2024 September 7 evening

  Val George writes:  This morning, September 7, there were three moths on the walls of my Oak Bay house: an Autographa californica and 2 Drepanulatrix moths, D. monicaria , maybe secundaria? – maybe neither?

Jeremy Tatum writes:  These two Drepanulatrix species are so similar – especially as the variation within a species is greater than the difference between the two of them – that I sometimes wonder whether they really do deserve separate full species status.  I think I’ll label this one either/or, although I think there is a slightly greater probability that it is secundaria, so I’ll put that name first.

Autographa californica  (Lep.: Noctuidae – Plusiinae)  Val George

Drepanulatrix secundaria/monicaria  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Val George

    Jeff Gaskin reports that the Black Saddlebags that he reported on September 5 in Esquimalt Gorge Park was still there today, Sepember 7.