2023 May 3

   Three spiders photographed by Ian Cooper.  The first two are jumping spiders (Salticidae), about which Thomas Barbin writes:    The first photo could be Pelegrina aeneola or Metaphidippus manni.   I don’t think you can tell the two apart from that angle.  The second photo is a male Evarcha.  E. proszynskii is the likely species here.

Jumping spider, species uncertain (Ara.: Salticidae)  Ian Cooper

Evarcha (probably proszynskii) (Ara.: Salticidae)  Ian Cooper

Tibellus oblongus (Ara.:  Philodromidae)  Ian Cooper

   Aziza Cooper writes:  Today, May 3, at Beechey Head, there were three Western Pine Elfins and one Western Brown Elfin. At Aylard Farm there were three Western Spring Azures.  The Pine Elfins were on Lodgepole (“Shore”) Pine and on Kinnikinnik (Bearberry) a short distance away.  I’m sending a photo of a Pine Elfin on each plant. The Brown Elfin was only on Kinnikinnick.

  Jeremy Tatum remarks that Lodgepole Pine is the (only?) larval foodplant of the Western Pine Elfin, and that the obviously gravid female in the second picture below was probably ovipositing.  Likewise, Kinniknnick is a larval foodplant of the Western Brown Elfin.

Western Pine Elfin  Incisalia eryphon (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

 

Western Pine Elfin Incisalia eryphon (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

Western Brown Elfin  Incisalia iroides  (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

   Jeremy Tatum reports a California Tortoiseshell on the Mount Tolmie reservoir at 5:30 pm today.