{"id":4847,"date":"2017-08-23T16:33:15","date_gmt":"2017-08-23T23:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=4847"},"modified":"2017-08-23T16:36:10","modified_gmt":"2017-08-23T23:36:10","slug":"august-23-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=4847","title":{"rendered":"August 23"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/strong>Aziza Cooper writes:&nbsp; On Sunday April 20 I went to Forbidden Plateau and walked along the boardwalk. I found four  <strong>Mariposa Coppers<\/strong> and one <strong>Oreas Comma<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; Later I searched the perimeter of the huge gravel parking lot just south of Nordic Road. The parking lot looks east over Mount Washington Parkway, and has slopes with lots of flowers. Along the edge I found what I think are  <strong>Branded Skippers<\/strong>. There were at least five. <\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Across the road to the west, I found two <strong>Purplish Coppers<\/strong> and two  <strong>Anna&#8217;s Blues.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/strong>Jeremy Tatum comments:&nbsp; Identifying the commas (especially from the uppersides alone) and the skippers poses some difficult identification problems.&nbsp; No writer of whom I am aware has given a clear and unambiguous account of the distinctions   between the forms <em>Polygonia gracilis, zephyrus<\/em> and <em>oreas<\/em>.&nbsp; Likewise I am unaware of any clear and unambiguous published way of distinguishing between the forms  <em>Hesperia comma <\/em>and <em>Hesperia <\/em><em>colorado<\/em>, and why they are different at the species level.<\/p>\n<p><em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&nbsp; <\/em>Because of these difficulties, from this point and until I learn of further information, I am henceforth treating all reports of the first group on this site under the label Hoary Comma  <em>Polygonia gracilis<\/em>, and all reports of the second group under the label Branded Skipper  <em>Hesperia comma<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp; (The latter species is known in the U.K. as the Silver-spotted Skipper &#8211; a name that is used in North America for a quite different species.)&nbsp; Viewers of this site looking for records of these species should bear this in mind.&nbsp; We   would be very glad to hear from viewers who can give us some further guidance on these species, on how we can distinguish between them, and if any of the photographs on this site should be relabelled.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 5px;\" class=\"\" alt=\"\" src=\"file:\/\/\/F:\/DOCUME%7E1\/tatum\/LOCALS%7E1\/Temp\/msohtml1\/01\/clip_image002.jpg\">  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" originalheight=\"892\" originalwidth=\"1200\" name=\"\" title=\"G Oreas Comma 1a.JPG\" height=\"443.02666666666664\" width=\"596\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/G-Oreas-Comma-1a.jpg\">  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Hoary Comma <em>Polygonia gracilis <\/em>(Lep.: Nymphalidae)&nbsp; Aziza Cooper<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 5px;\" class=\"\" alt=\"\" src=\"file:\/\/\/F:\/DOCUME%7E1\/tatum\/LOCALS%7E1\/Temp\/msohtml1\/01\/clip_image004.jpg\">  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" originalheight=\"897\" originalwidth=\"1200\" name=\"\" title=\"G W Branded Skipper 1a.JPG\" height=\"445.51\" width=\"596\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/G-W-Branded-Skipper-1a.jpg\">  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Branded Skipper <em>Hesperia comma <\/em>(Lep.: Hesperiidae) Aziza Cooper<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 5px;\" class=\"\" alt=\"\" src=\"file:\/\/\/F:\/DOCUME%7E1\/tatum\/LOCALS%7E1\/Temp\/msohtml1\/01\/clip_image006.jpg\">  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" originalheight=\"867\" originalwidth=\"1200\" name=\"\" title=\"G Mariposa Copper 2a.JPG\" height=\"430.60999999999996\" width=\"596\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/G-Mariposa-Copper-2a.jpg\">  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Mariposa Copper <em>Lycaena mariposa <\/em>(Lep.: Lycaenidae)&nbsp; Aziza Cooper<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 5px;\" class=\"\" alt=\"\" src=\"file:\/\/\/F:\/DOCUME%7E1\/tatum\/LOCALS%7E1\/Temp\/msohtml1\/01\/clip_image008.jpg\">  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" originalheight=\"882\" originalwidth=\"1200\" name=\"\" title=\"G Sulphur Mt WA 1a.JPG\" height=\"438.06\" width=\"596\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/G-Sulphur-Mt-WA-1a.jpg\">  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Cabbage White <em>Pieris rapae <\/em>(Lep.: Pieridae)&nbsp; Aziza Cooper<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; Gordon Hart sends a photograph of a female <strong>Striped Meadowhawk <\/strong>  <strong><em>Sympetrum pallipes<\/em><\/strong><strong>. <\/strong>We are grateful to Rob Cannings for identifying it for us.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 5px;\" class=\"\" alt=\"\" src=\"file:\/\/\/F:\/DOCUME%7E1\/tatum\/LOCALS%7E1\/Temp\/msohtml1\/01\/clip_image010.jpg\">  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" originalheight=\"788\" originalwidth=\"1200\" name=\"\" title=\"Sympetrum Gordon.jpg\" height=\"391.37333333333333\" width=\"596\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Sympetrum-Gordon.jpg\">  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Striped Meadowhawk <em>Sympetrum pallipes <\/em>(Odo.: Libellulidae) Gordon Hart<\/p>\n<p>  <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Aziza Cooper writes:&nbsp; On Sunday April 20 I went to Forbidden Plateau and walked along the boardwalk. I found four Mariposa Coppers and one Oreas Comma. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Later I searched the perimeter of the huge gravel parking lot just south of Nordic Road. The parking lot looks east over Mount Washington Parkway, [&hellip;]<\/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-4847","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\/4847","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=4847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}