{"id":14675,"date":"2021-08-02T15:31:56","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T22:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=14675"},"modified":"2021-08-03T08:36:10","modified_gmt":"2021-08-03T15:36:10","slug":"2021-august-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=14675","title":{"rendered":"2021 August 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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2021 August 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>In spite of a great paucity of butterflies this year and especially the last week or so, and in spite of the oppressive heat and smoky atmosphere, six enthusiastic butterfly-watchers took part in the VNHS August Butterfly Walk yesterday.\u00a0 We chose to go to the Royal Roads University campus, with the target species being the Pine White<\/strong>.\u00a0 Even with few butterflies, it was really interesting to walk around the magnificent gardens there.\u00a0\u00a0 There were dozens of Woodland Skippers, <\/strong>especially on Lavendar blossom.\u00a0 <\/strong>There were, of course, Cabbage Whites, <\/strong>and there was a magnificent Western Tiger Swallowtail<\/strong>, which got several cameras a-clicking.\u00a0\u00a0 And near the end of the walk, just when we were despairing of seeing the target species, we found a male Pine White <\/strong>nectaring at ground level to give us all a good look.<\/p>\n

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Apart from butterflies, one of the more exciting things was a nest of the White-faced Hornet.\u00a0 <\/strong>Strictly speaking, I suppose, since it is Dolichovespula<\/em> and not Vespa<\/em>, I suppose we should call it a wasp rather than a hornet.\u00a0 Their sting is reputed to be very painful, but, as long as you leave them and their nest alone, they are not a particularly aggressive insect.<\/p>\n

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White-faced Hornet Dolichovespula maculata <\/em>(Hym.: Vespidae)\u00a0 Gordon Hart<\/p>\n

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There was a young man from Tralee<\/p>\n

Who was stung on the nose by a wasp.<\/p>\n

When asked : \u201cDoes it hurt?\u201d<\/p>\n

He replied: \u201cNo it doesn\u2019t \u2013<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a good thing it wasn\u2019t a hornet.\u201d<\/p>\n

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W.S.Gilbert<\/p>\n

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Here are three more photographs from Gordon Hart taken during the walk.\u00a0 Gordon writes:\u00a0 This is a Leafcutter Bee<\/strong>, Megachile<\/em> sp<\/strong>., but I can\u2019t go further than that. There are 130 -140 North American species plus some imports from Europe, and they are difficult to key out to species without having more structural details. I think it is a female if I counted the antenna segments correctly, but I don\u2019t know what the back end is supposed to look like. Apparently, they often assume that posture with the abdomen raised. The large head is to accommodate the large mandibles. A lot of them specialize on flowers of the aster family or legumes. This was on a large daisy which is in the aster family.<\/p>\n

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Leafcutter bee Megachile <\/em>sp. (Hym.: Megachilidae)\u00a0 Gordon Hart<\/p>\n

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Western Tiger Swallowtail Papilio rutulus <\/em>(Lep.: Papilionidae)
\nHoney Bee Apis mellifera <\/em>(Hym.: Apidae)<\/p>\n

Gordon Hart<\/p>\n

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Woodland Skipper Ochlodes sylvanoides <\/em>(Lep.: Hesperiidae)\u00a0 Gordon Hart<\/p>\n

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Jochen M\u00f6hr also sent a photograph of a Woodland Skipper<\/strong> from Metchosin.\u00a0 Both photographs show the hook at the end of the tip of the antenna.\u00a0 It is probably too late in the season to get a good close-up photograph of the tip of the antenna of an Essex Skipper, but it would doubtless be found that it lacks the hook seen in the Woodland Skipper.<\/p>\n

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Woodland Skipper Ochlodes sylvanoides <\/em>(Lep.: Hesperiidae) Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n

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Also from Jochen, three moths:<\/p>\n

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Eupithecia unicolor <\/em>(Lep.: Geometridae)\u00a0 Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n

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Silver-spotted Tiger Moth Lophocampa argentata <\/em>(Lep.: Erebidae \u2013 Arctiinae)<\/p>\n

Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n

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Soothsayer Graphiphora augur <\/em>(Lep.: Noctuidae)\u00a0 Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n

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Ron Flower sends this picture of a hawk moth from the Highlands, June 17.\u00a0 Strictly this is a bit late for inclusion in the Invertebrate \u201cAlert\u201d \u2013 but hawk moths are rather special, and this one is one of our less common hawk moths, and I couldn\u2019t resist.\u00a0 Jochen Moehr reminds us that he recorded a hawk moth of the same species in Metchosin on the previous day, June 16 (see the Invert Alert for that date).\u00a0 We leave it to viewers to speculate on how or why!<\/p>\n

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Paonias excaecata <\/em>(Lep.: Sphingidae)\u00a0 Ron Flower<\/p>\n

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Before we close \u2013 we have learned of the latest victim of Political Correctness.\u00a0 Those who make it their business to be offended apparently find that the name Gypsy Moth is offensive, and the moth is to be given a new name (not yet chosen).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2021 August 2 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 In spite of a great paucity of butterflies this year and especially the last week or so, and in spite of the oppressive heat and smoky atmosphere, six enthusiastic butterfly-watchers took part in the VNHS August Butterfly Walk yesterday.\u00a0 We chose to go to the Royal Roads University campus, with […]<\/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-14675","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\/14675","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=14675"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14686,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14675\/revisions\/14686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}