2017 September 1 evening

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  August is gone, and every butterfly from now on counts!   I visited Martindale today, and there are still large numbers of Cabbage Whites there, but I also saw, in the Forbidden Field to the south of Martindale, two Orange Sulphurs.  [I watched them from the side of the road!]  There is a huge patch of Alfalfa in the Forbidden Field, especially near the L-reservoir, and I bet there are Orange Sulphurs there, perhaps even breeding.  But the Forbidden Field is the Forbidden Field.

  There was a worn but still strongly-flying Red Admiral just outside the entrance to the Mount Tolmie reservoir at 6:15 pm this evening.

  Here’s a photograph of a Lophocampa maculata caterpillar, from Goldstream Park.  We’ll be seeing lots of these in the next few weeks.

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

   Lots more interesting stuff in the pipeline, but it is going to have to wait until tomorrow.  I may be able to do a morning posting.

2017 September 1, morning

From Gordon Hart:  Monthly Butterfly Walk

This is a reminder for the VNHS monthly butterfly walk this Sunday, September 3.  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

Annie Pang echoes Jochen Moehr’s recent comments concerning the paucity of insects.   Annie’s concerns in particular are for bees.  She writes:  The folks I’m running into down at the Community Gardens and elsewhere are all remarking on the lack of bees this summer.  We do have “some” bees, but the troubling part is they are mostly just one species of bumblebee (Bombus vosnesenskii), and the non-indigenous Honey Bee (Apis mellifera), with only the very odd solitary bees, which appeared in remarkable numbers last summer.  A few of our local gardeners did see some in early spring which were the Blue Orchard bee (Osmia lignaria) and some Andrena species (Mining bees rather than Mason bees), and over the last few weeks I’ve seen a handful of Megachile (leaf-cutter bees), and 2….yep, count ’em….TWO….Anthidium bees.  Okay …so this may all be Chinese to most of you [more likely Latin and Greek – Jeremy Tatum], but what I’m saying here is that the native bee population is in serious trouble and there are just not that many Honey Bees to pick up the slack.

Annie continues: I have attached the best pictures of optimism I could find this summer in the shape of a wee butterfly that, during the last few weeks, has out-numbered our bees here!  The Woodland Skipper has been around in very good numbers and it is a good thing for pollination.  Although they do not carry the same amount of pollen by any means that a bee would, they do help with pollination by their very numbers.  And the sad lack of bees…..well, I’ve never seen so few.

Woodland Skipper Ochlodes sylvanoides (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Annie Pang

Woodland Skipper Ochlodes sylvanoides (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Annie Pang

Honey Bee Apis mellifera (Hym.: Apidae) Annie Pang

Lasioglossum sp. (Hym.: Halictidae)  Annie Pang

Jochen Moehr sends more pictures from Metchosin, August 31.  The first is a Tolype sp.   It seems likely that the species known as T. distincta may not be distinct from the species known as T. dayi.  Until this problem is sorted out, I am treating the two forms as conspecific, under the name Tolype distincta.

Tolype distincta (Lep.: Lasiocampidae)   Jochen Moehr

Ennomos magnaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Moehr

Woodland Skipper Ochlodes sylvanoides (Lep.: Hesperiidae) Jochen Moehr

Oligia divesta (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Moehr

Viewers will have noticed that we have had several reports and photographs of  Neoalcis californiara from various places, and Libby Avis reports that she is swamped with them in Port Alberni – e.g. 22 of them at a light three days ago.  Jochen, too, is finding them in Metchosin:

Neoalcis californiaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Moehr

Jeremy Tatum writes:  The only moth that my Saanich apartment rear door could come up with this morning was a rather worn Ipimorpha nanaimo:

Ipimorpha nanaimo (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

2017 August 31

   Jeremy Tatum writes:   Today I had another look at that Red Oak in Bow Park where I found those two large batches of Noctua pronuba eggs yesterday, and within seconds I found another two huge batches.  No wonder this introduced European moth species has become so common!

    Here are photographs of three moths by Jochen Moehr from Metchosin.  Thanks to Libby Avis for identifying the first two.  The third is another specimen (or perhaps even the same individual) of the one shown on August 27. A definitive identification has defeated both Libby Avis and Jeremy Tatum, and we are going to stick to Euxoa sp, although E. difformis is a good possibility.

Oligia [formerly Chytonix] divesta (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Moehr

Lacinipolia pensilis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Moehr

Euxoa sp. (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Moehr

    Jochen also sends photographs of a caterpillar and a bug, found yesterday in Craigflower Park.

