.

Possibly Smerinthus ophthalmica? (Lep.: Sphingidae)   Heather Trondsen

Jeremy Tatum found the caterpillar of the moth below on Cornus stolonifera along the Lochside Trail between Blenkinsop Lake and Lohbrunners last September. The caterpillar is shown on the posting for 2023 September 12.  The adult moth emerged today, May 24, and was released near where the caterpillar was found.

Female Hypena bijugalis  (Lep.: Erebidae – Hypeninae)     Jeremy Tatum