{"id":7099,"date":"2018-09-13T15:49:58","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T22:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=7099"},"modified":"2018-09-14T14:40:48","modified_gmt":"2018-09-14T21:40:48","slug":"september-14-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=7099","title":{"rendered":"September 13"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There was no Invert Alert on September 12<\/p>\n

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2018 September 13<\/strong><\/p>\n


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

Hello Butterfly Counters,<\/p>\n

The September count runs nine days from the third Saturday, September 15, to the fourth Sunday, September 23. You can submit a count anytime over this period, and you can do more than one count, just use a separate form for each count. In the case of repeat counts, or more than one person counting an area, I will take the highest count for each species.<\/p>\n

Please use the form at\u00a0https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=33<\/a>\u00a0on the Victoria Natural History Society website. If you have a zero count, or just one or two butterflies, you can email me directly.<\/p>\n

The count area is the same as the Christmas Bird Count circle (attached). For butterfly identification, the Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team (GOERT) has a useful chart of butterflies of southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands:\u00a0http:\/\/www.goert.ca\/documents\/Butterfly_ID_sheet.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

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If you would like a suggestion for an area to count, please send me an email. (hartgordon19 at gmail dot com)<\/p>\n

In addition to the counts, a monthly butterfly walk is held on the first Sunday of each month – the last walk of 2018 will be on October 7. This may seem a bit late, but we may see some migrating butterflies or second-generation adults. We start at the summit of Mount Tolmie at 1pm, and decide where to go from there. I will send out another reminder closer to the date.<\/p>\n

Thank-you for submitting your sightings and happy counting!<\/p>\n

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Gordon Hart<\/p>\n

Butterfly Count Coordinator<\/p>\n

Victoria Natural History Society<\/p>\n

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Count circle map link:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/christmasbirdcount.ca\/bcvi\/CBCMaps.html#VictoriaMap<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Gordon Hart sends photographs of a Honey Bee <\/strong>and a dragonfly.\u00a0 We weren\u2019t sure whether the dragonfly was Sympetrum illotum <\/em>or S. madidum<\/em>, so we went to expert Dr Rob Cannings, who identified it as Sympetrum illotum<\/em><\/strong>, and he explained:<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0 It is a male S. illotum<\/em><\/strong>. The broad abdomen is a good character and the red colour is usually more vibrant than in S. madidum<\/em>. Mature S. illotum<\/em> also have a pair of bright white-yellow spots on the sides of the thorax which S. madidum <\/em>lacks (mature males of the latter species have partial dull white stripes in the same place). The dark cells at the bases of the wings that you can see here are part of the brown marks at the bases of the wings that the books talk about. The species is mainly a spring and early summer one and drops off considerably in abundance after July, just as other species of Sympetrum<\/em> are getting more and more frequent.\u00a0 But it still hangs around as late as mid-October in some years.<\/p>\n

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Honey Bee Apis mellifera <\/em>(Hym.: Apidae)\u00a0 Gordon Hart<\/p>\n

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Cardinal Meadowhawk Sympetrum illotum <\/em>(Odo.: Libellulidae)\u00a0 Gordon Hart<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0 Just in case some of you thought that maybe we exaggerated in saying that the wingspan of the Black Witch <\/strong>is seven inches,\u00a0 here\u2019s another photograph of Libby Avis\u2019s one.\u00a0 On my screen an inch is an inch, so the moth is life-size.<\/p>\n

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Male Black Witch Ascalapha odorata <\/em>(Lep.: Erebidae – Erebinae)\u00a0 Libby Avis<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Not quite so big, but still impressive are our native erebids of the genus Catocala<\/em><\/strong>, the underwing moths.\u00a0\u00a0 Jessica Page found one on Maplewood Road, Saanich, on September 2, and she managed to get a distant shot.\u00a0 Catocala <\/em>is a large genus, with many similar species that are notoriously difficult to identify with certainty.\u00a0 Our commonest (hence \u201cdefault\u201d) species is C. aholibah<\/em>.\u00a0 Although this species sometimes shows a conspicuous white spot on the forewing, as in Jessica\u2019s photograph, we are not sure if this is sufficient to identify it with certainty. \u00a0So let\u2019s say:\u00a0 Catocala<\/em><\/strong>, and maybe Catocala aholibah<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Catocala <\/em>sp.: (Lep.: Erebidae \u2013 Erebinae)\u00a0 Jessica Page<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 \u00a0Jeremy Tatum writes:\u00a0\u00a0 While on the subject of the spectacular, I have just (September 13 afternoon) returned from Bow Park, Saanich, where I saw a Garden Tiger Moth <\/strong>Arctia caja<\/em><\/strong> flying around in the sunshine.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We are almost out of butterflies now, but Gordon noted a few Pine<\/strong> and Cabbage Whites<\/strong> at his Highlands property on September 12.\u00a0\u00a0 Jeremy Tatum saw a Cabbage White <\/strong>at Bow Park on September 13 \u2013 <\/strong>will it be the last butterfly of the year?<\/p>\n

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

There was no Invert Alert on September 12 2018 September 13 Message from Gordon Hart Hello Butterfly Counters, The September count runs nine days from the third Saturday, September 15, to the fourth Sunday, September 23. You can submit a count anytime over this period, and you can do more than one count, just use […]<\/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-7099","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\/7099","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=7099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7105,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7099\/revisions\/7105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}