2020 April 20 afternoon

 

   Jochen Möhr writes from Metchosin:

 

   We have very regular visits of Sara Orangetips from about 11 am to 5 pm.  Yesterday, I watched continuously from 3:45 to 4:45, and in that hour counted 18 Sara Orangetips which gives an average interval of a bit over three minutes between sightings.  In reality the interval between sightings was more like five to twenty minutes, but repeatedly, I saw two or three simultaneously.  Some females hovered at length among the grasses and I think they were ovipositing. [The eggs are laid on Arabis glabra and other related brassicaceous plants (not cabbage!).  Jeremy Tatum]  I saw about 1 Western Spring Azure for every three orangetips, and only one single Cabbage White and one Comma all day. 

 

   But walking through the meadow, I got close to one Western Spring Azure and one Moss’s Elfin.

 

 

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

 

Moss’s Elfin Incisalia mossii (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Jochen Möhr

 

   Jochen continues:  Today, I watched from my deck from 10:45 to 11:45 AM.  In that hour, I had 19 sightings of Orangetips,with up to three simultaneously appearing.  I also saw two Western Spring Azures  and one white, presumably a Cabbage White, which engaged in a dance with one of the orangetips, both rising high above the tree tops.

 

   Jochen’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

 

1 Anticlea vasiliata

1 Behrensia conchiformis

4 Cladara limitaria 

1 Eupithecia graefii

1 Feralia comstocki

5 Hydriomena manzanita

4 Melanolophia imitata

1 Perizoma curvilinea

1 Schreckensteinia festaliella

1 Unidentified pyralid

2 Xanthorhoe defensaria

 

  Jeremy Tatum writes:  Schreckensteinia festaliella is quite a mouthful for a tiny moth scarcely larger than a House Fly.  The Family name, Schreckensteiniidae, is probably not familiar to everyone.  The caterpillar feeds on Salmonberry and Raspberry, so, if you grow Raspberries, you might see one occasionally.  You might even have eaten one.

 

Schreckensteinia festaliella (Lep.: Schreckensteiniidae)  Jochen Möhr

 

Feralia comstocki (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

 

Behrensia conchiformis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

 

Eupithecia graefii (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 

Xanthorhoe defensaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Johcen Möhr