While hiking the upper hills in the North Batchelor Range from Deep Lake, there were many butterflies along the way. A gallery of some of the ones spotted can be seen at this link:
Tag Archives: butterflies
Pineview Butterfly Walk
Submitted by Margaret Graham
It was another great field trip with Brady Mathes as he hunted for butterflies in the Pineview Valley Park, following the linear pathway to the ponds and wildflower meadows at the back. With a flick of the wrist, Brady expertly caught at least 12 species of butterflies, including 3 types of Swallowtails. After capturing them in the net, he carefully placed them into a special plastic bug container which allowed everyone to see the butterflies close up before Brady released them to fly away. Some of the butterflies seen included Two-Tailed Swallow Tail, Anise Swallow Tail, Oregon Swallowtail, Western Green Hairstreak, Large or Creamy Marblewing, Stella’s Orangetiip, Oeneis Chryxus, Silvery Blue, Common Alpine, Persius Duskywing, Common Sulphur,.and Juba Skipper.
Enjoy the Blues
Butterflies come in a great variety of colours and sizes as club members learned on a recent butterfly outing with Brady Mathes. One of the more abundant but inconspicuous species that was flying that day was the Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus.) The Blues belong to the family Lycaenidae and have structural components that refract various shades of blue colouration. The males are brighter than the much duller females but the ladies do reflect some blue. About 2/3 of the species occurring in North America can be found in the Pacific … Continue reading →
Swallowtail Tales
There are 7 species of swallowtail butterflies in BC, all in the genus Papilio (Guppy & Shepard, 2001.) People seldom miss seeing these large butterflies as they flutter by or gather at wet spots to drink or on flowers to obtain nectar. Careful observation allows us to identify them to species more easily than some other butterflies, with the recognition that taxonomy can be dynamic in the world of insects. While I was at Riverside Park in Kamloops on May 22, 2018, the high water levels had receded a bit, … Continue reading →