2020 July 3 evening

   Marie O’Shaughnessy writes:  I took a brief walk through Uplands Park at noon today and I saw nine Sheep Moths flying around. Only one was settled.  It was a nice female depositing eggs.

  Jeremy Tatum writes:  Upon what is it depositing eggs?   I usually find the eggs on Ocean Spray, Snowberry or Nootka Rose.   This looks like grass, or a rush – something the caterpillars might not like.

Sheep Moth Hemileuca eglanterina  (Lep.: Saturniidae)
Marie O’Shaughnessy

Also at Uplands Park, a Blue-eyed Darner, a Lorquin’s Admiral, and 11 Essex Skippers.

Female Blue-eyed Darner Rhionaeschna muliticolor
(Odo.: Aeshnidae)
Marie O’Shaughnessy

Marie has also been to McIntyre Reservoir recently, and has seen there “all the usual dragonflies”, plus one Black Saddlebags, lots of fresh Western Pondhawks, Blue Dasher,  Blue-eyed Darner, California Darner , Eight-spotted Skimmers, Cardinal Meadowhawk, and Tule Bluet.

   Val George writes: This afternoon, July 3, I checked out the railway track at Cowichan Station. My butterfly count was: 3 Margined Whites, 3 Cabbage Whites, several other unidentifiable Whites, 2 Satyr Commas, 2 Essex Skippers, and one each of Lorquin’s Admiral, Western Tiger Swallowtail and Pale Tiger Swallowtail.

Margined White  Pieris marginalis  (Lep.: Pieridae)  Val George

2025 July 3 morning

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  This Elder Moth was outside my Saanich apartment building this morning

Zotheca tranquilla  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Bruce Whittington sent some photographs of a wasp and a bee from Ladysmith.   Although they are not strictly recent photographs, they will maybe nevertheless interest viewers.  The first shows a European Paper Wasp apparently biting into the base of a Cuphea flower to reach some nectar or pollen.  The second shows a Honey Bee that may not be trying to do exactly the same thing itself, but may be trying to take advantage of a hole previously bitten into by the wasp.

Polistes dominula  (Hym.: Vespidae)  Bruce Whittington

Honey Bee  Apis mellifera  (Hym.: Apidae)  Bruce Whittington

2025 July 2 evening

   Interested viewers may enjoy learning that a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly chrysalis that Ian Cooper spotted on December 13 2024 in View Royal and that was recently checked on before dawn on June 30th, was found to be empty at dawn the following day, July 1st.

  Several photos of the empty chrysalis exuvia were sent to Jeremy Tatum for review and it was determined that the butterfly had safely ecloded, most likely as the day warmed up on June 30th.

  Although he didn’t witness the butterfly’s eclosion live as it occurred, Ian was delighted to learn that the chrysalis had remained viable throughout the previous six and a half months and that its metamorphosing inhabitant had finally managed to emerge.

  Jeremy writes:  Although the empty chrysalis skin may look a bit messy and unattractive, seeing exactly where it split when the adult insect emerged told me that it was indeed a butterfly that had emerged and not some dipterous or hymenopterous parasitoid.  We don’t know whether the butterfly was Pterourus rutulus or P. eurymedon.

Empty pupal shell of Tiger Swallowtail  Pterourus sp.
(Lep.: Papilionidae)
Ian Cooper

2025 July 2 afternoon

   Ian Cooper writes: Here are six pictures taken before dawn on July 01 2025 by the Galloping Goose in View Royal.

Banana slug  Ariolimax columbianus (Pul.: Arionidae)  Ian Cooper

Prophysaon sp. (probably foliolatum) (Pul.: Arionidae)  Ian Cooper

Male Running crab spider  Philodromus dispar 
(Ara.: Philodromidae) 
Ian Cooper

Philodromus rufus  (Ara.: Philodromidae)  Ian Cooper 

Hairy Spider Weevil  Barypeithes pellucidus (Col.: Curculionidae)  Ian Cooper

Gelis sp. (Hym.: Ichneumonidae)   Ian Cooper

2025 July 1 morning

   Kirsten Mills found this large beetle near the Hillside Mall in Victoria, June30:

Polyphylla crinita  (Col.:  Scarabaeidae)   Kirsten Mills

   Ian Cooper writes: Here are six pictures from *Colquitz River Park and the #Galloping Goose in View Royal taken before dawn on June 30.

