Tag: Bowen Island
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The year begins
And boy it’s been a long wait. On Thursday I got my first Noctuid of the year, signalling the real start to the year. As expected it was an Egira hiemalis, but that evening it was closely followed by a Bailey’s Pinion (Lithophane baileyi). This was only the third time I’ve seen this moth. Twice…
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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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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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500 Bowen leps
Continuing the streak of milestones, this morning I got my 500th lepidoptera for my home, Bowen Island. Pretty one too. Adelphagrotis indeterminata Up until now I’ve only seen Adelphagrotis stellaris, all seen here on Bowen as well.
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1,000 BC leps
This afternoon I got my 1,000th BC Lep: a Morophagoides burkerella, chilling in one of my pheromone traps. Year goal: check! A nice round number. 88 were butterfly, the rest were moths. The total count for species known in BC, as of today, is 2842. Guess I have long way to go!
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Pheromone lures
I thought I’d make a quick post about moth pheromone lures. My experience is limited but perhaps it may be of use to some people. I’ve been setting up light traps and sheets for about 6 years, but this year I thought I’d focus on diurnal species and try lures as a complement to the…
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Clearwings!
At long last my pheromone traps paid off, yielding no less than 4 individuals this afternoon: 3 Albuna pyramidalis (fireweed clearwing moth) and a lone Synanthedon novaroensis (Douglas-fir pitch moth). Frankly I’m so relieved. I ordered the lures back in January and I’ve tried them out here and there – no luck. I even wrote…
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Spring(ish)!
Well, I see April’s just around the bend and my 2024 BC leps list is depressingly sparse – a mere 24 species so far. But that’ll be changing soon. It’s been an odd year. Erratic weather, crises at home and never a spare moment. All in all there’s been very little time for mothing or…
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Macroglossinae
This is last of 3 posts on the subfamilies of the BC Sphingidae, the sphinx moths. There are 11 species in this subfamily in two tribes. Like my other posts on the Sphingidae, this’ll be a little light on photographs for now. I’ve only seen 4 members of this group. Dilophonotini The Hemaris are a…
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Sesiidae (Clearwing moths)
Other than that awful picture above, I’m really not doing well with the clearwings. 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…
BC Moths 