2025 May 2
Sher Falls photographed the take-off and flight of a click beetle in her Nanaimo garden on May 1.
Selatosomus suckleyi (Col.: Elateridae) Sher Falls
Selatosomus suckleyi (Col.: Elateridae) Sher Falls
On May 1, on Mount Tolmie, Aziza Cooper photographed a California Tortoiseshell Nymphalis californica and a California Darner Rhionaeschna californica. Although both bear the names California and californica, they are very different animals.
California Tortoiseshell Nymphalis californica (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Aziza Cooper
California Darner Rhionaeschna californica (Odo.: Aeshnidae) Aziza Cooper
Jeremy Tatum asks: What is the name of our small blue Spring butterfly?
Over the past half-century its scientific name has varied among Celastrina argiolus, C. ladon and C. echo with various combinations and lumpings and splittings. We have usually used the English name Spring Azure.
In this site, I generally follow the scientific taxonomy of the Pohl and Nanz Annotated Taxonomic Checklist (ATC). The ATC recognizes numerous distinct species of Celastrina in North America, only one of which we are concerned with here on Vancouver Island, namely C. echo. The species C. argiolus, a name at one time attached to our butterfly, and somewhat similar to it in appearance, is now regarded as a distinct species that does not occur in North America. In the British Isles it is the butterfly known there as the Holly Blue.
Which of the numerous North American species should rightfully be called Spring Azure? Probably all of them should have an additional adjective before the name; perhaps none should be called simply Spring Azure, although maybe C. ladon has the greatest claim. The only species currently recognized here on Vancouver Island (although this may change) is Celastrina echo. I have generally used the name Western Spring Azure on this site. This has a slight disadvantage is that it might be interpreted as merely a western subspecies. To avoid this, perhaps Echo Blue might be a preferable name.
My Canadian Gage Dictionary asks us to put the stress on the first (not the second) syllable of the word azure. It asks us to pronounce the z as zh as in Marshal Zhukov – although to me this is a lazy pronunciation, and I prefer z. Gage allows us to pronounce the letter a as in cat or as in Kate; I prefer cat.
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