{"id":4566,"date":"2017-07-02T19:14:40","date_gmt":"2017-07-03T02:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=4566"},"modified":"2017-07-02T19:16:16","modified_gmt":"2017-07-03T02:16:16","slug":"july-2-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=4566","title":{"rendered":"July 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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2017 July 2 <\/strong><\/p>\n

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   <\/strong>Reminder:<\/strong>  <\/strong>From July 6 to July 22 (Jeremy Tatum writes) I shall be on holiday and very unlikely to be able to operate Invert Alert.  By all means save up a very few of your most interesting photographs for when I get back, especially of insects rarely photographed, but it would be nice if, upon my return, I did not have to process large numbers of photographs of our frequently-photographed insects.  Thank you all.<\/p>\n

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   <\/strong>Jeff Gaskin writes:  Yesterday, July 1, I was at Swan Lake and I found the following butterflies :  28 Lorquin’s Admirals, 11 Western Tiger Swallowtails, 10 Cabbage Whites, 2 <\/strong>Essex<\/strong> Skippers, <\/strong>and 1 Painted Lady.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  <\/strong>Gerry and Wendy Ansell write:  A visit to Cowichan Station on Saturday July 1, 2017, produced the following butterflies:<\/p>\n

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Margined Whites 6+<\/strong><\/p>\n

Red Admiral 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cabbage White 5<\/strong><\/p>\n

Western Tiger Swallowtail 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lorquin’s Admiral 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Margined White Pieris marginalis <\/em>(Lep.: Pieridae)  Wendy Ansell<\/p>\n

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\"\"Margined White Pieris marginalis <\/em>(Lep.: Pieridae)  Wendy Ansell<\/div>\n

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\"\"Margined White Pieris marginalis <\/em>(Lep.: Pieridae)  Wendy Ansell<\/div>\n

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   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I am very interested in this butterfly, so I hope viewers will excuse a few paragraphs of text.  I have once found a caterpillar, and once a chrysalis, of this species north of Cowichan Station.  Both were on Dame’s Rocket Hesperis matronalis<\/em>, and were successfully reared on this plant.  However, I suspect the main foodplant is Watercress Nasturtium officinale<\/em>.  Both of these plants grow abundantly there.  The first two photographs show a butterfly nectaring on Watercress. The third photograph shows one nectaring at Herb Robert Geranium robertianum<\/em>, which is not a larval foodplant, but the adults frequently take nectar from these flowers.  [Added in press, just before posting:  The identity of the plant I have been calling Watercress Nasturtium officinale<\/em> needs confirmation.  If a botanist can help, let us know.  Keep an eye on this site for what we eventually conclude.]<\/p>\n

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  Many of our Margined White butterflies are totally immaculate – pure white with no markings. There are no particular markings on the margins of the wings – the English name is just copied from the scientific name marginalis<\/em>, which is merely a label, and not descriptive.  However, in some (such as the one in the third photograph) the veins on the underside of the wings are accentuated with grey.  I have seen specimens with veins more accentuated than this.  Also occasionally I have seen a pair of gray spots in the middle of the upperside of the forewings.<\/p>\n

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   I suspect (but am not 100 percent certain) that there is a sex difference, the females being more heavily marked than the males. I also suspect that the species is bivoltine, and the spring generation is more heavily marked than the summer generation.   Thus if you see a heavily-veined butterfly on the underside, with two grey spots on the forewing upperside it is likely to be a spring generation female.  A summer-generation male, on the other hand, is pure unsullied white.<\/p>\n

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  Finally (for now anyway!) from what I have been able to see, the caterpillar and chrysalis are indistinguishable from those of the European Green-veined White Pieris napi<\/em>.  I believe that, depending on one’s concept of “species”, a case could be made for saying that the two are conspecific, and that Pieris napi<\/em> is a Holarctic species with a wide range, and with a corresponding wide range in the variation of its maculation.  I have seen Green-veined Whites in Scotland that are very heavily marked, and one could be forgiven for doubting that they are the same species as our immaculate Margined White – until one has seen the very similar caterpillars and chrysalides.<\/p>\n

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2017 July 2      Reminder:  From July 6 to July 22 (Jeremy Tatum writes) I shall be on holiday and very unlikely to be able to operate Invert Alert.  By all means save up a very few of your most interesting photographs for when I get back, especially of insects rarely photographed, but it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4566","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\/4566","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=4566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}