2021 June 21

    Dr Cara Gibson sends a photograph of a chrysalis of a Mourning Cloak that she found on a pepper plant on June 8.

Mourning Cloak Nymphalis antiopa (Lep.: Nymphalidae)

She also sends a photograph of a Polyphemus Moth, from just above the door of the Swan Lake Nature House on June 11.

Polyphemus Moth Antheraea polyphemus (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Cara Gibson

Val George sends a photograph of a crab spider from his Oak Bay garden, June 20.

Crab spider Misumena vatia (Ara.: Thomisidae)  Val George

Aziza Cooper writes:  Yesterday, Sunday, June 20, I found at least four Field Crescents in an overgrown field near the Tsartlip Cemetery on West Saanich Road. Two of the Crescents were mating.  One Essex Skipper was also there.

Access to the field is from the back left corner of the cemetery area.  It is choked with hawthorn and blackberry canes, so dress in heavy fabrics! The path is a game trail which curves eventually to the left where there is an opening with the butterflies. The Tsartlip Cemetery is just south of the Our Lady of Assumption Church Cemetery.

I didn’t visit the other known sites for Field Crescents, including Eddy’s Self Storage on Stelly’s Cross Road.  Next door to that site are two big new apartment buildings built on former fields.

[Jeremy Tatum writes:  This butterfly has borne several scientific names.  There are difficulties in frequently changing the name on this site, so we are retaining the name pratensis.  An alternative name is P. pulchella.]

Field Crescent Phyciodes pratensis (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Aziza Cooper

Field Crescents Phyciodes pratensis (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Aziza Cooper

Field Crescents Phyciodes pratensis (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Aziza Cooper

Essex Skipper Thymelicus lineola (Lep.: Hesperiidae)   Aziza Cooper

Jeremy Tatum sends a photograph of a caterpillar from a willow at Durrance Lake.  The moth resulting from this caterpillar will spend the winter in the adult state, and will then be one of the first moths to herald in the spring next year – hence the name Herald for this moth.

Herald Moth  Scoliopteryx libatrix (Lep.: Erebidae – Scoliopteryginae)   Jeremy Tatum