2019 May 6 morning

 

   (There was no May 5 posting, in case you are looking for it.)

   Jochen Möhr’s Metchosin haul for May 5 and 6:

             May 5                                                                                               May 6

6 Melanolophia imitata                                                                 6 Eupithecias

4 Venusia obsoleta                                                                           5 Venusia obsoleta

3 Eupithecias                                                                                      3 Orthosia transparens

2 Hydriomena manzanita                                                             2 Behrensia conchiformis

2 Orthosia transparens                                                                 One each of:

2 Perizoma curvilinea                                                                    Hydriomena manzanita

One each of:                                                                                                 Lobophora nivigerata

Behrensia conchiformis                                                                  Melanolophia imitata

Egira crucialis                                                                                   Perizoma costiguttata

Pheosia californica (images below)                                                Pheosia californica

Xanthorhoe defensaria                                                                  Phyllodesma americana

Selenia alciphearia                                                                         Selenia alciphearia

                                                                                                                Tyria jacobaeae

                                                                                                                Xanthorhoe defensaria

 

 

   Jeremy Tatum remarks:  The taxonomists have been uncertain about the genus Pheosia for as long as I remember.  Three names have appeared in the literature:  P. rimosa, portlandia and californica, but whether these are full species, subspecies or mere synonyms changes from year to year.  Jochen’s specimen mostly resembles the form currently called P. californica, although on this site we have been calling similar forms P. rimosa.   I’ll play it safe and label it Pheosia sp.  It’s a very nice moth.

 

Pheosia sp. (Lep.: Notodontidae)  Jochen Möhr

Pheosia sp. (Lep.: Notodontidae)  Jochen Möhr

Selenia alciphearia (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 

      Rosemary Jorna writes:  There were 2  Grey Hairstreaks  and  1 Western Spring Azure flying on the old Tin Can Trail up Peden Bluff in the Sooke Hills.

Grey Hairstreak Strymon melinus (Lep.: Lycaenidae) Rosemary Jorna

 

 

   Rosemary writes:  There were 15 or more of these little fairy moths  at different locations along the same trail up Peden Bluff.

Adela trigrapha (Lep.: Incurvariidae)  Rosemary Jorna

 

   Rosemary continues:  One more moth from Peden Bluff today:

Eupithecia cretaceata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Rosemary Jorna

 

      Jeremy Tatum writes:   I found this beetle on Mount Douglas on May 3.  At first glance I thought it was another Eleodes (see April 30), but, if you look closely, you will see several differences.   Thanks to Charlene Wood for identifying it as Coniontis ovalis.

 

Coniontis ovalis (Col.: Tenebrionidae)   Jeremy Tatum

 

   In spite of the recent great dearth of butterflies in the area, six enthusiasts turned up for the May Butterfly Walk.  Although only a very modest number of butterflies were seen, two of our party were relative newcomers to butterflies and they saw a few “lifers”!  Starting at Mount Tolmie, we saw

2 Western Spring Azures, 2 Cabbage Whites and 1 Propertius Duskywing. Moving on to Munn Road powerlines and Pike Lake Substation, we saw 3 Sara Orangetips, 15 Western Spring Azures, 1 Western Brown Elfin, 2 Propertius Duskywings, 1 Cabbage White, and a pair of Tiger Swallowtails in copula.  Just to illustrate to newcomers that even the experts are not always certain of which butterflies they are seeing, it took us quite a long time before we agreed that they were Pale Tiger Swallowtails, the first of the year, I think, for most of us.

   On the way back, some of us stopped at the Colwood cut-off hoping to see some early Silvery Blues.  Although there were a few blues there, and one of them might have been a Silvery Blue, “might have been” is not quite good enough, so we’ll have to wait another week or so.  The lupins were showing no signs of flowers yet.  For the record, first dates for this butterfly in the last four years have been rather

erratic:  2015 May 16, 2016 May 1, 2017 May,20, 2018 April 25.

  Finally, when we got back to Mount Tolmie, a California Tortoiseshell was obligingly basking on the reservoir for us.

   Here’s a picture of a dragonfly photographed near the Pike Lake power station during the  trip:

Four-spotted Skimmer Libellula quadrimaculata (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Val George