2025 September 21
The last full day of summer.

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  This moth was at my Saanich apartment this morning:

Sunira decipiens (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

  Cabbage White butterflies have been reported from several locations in the last few days.  Keep reporting them, so that we can get the last date for the species.  It is unlikely – but by no means impossible – to see other butterfly species this month. So keep looking!

2025 September 18

   Val George writes:  This morning, September 18, these two moths were on the wall of my Oak Bay house: Drepanulatrix sp.and Neoalcis californiaria.

Drepanulatrix monicaria /secundaria  (Lep.: Geometridae)  
Val George

Neoalcis californiaria  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Val George

2025 September 17

   Aziza Cooper writes:  Today, September 17, at Aylard Farm there was one Black Saddlebags and several other dragonflies. The fly photos are from two different individuals. I also saw one yellowish Cabbage White, a female with two black spots.

Drone Fly   Eristalis tenax  (Dip.: Syrphidae)  Aziza Cooper

Drone Fly   Eristalis tenax  (Dip.: Syrphidae)  Aziza Cooper

Variegated Meadowhawk  Sympetrum corruptum 
(Odo.: Libellulidae)
  Aziza Cooper

   2025 September 16 evening

   Val George writes: Here’s a photograph of the underside of a Mint Moth, Pyrausta californicalis. It was on a window at my Oak Bay house this morning.

Pyrausta californicalis  (Lep.: Crambidae)   Val George

   Jeremy Tatum writes that a few Cabbage Whites are still being reported – in quite small numbers – from various locations.

2025 September 16 morning

   Aziza Cooper writes:  On September 15, at Matheson Lake Park parking lot, I saw a white butterfly three times high up in the fir trees. It was too far for photos or a clear look, but from the height it was likely that it was a Pine White.

  Jeremy Tatum adds – yes, almost certainly.   Butterfliers will probably find it worthwhile to make a trip out there to see them.  Also, for the year’s records, we need to know the last date for sightings of Cabbage Whites.  It’s a couple of days or so since I last saw one.

2025 September 12

   Here’s a photograph of a moth at Jeremy Tatum’s Saanich apartment this morning.

Neoalcis californiaria  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

2025 September 11, 2025

   Richard Rycraft sent these two photographs in this morning, from his Oak Bay home.  The identifications are Jeremy Tatum’s best effort, and I don’t absolutely guarantee he are accurate, writes Jeremy.  If anyone thinks they may be wrong, please do let us know. 

Paddle-tailed Darner Aeshna palmata  (Odo.: Aeshnidae)
Richard Rycraft

Mischocyttarus flavitarsus  (Hym.: Vespidae) Richard Rycraft

2025 September 10 afternoon

Butterfly Alert!

   Non-Cabbage butterflies have been so scarce in recent weeks that it is exciting to hear from Jochen Möhr, who writes:  On Sunday September 7, I spent a few hours around noon on the parking lot of Matheson Lake Park.  I was delighted finally – a first after three years of not seeing any – to spot several Pine Whites up in the Douglas Firs.  Several times, I spotted up to three simultaneously, but as they were appearing in different trees, there must be half a dozen to a dozen of them around.  So, not all are lost!  

  Jeremy Tatum writes:  The tree tops at Matheson Lake have occasionally in previous years been a place where numerous Pine Whites have been seen, from the parking lot, late in the year.  If you haven’t seen a Pine White recently, now is a chance to go out and see them (possibly rather high up).  They won’t be there much longer this year.

   In case there are those who thought that the Painted Lady was a butterfly, here is a September 9 predawn photograph by Ian Cooper of a Painted Lady Beetle in View Royal.  Perhaps, writes Jeremy Tatum, we could avoid confusion by calling it the Painted Ladybird Beetle.

Painted Ladybird Beetle Mulsantina picta  (Col.: Coccinellidae)
   Ian Cooper

The scientific name “picta”  means, of course, “painted”.

2025 September 9

Val George writes:

On September 8, this moth, Plemyria georgii, was on the wall of the Nature House at Goldstream Park.

Plemyria georgii  (Lep.: Geometridae)   Val George

2025 September 8 evening

   Ian Cooper writes:  Here are some pictures from my photo shoot in View Royal, September 7.

Female Folding-door Spider at home  Antrodiaetus pacificus
(Ara.: Antrodiaetidae) 
Ian Cooper

Male Antrodiaetus pacificus on the prowl for a female
(Ara.: Antrodiaetidae) 
Ian Cooper

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

Psyllobora borealis (Col.: Coccinellidae)  Ian Cooper

Telphusa sp. (Lep.: Gelechiidae)  Ian Cooper

  Here are some more photographs from yesterday’s VNHS Butterfly Walk

Male Cabbage White Pieris rapae  (Lep.: Pieridae)   Gordon Hart

Female Cabbage White Pieris rapae  (Lep.: Pieridae)   Gordon Hart

  One of the females was observed ovipositing, leading to the discovery of this egg:

Ovum of Cabbage White Pieris rapae  (Lep.: Pieridae)   Gordon Hart

Cardinal Meadowhawk Sympetrum illotum  (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Gordon Hart

Drone fly  Eristalis tenax  (Dip.: Syrphidae)  Gordon Hart

Drone fly  Eristalis dimidiata  (Dip.: Syrphidae)  Gordon Hart