2020 June 23

 

   Val George writes: Yesterday, June22, I went to Nanaimo River Road to find some Clodius Parnassians.  I saw three in the section of the road between 10 km and 15 km from the highway.  My main reason for the trip was to do some photography because I’ve never managed to get a decent photo of this species.  The attachment proves “mission accomplished”.

 

  Jeremy Tatum writes:  I’ll say it does!   Notice that there is no sign of checkering on the antennae.  This makes us think that maybe Ron Flower’s parnassian shown on May 27 afternoon might well have been Parnassius smintheus.  We’d welcome opinions (with reasons!).

 

Clodius Parnassian Parnassius clodius (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Val George

 

   Jeremy Tatum sends a photograph of Cucullia montanae.  You can see the “hood”  (Latin = cucullus) over the head of this one.  The caterpillar is often seen on the flowers of Grindelia at Island View Beach, although this one was found last year at Swan Lake, where the newly-emerged moth was released today.

 

Cucullia montanae (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

   Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

 

1 Eupithecia sp.

2 Pero sp.

5 Tyria jacobaeae

1 Venusia obsoleta/pearsalli

and the remains of 1 Panthea virginarius

 

Pero (perhaps morrisonaria) (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 

 

   Rosemary sends a picture of a bumblebee from the Kemp Lake area.

 

Bombus mixtus (Hym.: Apidae)  Rosemary Jorna

 

  Other difficult photos submitted today awaiting identification!  Will be posted sometime!