June 30
Annie Pang sends a bunch of interesting photos. One is a Large Yellow Underwing Moth Noctua pronuba taken in Glendale Gardens yesterday. Remember the description of the huge numbers of White Satin Moths Leucoma salicis in the June 20 entry? Annie sends a photo of two of them mating, thus ensuring that there will be yet more of them next year. The two moths are hanging from a curled-up Aspen leaf which contains a cocoon of the same species. She also sends photos of two ladybird larvae. One is the Seven-spotted Ladybird Coccinella septempunctata (thanks to Terry Thormin for the identification), and the other is Harmonia axyridis. This invasive species from Asia seems to have many different English names (as well as many different colour forms), such as Harlequin Ladybird, Hallowe’en Ladybird, Asiatic Ladybird, Multicoloured Ladybird, Southern Ladybird, etc. The best name for it that I came across is the “Many-named Ladybird”. Apparently it has also invaded Britain, where it can be had by the bucketful, and they are worried there (as well as here) about the possible adverse effect on native species. None of these four insects is native to our area.
Jeremy Tatum sends a photo of one of our “woodling” moths Egira crucialis happily munching yesterday at Playfair Park on the flowers of Ocean Spray. This one, at least, is native to western North America.
Large Yellow Underwing Annie Pang
White Satin Moths mating Annie Pang
Larva of Seven-spotted Ladybird Annie Pang
Larva of the ladybird Harmonia axyridis Annie Pang
Caterpillar of Egira crucialis Jeremy Tatum
June 29
Jeremy Tatum writes: “The lycaenid caterpillar illustrated on June 23 made this neat little pupa (length 7.5 mm) today. I am now reasonably sure that it is a Spring Azure, in spite of the atypical foodplant and colour, though we’ll probably have to wait until next spring before it emerges and we can be quite certain. The typical Spring Azure caterpillar in whitish and well matches its typical foodplant, the flowers of Ocean Spray. But when I have occasionally found it on the flowers of Hardhack, it matches its colour to that flower, too. They are clever little things.”
June 28
Terry Thormin writes that: “the new photos include one of the weevil Mecinus janthinus. It took me a while to identify this one. It is an introduced species from Europe that was introduced purposely as it feeds on Dalmatian toadflax which is another introduced species and is considered a noxious weed. This island seems to be full of introduced species, both plants and insects. The weevil was photographed on the toadflax on June 18th at Point Holmes in Comox. Next is a tiny male jumping spider, Metaphidippus mannii. This was photographed in my backyard in Comox on June 22nd. Finally there are two taken in Qualicum Beach on June 25th. First, Harmonia axyridis, the ladybird that John Acorn calls the halloween ladybug in his book “Ladybugs of Alberta” is, surprise, surprise, another introduced species, this time coming from Asia. Finally is the tiny, iridescent long-legged fly Condylostylus sp. which can often be found in yards, gardens and greenhouses, preying on other, soft-bodied insects.”
The slightly ugly caterpillar that Jeremy Tatum posted on June 8 produced a rather pretty little micro moth yesterday – another dastardly European invader, Yponomeuta malinellus.
Weevil Mecinus janthinus (Col.: Curculionidae) Terry Thormin
Jumping Spider Metaphidippus mannii (Ara.: Salticidae) Terry Thormin
Harlequin Ladybird Harmonia axyridis (Col.: Coccinellidae) Terry Thormin
Long-legged Fly Condylostylus sp. (Dip.: Dolichopodidae) Terry Thormin
Small Ermine Moth Yponomeuta malinellus (Lep.: Yponomeutidae) Jeremy Tatum
June 25
There still seem to be very few butterflies around, but Purplish Coppers are out and about at last. Annie Pang saw and photographed some at Viaduct Flats yesterday, and Jeremy Tatum saw some at Cordova Spit. Terry Thormin keeps his camera busy and sends some photos from Courtenay down at the Tsolum River Floodplain on June 21.
Purplish Copper Annie Pang
Purplish Copper Annie Pang
Shield Bug Elasmostethus cruciatus (Hem.: Pentatomidae) Terry Thormin
Boreal Bluet Enallagma boreale (Odon.: Coenagrionidae) Terry Thormin
Woolly Alder Sawfly Eriocampa ovata (Hym.: Tenthredinidae) Terry Thormin
Weevil Sciaphilus asperatus Terry Thormin
June 23
Jeremy Tatum found a lycaenid caterpillar on Mount Tolmie today, feeding on what remains of the flowers of the dogwood Cornus stolonifera. He writes: “I think it is either a Spring Azure or a Western Brown Elfin. The former is usually found on Ocean Spray and the latter on Salal. Neither the colour nor the foodplant is typical of either species, though I have occasionally found unusual colours of both species on atypical foodplants. Time will tell which one it is.”
