2021 July 31

    Gordon Hart writes:      A reminder that the VNHS August Butterfly Walk will take place on Sunday, August 1, as described in the VNHS calendar. We will meet at 1 p.m. by the reservoir near the Mount Tolmie summit, where we will decide on a destination. Royal Roads has been suggested where we could find several species around the grounds and in the gardens.

 

To which Jeremy Tatum adds:  This summer we haven’t usually had to bother with adding the proviso that a butterfly walk requires sunny weather.  Today, however, we have seen some unaccustomed clouds and even a little rain, so it is best to be reminded that, if it is cloudy and raining, the butterfly walk will be off!  I’ll go up to Mount Tolmie at 1:00 pm anyway.

 

Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning.  The third one is a little bit worn, so we can’t be quite certain of the identification.

 

Alucita montana (Lep.: Alucitidae)  Jochen Möhr

Idaea dimidiata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 

Possibly Protitame subalbaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 

Jeremy Tatum writes:  Earlier this year I mentioned that a care home in Victoria had obtained two dozen commercially-reared caterpillars of the Painted Lady, feeding on something that looked a bit like mashed potato. Most of these successfully produced adult butterflies and were duly released.  Viewers may have noticed an article in today’s (July 31) Times-Colonist, page A4, saying that 1000 Painted Ladies had been released at 24 care homes across BC, including one in Sidney, apparently in honour of Covid-19 victims.  These butterflies had apparently been shipped, as adults, from a firm in Edmonton that raises them.