Other than that awful picture above, I’m really not doing well with the clearwings.
- I’ve only seen a single species
- There are oodles of them in BC
- They drive me nuts
Tackling these in reverse order: #3, I could give you handful of examples of getting a glimpse of a clearwing, then having it sod off and land behind a tree somewhere to have a cigarette and laugh at me. Last year in Tumbler Ridge I stuck around for an hour after a thrilling 3 second view of one visiting a flower and having it return twice to the same flower (missed once with the camera, once with the net). I didn’t see it on the following day, or the day after that. This has been my typical experience with clearwings.
#2 – there really are oodles of them here. iNat lists 18 observed so far in the province; the 2015 BC checklist lists 26 (5 unconfirmed). And regarding #1, yes I’ve only seen a single species, that photo above: that single, blurry, low-res, crappy picture of an Albuna pyramidalis (Fireweed clearwing moth) which I saw over 5 years ago and didn’t even recognize it as a moth at the time.
So no, I’m not doing awfully well on the Sesiidae. The worst part is that I find them some of the most interesting moths around.
Face-saving plan
Ah, but I have a plan: pheromones! I got a call from Solida today to confirm an order for some pheromone lures. If you can’t beat them, cheat.
On this subject I’m also frightfully ignorant, never having used one – but 2024 will be the year of lures. Pretty stoked.
BC Moths 