Port Renfrew, British Columbia
Not Washington at all, but not far away, in fact I could see Washington from here:
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Saturday was the first warm, dry day in what seems a long time, which was fortuitous because we were on a boat off Victoria doing the ecotourism bit, taking shaky photographs of Orca fins. An awesome sight and a privilege but an experience with which I was not totally comfortable - paying to be shown wildlife safari-style. Still I was reassured that a substantial cut of our fare would go to a marine conservation and research fund. Anyway, the following night we were staying in a lodge in the woods and there was a definite sense of moths in the air. Well into June, but this was the first night I could really say this. It was warmish and still, with some cloud cover. And dark, unlike Seattle.
So I took a stroll before bed with torch and net. Almost immediately I found a large noctuid settled by an electric light on the facing planks of the lodge. I must admit to being somewhat disappointed to see on closer inspection that it was a Large Yellow Underwing. Not that I have anything against
Noctua pronuba per se (they are sometimes much maligned by UK moth-ers) - a handsome moth - it's just that I was hoping for something native to Pacific Northwest Forests rather than a species which can be recorded in its hundreds in an English suburban garden. I came across it last year in Seattle so knew it was present on the Pacific coast. What surprised, and alarmed, me is that the LYU is not, as you might expect, a long established introduction that came with Euroamerican colonisation of the west, along with the many Eurasian weeds which are rife here. According to
Powell and Opler it was first recorded in 1979 having been accidentally introduced to Nova Scotia . In just thirty years it has become established from California (and Mexico?) to Alaska. You have to be impressed by its fecundity and versatility. I wonder how much its spread has been aided by the well established network of European-like weedy, garden, agricultural and suburban habitat available to the moth or whether it would have invaded the rich semi-natural habitats of the Pacific just as well without them.
Noctua pronuba - a 'weedy species' which, in the opinion of Lafontaine (eminent Canadian lepidopterist), will soon occur throughout the non-desert habitats of the west.
Continuing away from the garden-ish area around the lodge down an unpaved road through regrowing Red cedar and Douglas fir woodland with Salal and bunchberry dogwood and Twinflower in the understorey I found these and some salamanders in a small pool by the trackway. And - at last - not just greyish geometrids...
Dargida procinctus - Olive Green Cutworm. A beauty but I can't find much out about it except that there are several flights throughout the year and that the larvae feed on Phalaris arundinacea.
Dysstroma citrana - Dark marbled carpet. Seemed to me very light but I am sure that is what it is. The same species as the British 'Dark marbled carpet' but for some reason
Chloroclysta is used as the genus name in Europe and
Dysstroma here.
Another Xanthorhoe sp. and one not seen before, probably pontiaria.
Acronicta grisea - found this one on the 'skeeter screen' back at the lodge. Larvae feed on foliage of several broadleaved trees. Known as the 'Gray Dagger' it is a relative of the British 'Grey Dagger', Acronicta psi, in this mainly holarctic genus of some 175 species (Powell & Opler).
Hiked up to the sub-alpine zone the next day (through some old growth hemlock-fir forest, very nice but still a snowfield above about 1000m) and was able to find one more moth: the day flying Western White-ribboned Carpet - Mesoleuca gratulata below the snow line amongst Rubus. Bugguide's description is very appropriate "GRATULATA: from the Latin "gratulatus" (to express joy or gratification at the sight of); the first yearly sighting of these pretty and conspicuous day-flying moths is gratifying because it is a sure sign of spring in the west"
