2024 April 18

Marie O’Shaughnessy writes
April 17:  1 Cabbage White, Martindale Road; 1 Cabbage White, Outerbridge Park;  2 Sara Orangetips, Mount Douglas;  1 Western Spring Azure, (picture below) Mount Douglas.

Male Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

April 18:  Marie O’Shaughnessy and Geoffrey Newell saw the following in Uplands Park: 2 Mourning Cloaks, 2 Cabbage Whites, and 3 Western Spring Azures.

Val George writes: This White -ribboned Carpet Moth, Mesoleuca gratulata, was near the Hartland Landfill this afternoon, April 18. There was another of these moths in the same location. About a dozen Western Spring Azure butterflies were also in the general area.

White-ribboned Carpet Moth Mesoleuca gratulata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Val George

Jeremy Tatum writes:  The moth Epirrhoe plebeculata often flies in the same place and time as Mesoleuca gratulata.  While the immature stages of gratulata are well known (the caterpillar feeds on Rubus), I have never found the caterpillar of plebeculata.  Please watch for this moth, and see if you can catch it ovipositing.  See what plant it lays on.  I’d be very glad of an ovum in order to rear the caterpillar to adult.

2024 April 15 evening

   Although we had a warm day yesterday, with several butterflies seen, today there has been a bitterly cold wind, and no one hes reported any.  However I find that I overlooked an eletter from Gordon Hart yesterday, April 14, reporting that at his Highlands home he saw four Green Commas all at the same time in the late afternoon in a sunny patch. There were also Mourning Cloaks and Western Spring Azures.

Jeremy Tatum writes: Re Ken Vaughan’s comma butterfly reported in this morning’s Invert Alert, I’m still hoping for an expert opinion, but at the moment I am pretty much convinced that it is indeed an Oreas Comma.   Quite an exciting find!  Let us all keep a good look-out for this species.

2024 April 15 morning

Ian Cooper writes:  Here are a few more pictures from my April 12 excursion/photoshoot at *Colquitz River Park and the #GG Trail in View Royal:

I’m curious to see what, if anything, will emerge from this suspected spider egg sac, first spotted on a broken bit of blow-down branch by the 9 km marker on the GG trail in View Royal on March 29. To improve the egg sac’s chance of survival, I relocated the broken branch to a spot a little way up the embankment, where I stuck it into the leaflitter.

#Unknown spider egg sac      Ian Cooper

Below is the egg sac normally seen guarded by its mother, a Pimoa altioculata, whose pictures have appeared on this site previously. She fled from view as I tried to get a close up shot of her and her egg sac on the Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal.

#Egg sac of Pimoa altioculata (Ara.: Pimoidae)  Ian Cooper

*Common Chrysalis Snail – Lauria cylindracea – (Pul.: Lauriidae)   Ian Cooper

*Harvestman (Opiliones)   Ian Cooper

*Unidentified theridiid (cobweb weaver) (Ara.: Theridiidae) Ian Cooper
(Could this be another Rugathodes sexpunctatus?)

# Linyphiine spider (Ara.:  Linyphiidae – Linyphiinae)   Ian Cooper

Ken Vaughan sends this photograph of a comma from Mount Tolmie, April 14.    It is often quite difficult to identify commas from the upperside alone, so what do you think this one is?  Ken suggests oreas, and Gordon Hart points out the great similarity between Ken’s butterfly and the photograph of oreas in Yip and Miskelly’s book.  We therefore ask observers to keep a good look out for, and even make a special search for, any comma on Mount Tolmie, and try to get a glimpse of the underside.

Comma.  Is this Polygonia oreas?  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Ken Vaughan

   And, while on the subject of keeping a special lookout for particular butterflies, we need some sightings of Moss’s Elfin!

Aziza Cooper writes:  On April 12 at Beacon Hill Park, I saw one Western Spring Azure and one Cabbage White.   At Mount Tolmie reservoir on April 13 there were two California Tortoiseshells and one Mourning Cloak. A wasp was next to the reservoir.  At Beacon Hill Park on April 14 there was one Cabbage White.   The tortoiseshell below seems to be the same one that was photographed by Marie O’Shaughnessy a couple of days ago!

California Tortoiseshell  Nymphalis californica (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Aziza Cooper

Vespula germanica/pensylvanica  (Hym.: Vespidae)  Aziza Cooper