2021 March 31 morning

 

   Jeff Gaskin writes:  On March 29 I saw a Sara Orangetip at the Mill Bay ferry terminal, and a Cabbage White was near the Duncan sewage lagoons also on March 29.

 

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  While I, as an astronomer, insist that Spring starts when the declination of the Sun is zero degrees, which was on March 20, there are many who regard Spring as starting when the first Orangetip of the year is seen.

 

    Charlene Wood sends a photograph of a small staphylinid beetle.  She writes:  The staph found on my property on March 29 was a female Philonthus cognatus. In the Camosun neighbourhood of Saanich, near the greenway on King’s Road.  This introduced species bears a characteristic first antennal segment that is bicolored, with yellow below and black above. The head, pronotum, and elytra are slightly metallic with a greenish lustre. ~10 mm long. 

 

Philonthus cognatus (Col.: Staphylinidae)  Charlene Wood