When thinking of territorial animals, the first ones that come to mind likely aren’t butterflies. The adult males of the question mark butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis) will defend their territory on trees they have perched on. Continue reading “116/150: The questionable habits of the Question Mark Butterfly”
When thinking of a typical caterpillar, you may picture one happily munching away on leaves. Not all caterpillars, however, feed on plants. The caterpillars of the harvester butterfly (Feniseca tarquinius) are actually insectivorous, meaning they feed on insects. Continue reading “61/150: Some caterpillars love to eat insects!”
Commonly known as the Canadian Tiger Swallowtail, Papilio canadensis is one of the most well-known butterflies in Canada because of its large size (wingspan of 7-10 cm) and distinctive pattern (yellow with black tiger stripes). They are found in all provinces with ranges extending to the north of the Arctic Circle in Yukon, Ontario, and Quebec. Continue reading “44/150: I’ve got black tiger stripes and can be found all over Canada!”
Hello my faithful readers,
I just got back from a fun filled weekend in Bruce Peninsula where we were trying to capture monarchs with the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy. Unfortunately the Queen narrowly avoided escape but we did manage to catch about 40 monarch butterflies. Our goal was to tag their wings with a small sticker which would help researchers track the monarch migration. Continue reading “Messing Around With Monarchs”
For the past few weeks I’ve been fortunate enough to start exploring the insect biodiversity of Canada’s largest privately owned nature conservancy: Darkwoods. Owned by the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), Darkwoods is a 136,000-acre tract of land located near Salmo, British Columbia in the heart of the Selkirk mountain range. Continue reading “Delving into Darkwoods”
Hey folks!
Last weekend was a very exciting couple days for me and everyone at BIO. This was because of the much awaited Bioblitz! For those of you who have never heard of a Bioblitz, I will give you a bit of an explanation. Continue reading “Plants, Plants, Plants, (and a caterpillar or two)”
