2020 May 28 morning

 

   Colias alert!  Val  George writes:  Yesterday afternoon, May 27 in the parking lot at Goldstream Park, I was very surprised to see a species of butterfly I wouldn’t have expected in that habitat, and in any case it’s a rare species for this area. I was sitting in my car eating lunch when a sulphur (Colias sp.) butterfly flew past me.  Though it was only a few metres from me I was not able to identify it to the species level.

 

  Jeremy Tatum writes:  May we perhaps speculate?   The usual sulphur that we see (rarely) is the Orange Sulphur C. eurytheme.   Last time that we had an irruption of these, we were fairly sure that among them were also a few Clouded Sulphurs C. philodice.  But both of these are migratory species that we see occasionally at the very end of summer.   I can’t offhand remember any sightings for May.  So perhaps Val’s butterfly might be the resident (up-Island) Western Sulphur C. occidentalis.  In any case let’s all keep an eye out for whatever it is!

 

   Gordon Hart writes:  There were a few butterflies and moths around home yesterday, Wednesday, May 27. A Pale Tiger Swallowtail, and a Western Tiger Swallowtail, two Cedar Hairstreaks, four or more Western Spring Azures, and a Propertius Duskywing.  There were several small plain moths, and one Helicopter Moth ( I think that is their common name),  Emmelina monodactyla. At Panama Flats yesterday, we saw several Cabbage Whites and a faded Painted Lady, as well as a damselfly, Tule Bluet Enallagma carunculatum.

 

  Jeremy Tatum writes:  I hadn’t heard the name “Helicopter Moth”, but that sounds good.  I have been calling them privately the Rumpel Taube (Dove) after a very early German monoplane.  The caterpillars feed on the flowers of Calystegia.

 

Emmelina monodactyla (Lep.: Pterophoridae)  Gordon Hart

 

Propertius Duskywing Erynnis propertius (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Gordon Hart

 

Tule Bluet Enallagma carunculatum (Odo.: Coenagrionidae)  Gordon Hart