Last weekend (July 26-28) I returned to Lillooet, BC to do a little mothing. On my last trip to the area in April I was driving off the beaten-track and stumbled across the Xaxli’p Community Forest, south-west of Fountain Valley which was home to a good patch of old growth trees, so I really wanted to head back and set traps in the area. That was the main goal of this trip.

Friday night

Getting to Lillooet on Friday took a lot longer than expected (Whistler traffic, hoo boy!) so I put off driving all the way to the Xaxli’p forest (a good 35 minutes from Lillooet) and set up sheets close by at a familiar spot by the airport.

Great night! At first it felt a little like being in a war zone with helicopters buzzing overhead, returning to Lillooet after fighting nearby fires, but it soon quietened down.

Boy I love tending sheets. Traps are fine – but sheets are far more fun, watching the species come and go.

• The Pelochrista derelicta shown above was the highlight of the evening. Pelochrista are the oddest of genera; they’re all over the map. This one looks like a Tortrinae to me.
• Seeing some Diorcytria auranticalla was pleasing because I’ve seen so many other Dioryctria – plus it has a radically different colouration from the other members.
• A single Euxoa setonia was exciting: the name comes from Seton Lake, the large lake just west of Lillooet. It’s an unusual-looking Euxoa in terms of markings and colouration, so I’m hoping I’ve ID’d that correctly – I’ll have to upload to bugguide for corroboration.
• Other interesting individuals included Antepirrhoe fasciata, several mystery Abagrotis spp. (I really need to swot up that genus), Mycterophora, Melipotis jucunda, Sympistis fifia, and Xestia mustelina.

Saturday

In the morning while I was clearing up from the previous night, I set up a pheromone lure and headed off for the day to explore the region. Mostly hiking and hunting for plants. Late afternoon I returned and was rather shocked with what I found: there were 10 very battered clearwings in the trap! Oops. Most of them were Synanthedon exitiosa (Peachtree borer moths) with a single Synanthedon novaroensis and a chubby, extremely beaten-up Sesia tibiale (American hornet moth). It was great to see the pheromone trap be so useful, but I shouldn’t have left it unattended for a full 12 hours, it wasn’t cruel to the moths. In future I’ll check the traps more frequently.

Following that, I finally drove up to set up my nets at the Xaxli’p community forest, except when I got there I found bloody thing was now gated off! Bah, what a disappointment. So I hastily set up the traps nearby. At the last location I was racing to beat the sun and didn’t notice a rattlesnake at my feet until it started rattling. Close call.

The following morning I found some real gems.

• The Abagrotis glenni rather stole the show. It’s such a great looking Abagrotis, I’d been envying other people’s observations on iNat. With a bit of luck, I’ll pick up the similar Abagrotis mirabilis in the next month or so.
• The Chionodes retiniella wowed and puzzled the heck out of me. I spent a good hour on bugguide trying to identify it, to no avail. Thankfully Dave Holden knew it.
• I saw 3 or 4 Schinia acutilinea, all of which looked quite worn. I look forward to seeing a specimen in good nick.
• Great to see another Ambesa laetella – I’d expected more, actually. They’re not commonly seen but I’ve had luck around Lillooet.

In numbers

324 observations
133 species
21 lifers

Not a bad haul. A good trip.

Unfortunately I managed to leave one of my lepiled nets up on the mountain – I’m not sure how that happened. Guess I’ll have to return to Lillooet one more time this year to retrieve it!