{"id":10111,"date":"2020-03-19T16:49:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T23:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=10111"},"modified":"2020-03-19T19:36:45","modified_gmt":"2020-03-20T02:36:45","slug":"march-19-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=10111","title":{"rendered":"March 19"},"content":{"rendered":"
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2020 March 19<\/strong><\/p>\n

   Welcome to Spring!  The Sun crosses the equator from south to north at 8:49 pm PDT this evening. Appropriately, there were a number of butterfly<\/strong> sightings yesterday:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

  Val George writes:  I  saw my first butterflies of the season yesterday afternoon, March 18:  Two California Tortoiseshells<\/strong> at the summit of Mount Tolmie, one on the reservoir, the other by the Jeffery Pine.   They were definitely two different insects, as the photos show.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

California Tortoiseshell Nymphalis californica <\/em>(Lep.: Nymphalidae)   Val George<\/p>\n

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California Tortoiseshell Nymphalis californica <\/em>(Lep.: Nymphalidae)   Val George<\/p>\n

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   Jochen M\u00f6hr writes from Metchison:  When I came home yesterday, there was a Satyr Comma<\/strong> enjoying the the warm gravel on our driveway.  <\/p>\n

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Satyr Comma Polygonia satyrus <\/em>(Lep.: Nymphalidae)   Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    Gordon Hart wrote yesterday  March 18 from Highlands:  We had a Mourning Cloak<\/strong> fly by and stop briefly. Unfortunately, my camera was in the house, so I was unable to get a photo. That makes three species of butterfly in 2020, and no pictures of any of them!  I did see lots of bees and moths as well. I have attached a picture of Epirrhoe plebeculata<\/em><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I have been trying to find the caterpillar of E.<\/em>  <\/em>plebeculata<\/em> for years.  If anyone sees this moth (common in March and April) please keep a lookout for oviposition!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


<\/em><\/p>\n

Epirrhoe plebeculata <\/em>(Lep.: Geometridae)   Gordon Hart<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

   Jochen M\u00f6hr continues with his amazing run of moths at his Metchosin home.  Thus, this morning:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1 Acerra normalis<\/em><\/p>\n

8 Eupithecias<\/em> (including one probably ravocostaliata<\/em>)<\/p>\n

17 Hydriomena manzanita<\/em><\/p>\n

1 Lithophane innominata<\/em><\/p>\n

1 Lithophane pertorrida<\/em><\/p>\n

2 Orthosia praeses <\/em><\/p>\n

1 Triphosa haesitata <\/em><\/p>\n

2 Venusia obsoleta \/ pearsalli<\/em><\/p>\n

2 <\/em>unidentified micros<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

   Spurred on by this, writes Jeremy Tatum, I went to the Goldstream Park Nature House this morning, but, although the lights were on, the only moths were three Eupithecia<\/em> and one Venusia<\/em>.  Then I went to the Swan Lake Nature House.  The lights were on, but there were no moths at all.  Both Nature Houses are closed, because of the corona virus outbreak.   The moths are presumably paying attention.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

  Here is a sample of some of Jochen’s moths this morning.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


<\/em><\/p>\n

Acerra normalis <\/em>(Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n

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<\/em><\/p>\n

Acerra normalis <\/em>(Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n

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<\/em><\/p>\n

Lithophane pertorrida <\/em>(Lep.: Noctuidae) Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


<\/em><\/p>\n

Eupithecia nevadata\/ravocostaliata<\/em>  <\/em> (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

   The next one, we think, is a slightly worn Lithophane<\/em><\/strong>, but we can’t be absolutely certain whether it is L. innominata <\/em>or L. petulca<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


<\/em><\/p>\n

Lithophane innominata<\/em>\/petulca <\/em>(Lep.: Noctuidae) Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


<\/em><\/p>\n

Orthosia praeses <\/em>(Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


<\/em><\/p>\n

Venusia obsoleta<\/em>\/pearsalli<\/em>  <\/em> (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hypena californica <\/em>(Erebidae – Hypeninae) Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2020 March 19    Welcome to Spring!  The Sun crosses the equator from south to north at 8:49 pm PDT this evening. Appropriately, there were a number of butterfly sightings yesterday:     Val George writes:  I  saw my first butterflies of the season yesterday afternoon, March 18:  Two California Tortoiseshells at the summit of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-invertebrate-alert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}