2020 May 5

 

   Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

 

1 Melanlophia imitata

2 Perizoma curvilinea

4 Tyria jacobaeae

1 Venusia obsoleta/pearsalli

 

    And he also saw some butterflies on his property!

 

3 Sara Orangetips

2 Western Spring Azures

1 Cabbage White

1 Propertius Duskywing  (a lifer for Jochen!)

 

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

 

Sara Orangetip Anthocharis sara (Lep.: Pieridae)  Jochen Möhr

 

Sara Orangetip Anthocharis sara (Lep.: Pieridae)  Jochen Möhr

 

   Jeremy Tatum sends a picture of a moth reared from a caterpillar found last year in East Sooke Park.  The caterpillar feeds on Stachys and also on the fern Blechnum.

 

Euplexis benesimilis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

  Laura Weir sends a photograph of a bunch of Sheep Moth caterpillars from Uplands Park.  If you find any of these caterpillars, you are advised not to handle them – they can give you a rash.  You have been warned.

 

Sheep Moth Hemileuca eglanterina (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Laura Weir

 

   Rosemay Jorna sends a photograph of a small soldier beetle from the Sooke Hills, May 4.  Thanks to Scott Gilmore for identifying it as Dichelotarsus sp.

 

 

Dichelotarsus sp. (Col.: Cantharidae)  Rosemary Jorna

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:   This afternoon I visited the pond near the Pike Lake Substation on Munn Road, and at one spot on the muddy shore there were about 50 (I counted 44, but missed some) Western Spring Azures mud-puddling, shoulder-to-shoulder in a space of just a few square feet.  Quite a spectacle.