2017 September 6

 

   Jochen Moehr sends a photograph of a grasshopper in Metchosin, September 3.  He writes that they are very common there, and one is rarely out of earshot of a performer.  Thanks to Claudia Copley for identifying it for us as a Crackling Forest Grasshopper Trimerotropis verruculata.

 

Trimerotropis verruculata (Orth.: Acrididae)  Jochen Moehr

 

 

   Val George writes:  Bryan Gates and I were on Mount Washington on September 4 checking out the banded Grey Jays when we saw this butterfly.  A tough identification, but I’m pretty sure it’s a Hoary Comma Polygonia gracilis. 

 

   Jeremy Tatum comments:  I am more than happy to label this as a Hoary Comma Polygonia gracilis.  As described on the August 28 posting, I am for the time being treating the forms gracilis, zephyrus and oreas as conspecific under the name gracilis.  Val’s photograph shows very well the “greenish yellow submarginal spots” described by Guppy and Shepard under the name zephyrus.  What is not clear is whether these spots are specific to the form zephyrus, or whether they may also occur in the other forms.

 

Hoary Comma Polygonia gracilis (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Val George

 

   Jeff Gaskin writes that there was a lone Lorquin’s Admiral on the Cedar Hill Golf Course today, September 6, at just about 9:15 a.m.  It was on the right hand side of the course just south of the club house.

 

  Jeremy Tatum writes that at the back door of his apartment this morning were 2 Neoalcis californiaria  and 1 Drepanulatrix monicaria – both out of camera reach, unfortunately.