2016 May 1

   The VNHS had its monthly Butterfly Walk today.  An excellent day, but we are all (especially me, Jeremy Tatum) so exhausted after it, that we’ll postpone a report on it until tomorrow!

Jeff Gaskin reports a Mourning Cloak at Swan Lake, on the main trail in front of Saanich Municipal Hall on April 28.  He also reports four or more Silvery Blues along the highway (Sooke Road) on the lupins at the Colwood exit.

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I found this dragonfly nymph exuvia at Swan Lake on April 28.   Thank you to Rob Cannings for identifying it as a California Darner.

California Darner Rhionaeschna californica (Odo.: Aeshnidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Scott Gilmore found a couple of interesting beetles at Upper Lantzville on April 30.

 Helops laetus (Col.: Tenebrionidae) Scott Gilmore

Annie Pang sends a picture of a female Western Spring Azure, and a small bee, which L.R. Best suggests is a small carpenter bee of the genus Ceratina, and a brown lacewing.

Female Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Annie Pang

Small carpenter bee  Ceratina sp.(Hym.: Apidae)  Annie Pang

Brown lacewing (Neu.: Hemerobiidae)  Annie Pang

   Here is another view of the little reddish-brown moth that Ron Flower and Gordon Hart saw at Munn Road on April 27 (see April 29 posting).

Leptostales rubromarginaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ron Flower

Jeremy Tatum writes: Here is a caterpillar of Enargia infumata.  found between two cottonwood leaves along Lochside trail south of Blenkinsop Lake today.

Enargia infumata (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Here is a Spotted Tiger Moth from the campus of the University of Victoria today.

 Spotted Tiger Moth Lophocampa maculata (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Jeremy Tatum