2021 August 20

 Message from Gordon Hart:

 Hello, Butterfly Counters,

The August count period starts Saturday, August 21 until Sunday, August 29. This is an informal census of butterfly numbers and species in Greater Victoria. The area is defined by the Christmas Bird Count circle, extending from Victoria to Brentwood Bay and Island View Road in Central Saanich, and west to Happy Valley and Triangle Mountain, and Langford Lake and Goldstream areas.

You can submit a count any time over the count period, just use a separate form for each count and location. In the case of repeat or duplicate counts, I will use the higher numbers. To submit counts, please use the form from the VNHS website at https://www.vicnhs.bc.ca/?p=33 .

If you have difficulty with the form, just send me an email with the information.   hartgordon19 at gmail dot com

Thank-you for submitting your sightings and good luck with your count.

 

Gordon Hart,

Butterfly Count Coordinator,

Victoria Natural History Society

 

 

Jochen Möhr writes from Metchosin:

On Wednesday August 18:   1 Pine White and 2 Woodland Skippers

on Thursday August 19:       3 Pine Whites and 2 Woodland Skippers

 

and at the light:

on Wednesday 1 Noctua pronuba

and today 1 Elophila icciusalis

 

Jeremy Tatum writes:  Elophila icciusalis is a most interesting moth – its caterpillar lives underwater and feeds on pondweeds.    It looks like a problem to pronounce.  I’d pronounce the icci part something like ick-see.

Elophila icciusalis (Lep.: Crambidae)  Jochen Möhr

Elophila icciusalis (Lep.: Crambidae)  Jochen Möhr

 

Aziza Cooper sends photographs of two grasshoppers from Panama Flats, August 19.

 

Melanoplus (probably bivittatus) (Orth.: Acrididae)  Aziza Cooper

Melanoplus (probably bivittatus) (Orth.: Acrididae)  Aziza Cooper

 

Jody Wells sends a picture of a moth from Brentwood Bay, August 18:

Sabulodes aegrotata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jody Wells

 

and two photographs of a most fearsome-looking robber fly from Englishman River Estuary – Parksville Aug 17,  kindly identified for us by Dr Rob Cannings as Scleropogon bradleyi.

 

Scleropogon bradleyi (Dip.: Asilidae)  Jody Wells

Scleropogon bradleyi (Dip.: Asilidae)  Jody Wells

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  This is the time of year when we start to see several species of “woolly bear” caterpillars.  This one, from Swan Lake, is a penultimate instar of Hyphantria cunea, the “Fall Webworm”.  The caterpillars form huge silken webs, often in alder or willow trees.  It is amazing how these caterpillars, with their masses of long hairs, can walk around in these silken webs.  The head is downward in his photograph.

 

Hyphantria cunea (Lep.:  Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Jeremy Tatum