Also from Jeremy Tatum, a Lorquin’s Admiral chrysalis (from the caterpillar shown on June 17), and one of our larger “micro” moths, Herpetogramma pertextalis, of the family Pyralidae, from Goldstream Park.
Lycaenid caterpillar Jeremy Tatum
Lorquin’s Admiral chrysalis Jeremy Tatum
Herpetogramma pertextalis Jeremy Tatum
June 22
Annie Pang reports lots of Coenonympha tullia (“Ringlet” or “Large Heath”) at Viaduct Flats on June 20. Also a Pale and a Western Tiger Swallowtail and a Spring Azure, and lots of Cardinal Meadowhawks, Mosaic Darners and a Blue Dasher. She sends a nice batch of splendid photos, including a close-up of the bombyliid fly that we are still hoping to identify, taken on Christmas Hill, June 19.
Bombyliid Fly Annie Pang
Harlequin Ladybird Annie Pang
Blue Dasher Annie Pang
Western Tiger Swallowtail Annie Pang
“Ringlet” or “Large Heath” Annie Pang
Golden Jewel Beetle Annie Pang
June 21
Jeremy Tatum writes:
Here’s another adult of the tent caterpillar Malacosoma californicum – this time a female. It is larger and much paler in colour than the male shown on June 15, and her antennae are simpler. The little drop of fluid near her rear end is meconium – a little bit of waste fluid that all butterflies and moths excrete just after emergence from the pupa. Also shown is a chrysalis of a Satyr Anglewing. You can see a couple of small, shiny silvery dots on it. Several of the nymphalid pupae have similar shiny gold or silver dots on them, and this gives the origin of the word chrysalis for butterfly pupae. It comes from the Greek χρυσός, gold. The plural of chrysalis is properly chrysalides – four syllables with the stress on the second syllable. However, it is normally written as chrysalids, and pronounced with three syllables, stress on the first. There is no such thing as “a chrysalid”.
Female Malacosoma californicum Jeremy Tatum
Satyr Anglewing chrysalis Jeremy Tatum
June 20
Jeremy Tatum writes:
I’m still struggling to identify our “odonates” (damselflies and dragonflies), but on Friday I managed to identify a Tule Bluet Enallagma carunculatum at Beaver Lake and a Dot-tailed Whiteface Leucorrhinia intacta at Beaver Lake Ponds. These were by no means the most abundant species – just the ones that I managed to identify. Also at Beaver Lake Ponds, at the water’s edge, I saw the spectacular fishing spider Dolomedes triton, which I was able to identify easily from Terry Thormin’s March 24 photo.
Where have all our butterflies gone? There seem to be hardly any around just now. Yesterday Annie Pang reported a Pale and a Western Tiger Swallowtail on Christmas Hill, and four Lorquin’s Admirals and a Western Tiger Swallowtail at Swan Lake. At Munn Road, I managed a few Pale Tiger Swallowtails and Spring Azures, a rather late Propertius Duskywing and a Cedar Hairstreak. However, I also got in a bit of practice with dragonfly and beetle identification there. I saw a bright green dragonfly, which I hopelessly misidentified – but Claudia Copley put me right and told me that it was a female Western Pondhawk Erythemis collocata (Libellulidae). The beetle I spotted on St John’s Wort is Chrysolina hyperici
The most exciting thing this weekend came from a telephone call from John and Annie Pang. Surrounding the group of Trembling Aspens at the Swan Lake parking lot on Sunday were clouds of hundreds upon hundreds of White Satin Moths Leucoma salicis flying around the aspens in broad daylight and looking like a Montréal snowstorm, with yet more resting on the branches. It was quite a phenomenal sight – I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
Chrysolina hyperici (Col.: Chrysomelidae) Jeremy Tatum
June 18
Three new photos from Annie Pang, all from Island View Beach, June 15.. A Blue-eyed Darner Rhionaeschna multicolor. Thanks to Claudia Copley for the identification. An unidentified bombyliid fly. The genera Anthrax, Villa and Hemipenthes have all been suggested. Can anyone say for certain? (No guessing!) A caterpillar of the lasiocampid moth Malacosoma dysstria with an egg of a tachinid fly on its head.
