2020 March 29

 

  More on Rosemary Jorna’s empidid flies.  They were evidently capturing and killing other insects – but was it dinnertime, or did they have some other purpose?  Male empidid flies have a habit of catching other insects and presenting them to their girlfriends while courting, much as we attract our girlfriends with a bunch of flowers.  Rosemary obtained this photograph near Kemp Lake today.

 

Maybe Empis barbatoides (Dip.:  Empididae)  Rosemary Jorna

 

Jochen Möhr writes from Metchosin:

Thanks, Libby Avis, for going the extra mile in the effort to identify these moths!  

Here is today’s crop – to the best of my abilities.  

 

1 Egira crucialis

5 Eupithica sp.

2 Eupithecia ravocostaliata/nevadata

7 Hydriomena manzanita

1 Melanolophia imitata

2 Orthosia hibisci

1 Orthosia praeses

6 Venusia obsoleta/pearsalli

1 Xanthorhoe defensaria 

 

Orthosia praeses (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

 

Orthosia hibisci (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

 

Orthosia hibisci (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

 

Egira crucialis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

 

Melanolophia imitata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 

Xanthorhoe defensaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr