Bug Catching at Bells Canyon

April 28, 2019

Content warning: impaled insects

Today, I wanted to escape the city after working long night shifts. After I heard that butterfly swarms have been seen over part of West and South Jordan the previous day, I got inspired to get cracking at my bug collecting hobby.

I remember Bells Canyon for its clearings among forested areas that, during the middle and later parts of summer, hosts patches of wildflowers; a pollinator's utopia.

From the first time I visited Bells Canyon, on the way towards the lower falls.

By this point of the year, however, the wildflowers haven't bloomed just yet, but butterflies were still fairly common, even if I still had to wait a decent amount of time before actually nabbing one or two.

The first bug I caught was a wasp. I couldn't figure out exactly what species it could be, but I've narrowed it down to probably the Tryphoninae tribe of parasitic wasps. The closest genus I could identify would be the eponymous genus Tryphon, which ostensibly has orange on the tips of its legs rather than white, but matches the reddish abdomen and long antennae.

 

I didn't want to mess with any wasps in my beginning collection, so I let this one go while I waited patiently for more charismatic bugs to come my way, and my waiting paid off when I caught this butterfly.

 

  

Thanks to some helpful folks on Facebook, this one is likely to be a male Cupido amyntula (Western tailed-blue), and certainly adds some color to my collection.

Happy with this catch alone, I started making my way back to the trailhead before I then caught another butterfly. I couldn't take pictures of it because I had to keep it caught within my butterfly net before I euthanized them, but based on the picture I took of my pinned results, the Facebook group helped me narrow down the genus (Anthocharis) and possible species (A. cethura; A. sara thoosa; or A. stella).

I'm still working on my pinning technique.
I'm gonna need more styrofoam to add more specimens.

I was actually a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to catch anything this early on in the summer, but it worked out successfully enough that I won't feel pressured to expand my collection until I start my new job in a few weeks (stay tuned for that announcement!)