# Unidentified male Crane Fly (Dip.: Tipulidae)   Ian Cooper

# Unidentified Crane Flies in copula (Dip.: Tipulidae)   Ian Cooper
These are much smaller than and probably a different species from the previous crane fly.

# Limax maximus (Pul.: Limacidae)   Ian Cooper 

* Threeband Slug, Ambigolimax sp. (Pul.: Limacidae)   Ian Cooper

* Clubiona sp. (Ara.: Clubionidae)   Ian Cooper

# Complex Enoplognatha ovata (Ara.: Theridiidae)   Ian Cooper

 

  Aziza Cooper writes, on June 30:  At about 5 pm, at Mount Tolmie:
Anise Swallowtail – 1, missing all of its right hindwing
Western Tiger Swallowtail – 1 
Pale Tiger Swallowtail – 1
Lorquin’s Admiral – 3
Painted Lady – 2

Anise Swallowtail  Papilio zelicaon  (Lep.: Papilionidae)
  Aziza Cooper

Painted Lady  Vanessa cardui  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Aziza Cooper

2025 June 30 morning

   Kirsten Mills writes:  Yesterday, June 29, Jeff Gaskin and I went to Kinsol Trestle. On the trail from the parking lot to the trestle we saw Pale and Western Tiger Swallowtail, Lorquin’s Admiral, Satyr Comma, and Cabbage White butterflies, and a Common Whitetail dragonfly.  Here are photographs of two of these.

Satyr Comma  Polygonia satyrus   (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Kirsten Mills

Male Common Whitetail  Plathemis lydia   (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Kirsten Mills

2025 June 29

   Bruce Whittington found these Mountain Ash Sawfly larvae on June 28 on Mountain Ash in Ladysmith.

Pristiphora geniculata  (Hym.: Tenthredinidae)   Bruce Whittington

2025 June 28 morning

   Dun Skippers:  JeremyTatum writes: I have not done a thorough search of recent Dun Skipper sightings (and probably shan’t do so) but I have found a few sightings in addition to Aziza’s sighting on June 25 this year.   Thus:

2016:   June 9, one on the Malahat.   June 26, two at Spectacle Lake and one on Nanaimo River Road.
2018:  June 27, one, Gordon’s Highlands home,
2020:  June 28, one, Kinsol Trestle Bridge, and one, Nanoose.

Aziza’s June 25 sighting this year is still a significant one.

  A rather less rare lepidopteran is the ubiquitous moth below, photographed this morning at my Saanich apartment.

Idaea dimidiata  (Lep.: Geometridae)   Jeremy Tatum

2025 June 25

   Aziza Cooper writes:  Today, June 25, along the Galloping Goose trail near the Sooke Potholes Park, I saw:

Pale Tiger Swallowtail – 3
Lorquin’s Admiral – 6
Blue species – 1
Dun Skipper – 1

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I have not done a thorough search of Dun Skipper records, but from InvertAlert records, there were no reports of Dun Skipper in the Southern Vancouver Island Birdwatching Area in the years 2015 to 2024 inclusive.  This is a great finding.

Dun Skipper  Euphyes vestris  (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Aziza Cooper

Pale Tiger Swallowtail  Pterourus eurymedon (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Aziza Cooper

   Jeremy Tatum sends a photograph of a Satyr Comma butterfly, which emerged from its chrysalis today and was released in a nettle patch near to the Famous Fence on Lochside Trail, from where the caterpillar came.  With luck you may still see it near there tomorrow (June 26) The complicated scribbly pattern on the underside of the wings shows that this is a male.  The female has much more uniform less scribbly undersides.

Male Satyr Comma  Polygonia satyrus  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Jeremy Tatum

2025 June 24 morning

   Aziza Cooper writes:   On June 23 at Mount Tolmie at about 3 pm, there were:

Western Tiger Swallowtail – 2
Pale Tiger Swallowtail – 1
Lorquin’s Admiral – 5
Red Admiral – 1
Cabbage White – 2
Painted Lady – 2

Painted Lady  Vanessa cardui  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)   Aziza Cooper

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Aziza Cooper

Western Tiger Swallowtail  Pterourus rutulus  (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Aziza Cooper

   Jeremy Tatum writes: This small moth was on the wall of my Saanich apartment this morning, June 24.  I cannot tell which of two similar species of Oegoconia it is.

Oegoconia novimundi/deauratella  (Lep.: Autostichidae)
Jeremy Tatum