Our first trip to Canyon Trail Park (El Cerrito, California) of 2017. It was a nice sunny day today after a rainy and windy week and the season has just started for much of the wildlife around here. We decided to take our first 2017 trip to Canyon Trail Park to see what we could find. We mainly had in mind the three local swallowtails, Battus philenor hirusta (pipevine swallowtail), Papilio rutulus (western tiger swallowtail) and Papilio zelicaon (anise swallowtail) since their host plants are all very abundant there (pipevine, willow, and fennel, respectively). When we got there, we slowly made our way through the trail scanning all the plants, starting with the willows. We didn't find much except for a few western tussock cateripillars (Orgyia vetusta). Next we headed to the fennel, but most plants were small and smothered in all the other weeds there so we couldn't find anything there either. Finally, we made our way to the pipevine, which grows very vigorously at this time of year, but the leaves were completely uneaten and there was not a single egg cluster on any of the vines. We did, however, see several pipevine swallowtails flying along the trail and high up in the trees. Though the butterflies themselves are out, it seems that it is probably slightly too early for them to lay eggs, as the weather has not warmed up quite as much as it should be at this time of year. Since we didn't have any luck with the swallowtails, we decided to move on and just look around the place for anything else that might be there. Historically, we have found many European mantis (Mantis religiosa) oothecas along the wooden fences around here, but they were always already hatched. However, this time when we looked on the fences, we found two egg cases, one small and clearly open (the case was damaged and the zipper was a mess), but the other one was very large and looked completely perfect in condition and unhatched! The zipper was completely sealed and it looked much cleaner than all the open egg cases we have found in the past; the coloration even looked a bit darker. We eagerly removed and collected the unhatched ootheca from the fence. When we brought the unhatched ootheca home, we compared it to all the open oothecas found in the past and weighed them all. Sure enough, the one we found today was much heavier, at 0.7 g, while the others hardly registered on the scale, only weighing 0.2 g at the most. Hopefully this ootheca will hatch soon so we don't have to care for it too long and risk it dying. The ootheca we had last year had already hatched on 4/1/16, so it probably won't be long for this to. While along the trail, the most abundant insects there were by far the damselflies and dragonflies. Dozens, maybe hundreds, were flying around the hill and along the creek. Most of the smaller ones looked like vivid dancers (Argia vivada) and other common damselflies. However, there was a very large red dragonfly in the mix that we decided to catch. Based on the coloration, it looks like a male red skimmer (Libellula croceipennis), though Odonata is not our expertise. ![]() Authors Alan Liang
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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 |