Nadata gibbosa (Lep.: Notodontidae)  Jochen Moehr

Leptoglossus occidentalis (Hem.: Coreidae)  Jochen Moehr

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I visited the Goldtream Park Nature House this morning.  There were lots and lots of Neoalcis californiaria, but the moth below looked a little different:

Lambdina fiscellaria (Lep.: Geometridae)   Jeremy Tatum

   Later, I found two more of these, a long way from any buildings, sitting on a tree trunk:

Lambdina fiscellaria (Lep.: Geometridae)   Jeremy Tatum

Lambdina fiscellaria (Lep.: Geometridae)   Jeremy Tatum

   That’s all I have time for today.  More in the queue – to be done tomorrow!

2017 August 30

   Jochen Moehr writes from Metchosin:  At the North-eastern end of Duke Road in Metchosin, across from the bus stop, there is a nice stand of Jewel Weed (Impatiens capensis) on one side of the road.  It is a nice little micro eco system.  Ants cultivate crowds of aphids on the stems, which again are feasted on by what looks like Asian Lady beetles Harmonia axyridis, their larvae, by wasps and even flies.  I attach a few pictures taken there today, Tue. Aug. 29, 2017. 

Aphids and ants     Jochen Moehr

Aphids, a yellowjacket and a ladybird     Jochen Moehr

The ladybird is Harmonia axyridis.  The wasp is Vespula pensylvanica

Bombus vosnesenskii  (Hym.: Apidae)  Jochen Moehr

       We are grateful to Sean McCann for the identification of the wasp and the bee.

Ladybird larva (Col.: Coccinellidae)   Jochen Moehr

Ladybird pupae (Col.: Coccinellidae)   Jochen Moehr

Fly  (Dip.: Tachinidae)    Jochen Moehr

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  The slender unknown caterpillar that I showed on August 24 and 28 is now a little larger and it has turned out to be a species of Zale.

Zale sp.:  (Lep.: Erebidae – Erebinae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  On August 28 I showed a photograph of a batch of 596 ova of a Large Yellow Underwing moth from an Aspen leaf in Bow Park.  Today in a nearby Red Oak tree just a few yards away I found two more batches.  They were on adjacent leaves on the same twig, inches from each other.  On the other hand the two batches of eggs are different colours.  I leave the reader to speculate as to whether the two batches were laid by the some individual moth, or by two separate individuals.  It is interesting that, although the caterpillars of pronuba usually feed on low-growing herbs, the ova ore often (not invariably) laid on the leaf of a tree, allowing the newly-hatched larvae to drop down into the vegetation below.

1513 ova of a Large Yellow Underwing Noctua pronuba (Lep.: Noctuidae)

 Jeremy Tatum

1923 ova of a Large Yellow Underwing Noctua pronuba (Lep.: Noctuidae)

 Jeremy Tatum

   There’s more in the queue, but that’ll have to do for today.

2017 August 29

   Jeremy Gatten sends a couple of photographs and he writes: The first is from the morning of August 26th at my place in Saanichton: Brachylomia populi.  This species is primarily considered to be an east of the Cascades/Coast Mountains species, but there are some records from the west side.  For all I know, there might not be any previous records for Vancouver Island.  The next species is from the wee hours this morning (August 28th), also from my place.   It didn’t take long for me to figure out it was Euxoa perexcellens.   From the last few days I’ve had Tolype distincta, Euxoa obeliscoides and E. xanthographa, which are all attractive moths.  Too bad the latter species is introduced.

Brachylomia populi (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Gatten

Euxoa perexcellens (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Gatten

   Jeremy Gatten continues: I should also add that I had an Orange Sulphur at Island View Beach in the back fields (i.e., west of the beach and past the "wall" of hawthorn and shrubs).  Additionally, plenty of Vancouver Island Ringlets (Large Heaths) were present, along with many Woodland Skippers and a single Red Admiral.

  Jeff Gaskin writes:  This morning,  August 29, a Lorquin’s Admiral was seen by myself and the Tuesday Group at Swan Lake below the Saanich Municipal Hall.

  Jeremy Tatum asks:  What is worse than finding a worm in your apple?  Answer: Finding half a worm.  The “worm” in question is the caterpillar of the Codlin Moth. I found a whole one yesterday in a pear grown in Saanich.  A “codlin” was a variety of cooking apple, not often seen today – or at least not under that name.  The name “codling moth” is a misspelling.

Codlin Moth Cydia pomonella (Lep.: Tortricidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Scott Gilmore writes from Upper Lantzville:  I found this huge caterpillar on Red Alder on Sunday 27th.  Jeremy Tatum replies:  It is a Rough Prominent.  The usual foodplant is oak, though it is occasionally found on alder.  The yellow mandibles, seen so well on the second photograph, are a distinguishing feature.

Rough Prominent Nadata gibbosa (Lep.: Notodontidae)  Scott Gilmore

Rough Prominent Nadata gibbosa (Lep.: Notodontidae)  Scott Gilmore

Rough Prominent Nadata gibbosa (Lep.: Notodontidae)  Scott Gilmore

The end….

More pictures and observations tomorrow.