After receiving our new butterfly net in the mail today, we immediately decided to go out in the field and collect. . . Butterfly nets are one of the best tools to catch live adults for laying eggs (See Lepidoptera Rearing Guide for more information). When we finally received our new butterfly net in the mail today that we ordered from Educational Science, we were pretty excited. This whole year, we have been starving to get our hands on some Western Tiger Swallowtails (Papilio rutulus) and the only option we saw was to catch a live female since the caterpillars only live up high in the tree tops! However, it was already a bit late when we decided to go out in the field today, past 4 PM. By this time, the sun was already starting to wane and most diurnal insects become less common. And because we were short on time since the sun was going to set all together soon, we actually decided not to go all the way to Albany Hill where we had encountered Western Tigers before and instead went down to the passionflower vine on the Ohlone Greenway at Lincoln Ave which is much closer to our house. The first time we went there, we managed to catch a live female Gulf Fritillary (Augraulis vanillae) with our bare hands and even got it to lay a bunch of eggs for us, but since then we have not been so lucky. Today, we were determined to put our new net to good use and catch a few more. But when we got to the passionflower, it looked dead as ever. This entire year, we had noticed that it wasn't nearly as robust as it had been in previous years; more than half the vine was all dried up and dead and the few remaining living shoots were pretty unattractive. But today, it just looked utterly terrible since it was getting later into the summer and the weather was just getting hotter and drier. Needless to say, when we first got there, we were pretty doubtful of finding any Gulf Fritillaries around here any more. Plus, we had been seeing less of them flying around in general over the past few weeks. However, after just a few minutes of standing there and feeling disappointed, we spotted one. Boy, were we excited. It took us a few swings before we finally caught it, but overall it was much easier and much more of a success than using a measly plastic cup or bare hands. But just as we were about to pat ourselves on the back for our first catch, we realized upon close inspection that the Gulf Fritillary was a male. Worthless. On second thought after catching it, the behavior of the particular butterfly was, indeed, quite male. It had just been fluttering around carelessly and didn't seem to have anything to do with the passionflower despite the fact that it is its caterpillars' host plant. Instead, it had clearly must have been patrolling the vine for newly emerged females, a behavior that is typical in Heliconians (Heliconius). In fact, the males of some species are even known to break open the female's chrysalis right before she is going to emerge just to steal the chance to mate with her! After catching the male, we weren't able to find any other Gulf Fritillaries or any other butterflies flying around at all. But, to make things a little better, we did end up catching five Gulf Fritillary caterpillars and four Mediterranean Katydids. Next time we are definitely going to come a bit earlier when the butterflies are more likely to be out. Albany Hill, here we come! - Brian
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Timeline 2012–2017
Albany, California This timeline is a series of daily posts recording our observations on and experiences with various insects in Albany California and surrounding areas, from 2012-2017. Since we did not publish this site until 2016, posts before that were constructed retroactively. Starting in August 2017, we moved to Ithaca, New York; posts from there on can be viewed at Timeline 2017-present: Ithaca, New York. Archives (1,011)
August 2017 (49) July 2017 (121) June 2017 (79) May 2017 (77) April 2017 (91) March 2017 (35) February 2017 (12) January 2017 (10) December 2016 (12) November 2016 (26) October 2016 (49) September 2016 (84) August 2016 (94) July 2016 (99) June 2016 (53) May 2016 (21) April 2016 (4) January 2016 (1) August 2015 (3) July 2015 (3) June 2015 (2) June 2014 (3) May 2014 (1) April 2014 (3) March 2014 (3) December 2013 (2) November 2013 (2) October 2013 (5) September 2013 (11) August 2013 (15) July 2013 (9) June 2013 (5) May 2013 (4) April 2013 (3) March 2013 (2) February 2013 (3) January 2013 (2) December 2012 (2) November 2012 (1) October 2012 (2) September 2012 (2) August 2012 (5) July 2012 (1) June 2012 (1) Authors
![]() ![]() Full Species List (Alphabetical by scientific name) Note: - Not every species we encounter is necessarily presented on this site, rather a selection of those that were of particular interest to us and that we felt were worth documenting. - We can't guarantee that all species have been identified accurately, particularly taxa we are not as familiar with. Lepidoptera Actias luna Adelpha californica Agraulis vanillae Allancastria cerisyi Antheraea mylitta Antheraea polyphemus Anthocharis sara Argema mimosae Attacus atlas Battus philenor hirsuta Bombyx mori Caligo atreus Callosamia promethea Coenonympha tullia california Citheronia regalis Cricula trifenestrata Danaus plexippus Eacles imperialis Erynnis tristis Estigmene acrea Eumorpha achemon Eupackardia calleta Furcula cinereoides Heliconius erato Heliconius hecale Heliconius sapho Heliconius sara Hyalophora cecropia Hyalophora columbia Hyalophora euryalus Hylephila phyleus Hyles lineata Junonia coenia Langia zenzeroides formosana Lophocampa maculata Manduca sexta Morpho peleides Nymphalis antiopa Orgyia vetusta Orthosia hibisci quenquefasciata Pachysphinx modesta Papilio cresphontes Papilio eurymedon Papilio glaucus Papilio machaon oregonius Papilio multicaudata Papilio polyxenes asterius Papilio rumiko Papilio rutulus Papilio zelicaon Phyciodes mylitta Phyciodes pulchella Pieris rapae Plejebus acmon Poanes melane Polites sabuleti Polygonia satyrus Pyrgus communis Rothschildia jacobaeae Samia cynthia advena Samia ricini Smerinthus cerisyi Smerinthus ophthalmica Strymon melinus Trichoplusia ni Uresephita reversalis Vanessa annabella Vanessa atalanta Vanessa cardui Unidentified Lepidoptera Hybrids Papilio glaucus × Papilio rutulus Papilio polyxenes asterius × Papilio zelicaon Orthoptera Melanoplus devastator Phaneroptera nana Pristoceuthophilus pacificus Scudderia mexicana Trimerotropis pallidipennis Phasmatodea Carausius morosus Phyllium giganteum Mantodea Mantis religiosa Phyllocrania paradoxa Hymenoptera Apis mellifera Bombus vosnesenskii Brachymeria ovata Linepithema humile Pediobius sp. Polistes dominula Xylocopa varipuncta Unidentified Diptera Lucilia sericata Unidentified Hemiptera Brochymena sp. Leptoglossus sp. Nezara viridula Odonata Argia vivida Libellula croceipennis Coleoptera Coccinella septempunctata Cycloneda polita Diabrotica undecimpunctata Hippodamia convergens Araneae (Class: Arachnida) Araneus diadematus Phidippus johnsoni |