2025 May 1 morning
Monthly Butterfly Walk – Message from Gordon Hart:
The first Butterfly Walk of the year will take place this Sunday, May 4. We will meet at the summit of Mount Tolmie by the reservoir at 1 p.m. After a look around for butterflies, we will decide on a destination from there. Car-pooling is encouraged, and we will try to return by 4 p.m. For any changes or updates, check this site, or the VNHS calendar at https://www.vicnhs.bc.ca/?page_id=1518
Jules Thomson reports seeing a California Tortoiseshell on the Mount Tolmie reservoir yesterday (April 30) at 6:30 pm.
Aziza Cooper writes: This well camouflaged moth was on the west slope of Mount Douglas on April 30. I also saw one Sara Orangetip and 5 Western Spring Azures.
Rheumaptera meadii (Lep.: Geometridae) Aziza Cooper
Jeremy Tatum writes: It may be hard to believe, but this is a colour form of the same species as that of Val George’s photograph on April 26. If any doubt, see the short fourth tooth. In case anyone doubts Aziza’s description of ”well-camouflaged”, this form exhibits what is known as “disruptive coloration”, in which sharply demarcated contrasting colours disguises the shape of the animal, so that, although the moth can be easily seen, it is not recognized as a moth or as anything else edible.
Ian Cooper took the photographs below on the late afternoon of April 29 by the Galloping Goose Trail between Grange Road and Burnside Road West.
Blue-green Sharpshooter Hordnia atropunctata
(Hem.: Coccinellidae)
Ian Cooper
Western Polished Lady Beetle Cycloneda polita
(Col.: Coccinellidae)
Ian Cooper
Asian Lady Beetles Harmonia axyridis (Col.: Coccinellidae)
Ian Cooper
Jeremy Tatum writes: Although this is a very variable species, most of them can be told by the black M or W mark on the pronotum, well shown on this photograph.
Invert Sightings 