{"id":13954,"date":"2021-05-14T16:40:09","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T23:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=13954"},"modified":"2021-05-14T17:04:53","modified_gmt":"2021-05-15T00:04:53","slug":"may-14-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=13954","title":{"rendered":"May 14"},"content":{"rendered":"
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2021 May 14<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Message from Gordon Hart:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Hello Butterfly Counters,<\/p>\n

Our May count will begin this Saturday, May 15, until Sunday, May 23. This is an informal census of numbers and species of butterflies found in Greater Victoria. At the end of the year, I will summarize the results for publication in The Victoria Naturalist<\/em> magazine. The count area is defined by the Christmas Bird Count circle, extending from Victoria to Brentwood Bay and Island View Road in Central Saanich, and west to Happy Valley and Triangle Mountain, and Langford Lake and Goldstream areas.<\/p>\n

You can submit a count any time over the count period; just use a separate form for each count and location. In the case of repeat or duplicate counts, I will use the higher numbers. To submit counts, please use the form on the VNHS website at: https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=33<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you have difficulty with the form, just send me an email with the information.<\/p>\n

Thank-you for submitting your sightings and good luck with your count.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gordon<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gordon Hart,<\/p>\n

Butterfly Count Coordinator,<\/p>\n

Victoria Natural History Society<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jeremy Tatum writes:\u00a0 Here is the pupa formed by the Hypena<\/em><\/strong> caterpillar shown on May 9.\u00a0 That reminds me that I had forgotten that I promised to say what special feature tells us that the caterpillar is Hypena<\/em>.\u00a0 Otherwise it is just an ordinary green caterpillar that could be almost anything.\u00a0 Most non-geometrid caterpillars have four pairs of mid-abdominal prolegs.\u00a0 A few (plusiines) have two, but if it has three, we are more or less restricted to Nola <\/em>\u00a0and Hypena<\/em>.\u00a0 If it is tiny, brown, very hairy, and feeds on alder, it is Nola<\/em>.\u00a0 If it is smooth, green, and feeds on nettle, it is Hypena<\/em>.\u00a0 When the moth emerges, we hope we’ll be able to determine the exact species.<\/p>\n

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Hypena <\/em>sp. (Lep.: Erebidae \u2013 Hypeninae)\u00a0 Jeremy Tatum<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0 Here is a Spotted Tiger Moth<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

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Spotted Tiger Moth Lophocampa maculata <\/em>(Lep.: Erebidae \u2013 Arctiinae)\u00a0\u00a0 Jeremy Tatum<\/p>\n

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Val George writes:\u00a0\u00a0 Yesterday afternoon, May 13, I walked the rail line at Cowichan Station for about an hour.\u00a0 Here’s the butterfly score: at least six Margined Whites<\/strong>; a dozen or so other white butterflies, at least some of them Cabbage Whites;<\/strong> three Western Spring Azures<\/strong>; two Satyr Commas<\/strong>; one Mylitta Crescent<\/strong>; one Western Tiger Swallowtail<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Jeremy Tatum writes:\u00a0 It is interesting that this species seems particularly to like nectaring at Herb Robert.\u00a0\u00a0 Indeed, if you are walking along the Cowichan railway line and are wondering if the white butterflies you are seeing are Cabbage Whites or Margined Whites, if they are nectaring on Herb Robert that’s a very good indication that they are Margined Whites.\u00a0 Also of interest is that Herb Robert is not a native plant, but is an introduced European one.<\/p>\n

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Margined White Pieris marginata <\/em>(Lep.: Pieridae)\u00a0 Val George<\/p>\n

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Margined White Pieris marginata <\/em>(Lep.: Pieridae)\u00a0 Val George<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0 Jochen M\u00f6hr sends photographs of two moths from Metchosin, May 12.<\/p>\n

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American Lappet Moth Phyllodesma americana <\/em> (Lep.: Lasiocampidae)\u00a0 Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n

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Smerinthus ophthalmica <\/em>(Lep.: Sphingidae)\u00a0 Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0 Jeremy Tatum writes:\u00a0 We used to call this moth Cerisy’s Eyed Hawk Moth, but now that the taxonomists believe that this species is distinct from S. cerisyi<\/em>, we don’t, as far as I know, have an English name for it.\u00a0 Suggestions, anyone?<\/p>\n

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

2021 May 14 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Message from Gordon Hart: \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hello Butterfly Counters, Our May count will begin this Saturday, May 15, until Sunday, May 23. This is an informal census of numbers and species of butterflies found in Greater Victoria. At the end of the year, I will summarize the results for publication […]<\/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-13954","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\/13954","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=13954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13961,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13954\/revisions\/13961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}