2025 May 30
June Butterfly Walk – Message from Gordon Hart:
Our next Walk is on Sunday, June 1. We will meet at 1 p.m. at the summit of Mount Tolmie at the parking lot by the reservoir. After a look around for butterflies, we will decide where to go from there. Car pooling is encouraged and we will try to be back by 4 p.m. Cancellations or special instructions will be posted on this site, or on the VNHS calendar: https://www.vicnhs.bc.ca/?page_id=1518
Here’s a nice tortricid moth photographed by Ian Cooper by the E&N trail on May 28, and identified by Ian as Celypha cespitana . This is a species that occurs in Europe and North America – although there remains a question as to whether the European and North American moths are the same or separate species.
Celypha cespitana (Lep.: Tortricidae – Olethreutinae) Ian Cooper
Today May 30, at Cowichan Station, Aziza Cooper saw a few whites, blues and tiger swallowtails, not all seen close enough to identify with certainty. A photograph of a white proved to be a Cabbage White, and a swallowtail was a Western Tiger Swallowtail
Today at the corner of Koksilah Road and the highway, there were two courting blues, and a photograph of one proved to be a Silvery Blue.
Cabbage White Pieris rapae (Lep.: Pieridae) Aziza Cooper
Western Tiger Swallowtail, lateral view,
Pterourus rutulus (Lep.: Papilionidae)
Aziza Cooper
Western Tiger Swallowtail, dorsal view
Pterourus rutulus (Lep.: Papilionidae)
Aziza Cooper
Silvery Blue Glaucopsyche lygdamus (Lep.: Lycaenidae)
Aziza Cooper
Janet Renouf sends a photograph of a Virginia Tiger Moth. The markings on the abdomen show why it is called a tiger moth.
Virginia Tiger Moth Spilosoma virginica
(Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)
Janet Renouf
Val George writes : This afternoon, May 30, on Mount Douglas there were the following butterflies: 5 Painted Ladies, 4 Red Admirals, 2 Pale Tiger Swallowtails, one Western Tiger Swallowtail and one Anise Swallowtail. He sends the following two photographs:
Painted Lady Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Val George
Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Val George
Invert Sightings 