2023 August 15

   Jeff Gaskin writes:

Yesterday, August 14, I went up to Christmas Hill.  For about 45 minutes after reaching the top I saw nothing.  Then the butterflies started to appear just before 6 p.m.  First, I saw a Painted Lady and then two more Painted Ladies showed up,  and then finally at 6:15 p.m. the butterfly I was waiting for showed up, a Red Admiral.

Today, August 15, I saw just three species of butterflies at Swan Lake.  They included a Lorquin’s Admiral,  still in pretty good condition near the floating board walk, 31 Woodland Skippers, 30 of them were on asters which were newly planted on Nelthorpe Street. and three Cabbage Whites.

The dragonflies I saw at Swan Lake included at least three Black Saddlebags. The others included a dozen or more Blue Dashers,  a Western Pondhawk,  four Eight-spotted Skimmers, a few Paddle-tailed Darners, and some Blue-eyed Darners.

Gordon Hart writes:

We had at least two Pine Whites yesterday here at home in the Highlands, Monday August 14, nectaring on a white Hydrangea. There was also a Lorquin’s Admiral and a few Woodland Skippers. The previous day, Sunday, August 13, we visited the Horticultural Centre of the Pacific (HCP) Gardens, and saw a Black Saddlebags and some Tule Bluets in the pond by the Japanese Garden. In a flowering bush nearby, amongst the Woodland Skippers and bumble bees, mostly Yellow-faced Bees B. vosnosenskii, there was a Western Conifer Seed Bug Leptoglossus occidentalis, and a long-horned bee Melissodes sp., carrying pollen on its hind legs.

Long-horned Bee Melissodes sp. (Hym.: Apidae)  Gordon Hart

Male Pine White Neophasia menapia  (Lep.: Pieridae)
Gordon Hart
(plus small bee if you look carefully)

Western Conifer Seed Bug  Leptoglossus occidentalis
(Hem.: Coreidae)
Gordon Hart

Aziza Cooper writes: On Sunday, Aug. 13, at Swan Lake there was a large grasshopper [kindly identified for us by James Miskelly as a Two-striped Grasshopper Melanoplus bivittatus] and some big globe-like webs [Fall Webworm] in a cottonwood tree. At Mount Tolmie in the late afternoon there were two Painted Ladies and one Red Admiral.

On Monday, Aug. 14, at McIntyre reservoir there was an insect on Queen Anne’s Lace (Wild Carrot).

Today, Aug. 15, at the trail north of Blenkinsop Lake there was one Western Tiger Swallowtail and three Cabbage Whites.

Melanoplus bivittatus  (Orth.: Acrididae)  Aziza Cooper

Possibly Halictus sp. (Hym.: Halictidae)  Aziza Cooper

Fall Webworm Hyphantria cunea  (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Aziza Cooper