Blue-eyed Darner Annie Pang
Bombyliid fly Annie Pang
Malacosoma dysstria with tachinid egg Annie Pang
June 17
Terry Thormin writes: I am finally getting around to sending a few photos. I decided to just send some of my most recent ones. The Eupeodes sp.(a species of flower fly or hover fly) in flight was taken in my backyard in Comox on June 3rd . The potter wasp, also taken in my backyard was photographed on June 4th. The Narcissus Bulb Fly was also photographed in my backyard but on June 5th. This is another introduced pest from Europe and the larvae feed on the bulbs of lilies and narcissus plants.
Jeremy Tatum sends a couple of caterpillar photographs. A Lorquin’s Admiral on the flowers of Ocean Spray on Mount Tolmie, and a Satyr Anglewing on stinging nettle, Blenkinsop Lake, both on June 16.
Hover Fly Eupeodes sp. hovering. (Dip.: Syrphidae) Terry Thormin
Narcissus Bulb Fly (Dip.: Syrphidae) Terry Thormin
Potter wasp (Hym.: Vespidae – Eumeninae) Terry Thormin
Lorquin’s Admiral on Ocean Spray Jeremy Tatum
Satyr Anglewing on Stinging Nettle Jeremy Tatum
June 16
Annie Pang sends a photo of a Green Lacewing Chrysopa sp., the first neuropteran on this site, and the butterfly Coenonympha tullia from Island View Beach, both from Island View Beach, where she also encountered many interesting culicids, which gave her close attention on June 13 and 15.
Chrysopa sp. Annie Pang
Coenonympha tullia Annie Pang
June 15
Jeremy Tatum writes: What does our common tent caterpillar look like as a grown-up? Here is a photo of a male Malacosoma californicum (Lasiocampidae)at the University of Victoria, June 13. Also a White Satin Moth Leucoma salicis (Lymantriidae), University of Victoria, June 13, and our first mollusc on this site, a Faithful Snail, also known as a Pacific Sideband Snail Monadenia fidelis, Goldstream Park, June 13. There seem to be few butterflies around just now. Here are my few sightings in the past few days:
June 12: A Pale Tiger Swallowtail, Raper’s Pond
June 13: A few Spring Azures, a Satyr Anglewing and a latish Propertius Duskywing, Goldstream Park.
June 14: A Western Tiger Swallowtail, Melcroft Lane (Saanich) and an Anise Swallowtail, Mount Tolmie.
Malacosoma californicum Jeremy Tatum
Leucoma salicis Jeremy Tatum
Monadenia fidelis Jeremy Tatum
June 14
Annie Pang sends a picture of a colour variety of the introduced Asiatic Harlequin Ladybird Harmonia axyridis on Nootka Rose, Gorge Park, June 9. Thanks to Terry Thormin and Claudia Copley for the identification. She also sends two pictures of a female Cardinal Meadowhawk Sympetrum illotum at Swan Lake on June 5, and the”micro” moth Euceratia castella (Plutellidae) from Knockan Hill, June 8.
Harlequin Ladybird Annie Pang
Cardinal Meadowhawk Annie Pang
Cardinal Meadowhawk Annie Pang
Euceratia castella Annie Pang
June 10
Annie Pang writes: In the afternoon (June 8), John and I went up Knockan Hill and there we saw at least 3 Western Tigers, at least 1 Pale, possibly two, 1 tiny white moth that I got a photograph of, 1 Male Spring Azure (which I thought odd) and then I
got faint and we had to leave. Also, I have photos of Cardinal Meadowhawks taken at various locations. At Gorge Park, a Lorquin’s Admiral was most obliging and gave me a number of angles to shoot from on the Nootka Roses and the Red Osier Dogwood there.
Jeremy Tatum writes: The elder bushes at King’s Pond are harbouring at present caterpillars of the Elder Moth Zotheca tranquilla, and I managed to photograph one today.
Lorquin’s Admiral Annie Pang
Lorquin’s Admiral Annie Pang
Elder Moth Jeremy Tatum
June 8
Annie Pang sends a photo of a pair of Brown Elfins very much in love in Playfair Park, Saanich, on May 9.
