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Lillooet, Cache Creek – July 18-21st
Last weekend I took an extra day off to celebrate the start of National Moth Week and did a 3-day trip up to Lillooet and Cache Creek to see what I could find. The first night wasn’t terribly successful. I set up my nets at one of my usual haunts by the Lillooet airport, which…
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Golden, BC, May-June 2025 – Part 2: Micros
The first part covered the notable macros I found on the trip, now let’s turn to the little guys. These actually contained many of the more interesting finds. Lots to cover, hoo boy. Here goes. * = lifer** = new for BC on iNat Cydia fletcherana * ** Let’s start with this fella. Brilliant. I…
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Pseudobryomima muscosa
It’s satisfying that after 8 years of actively observing moths at my home, I still see new species. When I got back from my trip to Golden last Saturday I set up traps to see which of the locals had returned. In the morning I found a particularly perplexing little Noctuid which I’d never seen…
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Golden, BC, May-June 2025 – Part 1: Macros
Home at last! I’m back from a 5 week trip to Golden BC. En route, I stayed in Merritt and Salmon Arm setting up traps at both locations, but the bulk of my time was spent mothing around Golden. Today I got some time to crunch through my observations, so here’s a quick trip summary…
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Platyedra subcinerea
Picked up my fourth lep lifer of the year this afternoon: a Platyedra subcinerea, or “Cotton Stem moth”. Or as my wife would say: “yet another boring brown moth”. It was wedged in under the fold of one of my moths sheets. Very pretty shade of brown, if you ask me, and those black marks…
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Updates; Back to the Cape
The photo above is of a Lithophane amanda (Amanda’s pinion moth), taken this morning. These are flagged as Vulnerable in BC by NatureServe, and the first time I’ve gotten one on the west side of Bowen Island. Lots of miscellaneous moth-related news! Let’s start with… UK Trip I just got back from week in the…
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Two new Eupithecia
The great warming continues. Each day brings more insects out. The last couple of weeks has added two new Eupithecia to my list. They’re a tricky genus. There are dozens in BC, and many are very hard to tell apart. Well, let’s add a couple more. The first, Eupithecia maestoso, looked sufficiently different from any…
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Spring has sprung
What a miserably wet year! But all it takes is 24 hours with moderately warm weather and hardly any rain, and hey presto: the moths come back. I had a good dozen Feralia deceptiva, three Orthosia hibisci, a Costaconvexa centrostrigaria, and a bunch of FOYs (First Of the Year): Egira crucialis, Orthosia transparens, Ectropis crepuscularia,…
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Experimenting with macro photography
This week I picked up a Tamron 90mm macro lens and flash for my Nikon D850. A diffuser from Australia is en route. After all these years I figured it’s time to take the plunge and try my hand at macro photography. Gulp. I’m not a photographer; I take a lot of a photos, but…
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BC Curated Checklist Update
Last week I released an update to the BC Leps Curated List which updates the BC list (now at 2855) and adds New Additions and Taxon Changes sections. This has been a bit of a labour of love these last few months, with the help and advice from a couple of members of the BC…
