2017 June 30 evening

   Jeff Gaskin writes:  The West Coast Lady was still on the concrete reservoir on Mount Tolmie as of 5:30 pm, June 29.  Nearby were two Red Admirals as well as several Painted Ladies and other butterflies.

Mike Yip writes:  I flushed this fairly large moth from a grassy area next to a forested area in my yard today.  Jeremy Tatum writes:  Nice find!  It is a Rough Prominent, a notodontid.  Larval foodplant Garry Oak.

Rough Prominent Nadata gibbosa (Lep.: Notodontidae)  Mike Yip

2017 July 30 morning

   Monthly Butterfly Walk The monthly butterfly walk will be this Sunday, July 2.  We will meet at Mount Tolmie at 1 p.m.. You can park at the main parking lot north of the summit, or in the lot by the reservoir where we will have an initial look for butterflies and then decide where to go from there.
Hope to see you Sunday!
-Gordon Hart

Jeremy Tatum writes: If more photographs of observations come in during the day, I may get round to posting them this evening, but I thought I’d better get Gordon’s notice up now.

Also…

Invert Alert Temporary Close-down.  I shall be going away on holiday from July 6 – 22, and it is very unlikely that I shall be able to run Invert Alert during that period.  It may be difficult for me to deal with hundreds of contributions when I get back, so maybe go easy on the number of photos of our most frequently-photographed insects.  However, we don’t want to lose exciting or rare observations, so by all means send in a few of your most exciting photos when I get back. 

2017 June 29

   Ron Flower writes:  We were out on West Saanich Road today (June 28) and did some more hunting for Field Crescents.  We found another population in a field close to Woodwind Farm. There is a small native graveyard on the left side of the road heading north on West Saanich Road before Woodwind. The field to the left of the graveyard holds the crescents. I don’t know the ethics of reporting this location so I will leave that dilemma up to you, but it’s good to know that the population seems to be holding its own.

Jeremy Tatum replies:  I haven’t thought much about the ethics, either, and so I’d welcome any comments from viewers. One danger in reporting sites of rare butterflies is that it brings them to the attention of butterfly collectors – we don’t want to see any butterfly nets being wielded.  Or if the site is on private property, we must respect property rights. The graveyard in question is presumably not only First Nations property, but is sacred to them, and permission should be sought.

Although the Field Crescent is regarded now as locally rare, this was not always so.  It was a not uncommon butterfly fifty years ago.  They were even in Uplands Park.

Val George writes:  This afternoon, June 28, I walked the railway track at Cowichan Station to look for Margined Whites Pieris marginalis.  I counted 7 or 8.  Other butterflies there:  At least a dozen Western Tiger Swallowtails, 1 Pale Tiger Swallowtail, 3 Lorquin’s Admirals, 1 Red Admiral, 2 Cabbage Whites.

Margined White Pieris marginalis (Lep.: Pieridae)  Val George

 Margined White Pieris marginalis (Lep.: Pieridae)  Val George

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  Exciting!   I think the first one is resting on Dame’s Rocket – one of the larval foodplants.  The second is nectaring at Herb Robert – something they apparently like to do.  These are both completely immaculate.  The ones I saw earlier this year had the underside veins strongly accentuated with grey.  I believe there are two generations per year (bivoltine), and that the difference is a generational difference.  Future observations (and photographs of this quality!) will tell.

Jeremy Tatum writes:  Huge numbers of Essex Skippers at Panama Flats this afternoon.  This evening at Mount Tolmie, the usual bunch – several Painted Ladies, Lorquin’s and Red Admirals, Western Tiger Swallowtails, and a West Coast Lady.

   Nick Doe sends a photograph of a male Mylitta Crescent taken on Gabriola Island a few days ago. He writes that they’re quite common in the woods he frequents and they often pose nicely for the camera.

  Mylitta Crescent Phyciodes mylitta (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Nick Doe

   Rosemary Jorna writes: This Golden Bupestrid Beetle Bupestris aurulenta joined us on the neighbours’ deck in the Kemp Lake area June  29 2017. It even let me get in for a close up.

Golden Bupestrid Bupestris aurulenta (Col.: Bupestridae)  Rosemary Jorna

Golden Bupestrid Bupestris aurulenta (Col.: Bupestridae)  Rosemary Jorna

   Rosemary also sends a photograph of a caterpillar from nearby.

Silver-spotted Tiger Moth Lophocampa argentata (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiidae)

Rosemary Jorna

2017 June 28

   Re the Cakile species on which are seen Cabbage White eggs on Jochen Moehr’s June 26 photographs, here’s what Nathan Fisk writes:  Seeing the leaves would help but this photo shows “silicles usually expanded at the joints into projecting wings” – ‎which would put this as C. maritima. It’d be good to see the leaves before I stake my reputation on that ID.  Jeremy Tatum writes:  Thank you, Nathan.  That’s good enough.  I suspect the butterfly isn’t very particular as to which species of Cakile she lays her eggs on.  Cabbage Whites choose a wide variety of Brassicaceae – not just our garden cabbages!

   Samantha Hatfield sends a photograph of a Western Tiger Swallowtail from the North Jubilee area.

Western Tiger Swallowtail Papilio rutulus (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Samantha Hatfield

2017 June 27

   No response yet for our appeal for an opinion on Peter Boon’s commas on Mount Becher (June 25 entry), but Peter has managed to get a good photograph of the underside, and I think most of us would now agree that the butterfly is the Hoary (“Zephyr”) Comma Polygonia gracilis zephyrus (which Guppy and Shepard list as a full species). [Added later:  Mike Yip concurs.]

Hoary (“Zephyr”) Comma Polygonia gracilis zephyrus (Lep.: Nymphalidae)

Peter Boon

Has anyone seen any Satyr Commas recently?  This used to be one of our commonest butterflies, but it now seems to have disappeared.

Nick Doe sends a photograph of a Polyphemus Moth from Gabriola Island.

Polyphemus Moth Antheraea polyphemus

(Lep.: Saturniidae)

Nick Doe