2022 August 2 afternoon

    On July 15 we showed a photograph of a tiny Red Admiral  caterpillar.  On July 29 we showed what progress it had made by July 27.  (It was already a chrysalis.)  Let’s have a look and see if it has made any further progress today:

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta (Lep.: Nymphalidae)   Jeremy Tatum

It has emerged as an adult!   Unfortunately,  I had an appointment to keep and I was unable to spend the time to get a photograph of its beautiful upperside.  I released the butterfly on Buddleia in the Finnerty Gardens at UVic.   I saw two Woodland Skippers in the Gardens – the first I have seen this year.

 

   Jochen Möhr writes from Metchosin:  This morning’s lonely visitor at the light was what I think is Spargania magniolata.  [Libby Avis agrees!]

Spargania magniolata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

  Jeff Gaskin writes: 

  Kirsten Mills and I drove a lot around the Nanaimo logging roads yesterday, August 1st.  On Northwest Bay logging road we found 3 Hydaspe Fritillaries, 5 Common Wood Nymphs, 6 Pale and 4 Western Tiger Swallowtails and 17 Lorquin’s Admirals.

  On the roads up Mount Cokeley, we found an Anna’s Blue, 11 Hydaspe Fritillaries, 3 Pale and 7 Western Tiger Swallowtails, 2 Mourning Cloaks,  1 Satyr Comma and 10 Lorquin’s Admirals.

 Today, I saw a Western Tiger Swallowtail in Esquimalt Gorge Park.  Dragonflies I saw also in the park included a female Western Pondhawk, and a Blue-eyed Darner. I also saw a Common Whitetail along the Northwest Bay logging road.