Today we found a bunch of West Coast Lady (Vanessa annabella) eggs now as they are starting to come into season. Near the end of July, we made a post about all of the new species starting to trickle in as the season becomes ripe for them. One of them was our most common lady, the West Coast Lady (Vanessa annabella). We have frequently observed this species as being most abundant during the winter, but start coming in just about now, when fall is near. Today, we found for this first time this summer, a few scattered wild mallow (Malva) plants growing on the grass that were covered in West Coast Lady eggs. Like the Anise Swallowtail's (Papilio zelicaon) beloved sweet fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), this mallow is an introduced weed that colonizes with ease. Almost every unattended grassy area has some. But despite looking for eggs for months, we have not been able to find any until today. We counted a total of fourteen eggs, all collected from three tiny (probably regenerating) mallow plants outside a dog park. We also found a hatched egg with a newborn right next to it as well as a single third instar. When we took these home, we were curious to compare them to the very closely related Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) that we are currently rearing a number of right now. The two species are even known to possibly hybridize in areas that they overlap, such as where we live. The West Coast Lady is the smallest of all our Vanessas. and when we compared an egg to a Red Admiral egg that we found today the size difference was quite evident. The Red Admiral eggs seem to be more translucent and a richer green, with the little ribs more clearly defined since they are larger; the West Coast Lady eggs are sort of just a murky milky green. The size difference in the caterpillars was significant too. The third instar we found was much smaller than the third instar Red Admiral in every aspect. A main distinction between the West Coast Lady and Red Admiral caterpillars besides size is that the former always (or, at least, all of those that we have seen) bear yellow stripes running along the side. These stripes are present in Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) as well, but not found in the Red Admirals. On top of that, the West Coast Lady caterpillars tend to vary less in color and are most often completely black except for the stripes; the Red Admiral black forms usually have colored spiracles and feet. - 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 |