Last weekend (Apr 6-7th) I headed over to the southern Okanagan to see what early Spring leps I could find. I figured I could always fall back on birds and plants if the weather was bad.

Day #1

The first night was a bit of a bust, moth-wise. When I arrived in Osoyoos it was well past dark and raining steadily. But given it was a such a short visit I wasn’t about to waste any time, so I drove to where I’d been embroiled in a forest fire the previous year to set up some light traps. It turns out BC Parks had forbidden access to the area, so I set up outside the park zone and high-tailed it out of there, heading north to Mahoney Lake outside Oliver to set up the remaining traps.

My motive for heading up to Oliver wasn’t just moths. Given the wet weather I wanted to again hunt for the endangered barred tiger salamander which are known in the area – something I’ve tried for time and time again over the years. After setting up the traps I slowly drove around the area watching the roads for salamander. It was a perfect night for it: light rain and plenty of activity on the wet roads. Glory of glories I found one. That’s a face for TV right there! What a good looking beast.

In the morning, going on 4 hours sleep (I really must write a post about “Sleep and the Moth-er”) I emptied the nets and found pretty much what I expected: not a whole heck of a lot. Perhaps 10 Acerra normalis, a few Orthosia hibisci, a lone Egira crucialis and a handful of Egira curialis. Basically: an awful lot of effort and gas for very little result.

But no matter. I hadn’t seen E. curialis very often so the morning was by no means a bust. The remainder of the day I iNatted the area and saw 3 diurnal leps: the species on the flower shown in the image above (Dave Holden pinned it down to Greya – not a genus I know); a lone, pale Caernurgina erechtea (Forage looper moth) and a mystery grey Eucosmini.

Day #2

The second night was vastly better. The day had been rain-free and I saw a decent number of moths on the wing around dusk – always encouraging. I set up the nets at the same locations as the previous night and returned bright and early to see the catch.

There was probably 10x the numbers of moths as before. I had the expected repeat views of Acerra normalis, Orthosia hibisci, Egira crucialis and curialis, but also a couple more Egira species: simplex and perlubens, two Pleromelloida: bonuscula and conserta (always handsome), four or five Xylena curvimacula (Dot-and-dash swordgrass moth), a Gluphisia severa, an alleged Acleris pulverosana (large, tough genus!), a picture-perfect Behrensia conchiformis and three more Orthosia species: O. revicta, O. pacifica (interesting location, that) and, drumroll…. Orthosia pulchella!

Booyah! That was the lep highlight of the trip. I knew this species by sight from earlier research and was pleased I actually remembered its name. Honestly, my memory is so bad I’m happy when I remember where I parked the car, let alone this. Gorgeous moth; great colouration.

A worthwhile weekend.