Just as we were hoping that the great numbers of tent caterpillars were passing their peak, along comes another, quite unrelated, tent caterpillar, a “micro” moth, Yponomeuta malinellus, at Rithet’s Bog, June 7. If you want to see how hugely massive these Yponomeuta tents can become, have a butcher’s at the May 28 entry for the Sussex web (no pun intended) site, http://www.sussex-butterflies.org.uk/sightings.html Parts of southeast England this month have apparently resorted to the use of flame-throwers (!) to attack yet another, unrelated, tent caterpillar of the lymantriid moth Euproctis chrysorrhoea.
Yponomeuta malinellus Jeremy Tatum
June 7
Jeremy Tatum writes: You’re not going to believe this, but I swear it’s true! Until Saturday (June 5) I had not seen a Satyr Anglewing this year. I mentioned this to Annie Pang whom I met at Swan Lake that day, and she said: “Oh, come along for a stroll along this trail and I think I’ll be able to find one for you.” So we walked along the trail, and, within half a minute, Annie held out her arm and a Satyr Anglewing came out of nowhere and settled on her hand, which she obligingly held out for me to see the butterfly!
But Annie had not finished. A few minutes later we both saw a Mourning Cloak (not very common at this time of year), and later, Annie tells me, it landed on her back! And a little later still, she managed to photograph it as well as some Western Tiger Swallowtails.
We can’t let Annie have it all her own way, though, so, not to be outdone, I photographed the caterpillar of an Essex Skipper found at Hastings Flats today.
Essex Skipper Larva Jeremy Tatum
Mourning Cloak Annie Pang
Western Tiger Swallow Tail Annie Pang
Western Tiger Swallowtail Annie Pang
June 5
Annie Pang writes: Today (June 3) was the first day we could get up Seymour in over a week. The vegetation has changed. There were several Spring Azures which were mostly females and they were sunning and nectaring on Woolly Sunflowers. It was exciting to see and even get good shots of the two different Tiger Swallowtails. If you look at the two poetographs, one of a Western Tiger Swallowtail and one of a Pale Tiger Swallowtail, you can see the difference, not just in colour (white on Pale and Yellow on Western Tiger) but in the broader black markings on the Pale Swallowtail, which was, I suspect, more newly emerged as it was in much better shape. At ground level, there was barely a Cabbage White to be seen today. Ironically, both Swallowtails liked landing on the Scotch Broom that is everywhere up on Seymour Hill. The female Azures preferred the Woolly Sunflowers, which were all over the place, although the butterflies were only at the summit area of the trail, much to my despairing legs!!!
Jeremy Tatum reports three Anise Swallowtails from Mount Tolmie on June 5, and a Coenonympha tullia from Rithet’s Bog.
Western Tiger Swallowtail Annie Pang
Pale Tiger Swallowtail Annie Pang
June 4
Last December I found a tiny second-instar geometrid caterpillar on my desk in my office at UVic.. At that time of year there wasn’t much to offer it other than Douglas Fir, but fortunately it accepted that. Today the resulting moth emerged, and I photographed it indoors. Neoalcis californiaria is a very variable species, and this one doesn’t look typical, but I believe that’s what it is. The second moth, also a geometrid, was photographed in Saanich last night. It is Sicya macularia, whose caterpillar feeds on Ocean Spray and Snowberry.
Kirsten Mills sends a photo of a male Ceanothus Silkmoth Hyalophora euryalus, which she photographed on Scafe Hill when she was with the Saturday birding group on May 22.
Neoalcis californiaria Jeremy Tatum
Sicya macularia Jeremy Tatum
Hyalophora euryalus Kirsten Mills
June 1
In view of the inclement weather, I tried to keep a pupa of Lorquin’s Admiral cool, but the butterfly insisted on emerging yesterday – a little early for the species, though they should be putting in appearances soon. Jeremy Tatum.
Nick Page writes: “Just to let you know, I saw about a dozen Vancouver Island Ringlets [also known as Coenonympha tullia or Large Heath! – Jeremy] at Rithet's Bog on Thursday, May 27th (open bentgrass wet meadow on south side) and about 10 in brackish marsh and wet meadow at the south end of Island View Beach wetlands that same afternoon. I stopped in after giving a field tour to the UVIC restoration institute.”
Lorquin’s Admiral Jeremy Tatum