2025 January 13

No Invertebrate Alert was posted on January 12.

Jeremy Tatum writes:  A few days ago (see January 7) I got a surprise by finding a nice noctuid moth – a Girdler Moth Dargida procincta.  Libby Avis writes that: “Powell and Opler say the adults fly most of the year in the US, except for December and most of January, so that one may be less surprising given the mild winter.”   Yesterday, continues Jeremy, I got another surprise of an unexpected winter noctuid.  The handsome moth shown below emerged from a pupa that I had reared from caterpillar last year.  Thanks to Libby for identifying it as a Great Brocade Eurois occulta.  This is even less likely to be seen as an adult in winter than a Girdler Moth. Libby has never seen an adult before June, and Bug Guide says: “One generation per year; overwintering larvae become active in April, feeding until pupation occurs in June or July; adults emerge and lay eggs in late summer; eggs hatch in fall, and partially-grown larva overwinters.”

However, South, writing in 1907, says:  It feeds in the autumn….     Usually it hibernates when small, but when kept indoors and fairly warm it can be induced to complete growth, and attain the moth state in October or later, sometimes even earlier.

So, although I didn’t knowingly “induce” it, it must have pupated early in the fall, instead of hibernating as a caterpillar as it should have done.  I show the moth below.  The caterpillar is shown on October 31, where I had originally mislabelled it as a Lesser Yellow Underwing Noctua comes.

Great Brocade Eurois occulta (Lep.: Noctuidae)   Jeremy Tatum

2025 January 11

Here’s a selection of creatures photographed by Ian Cooper in View Royal last night.

Soldier beetle larva  (Col.: Cantharidae)   Ian Cooper

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  This could easily be mistaken for a moth caterpillar.   Indeed, I did so myself once, and would probably have done so again if Ian hadn’t pointed out that this is a soldier beetle grub.

Possibly a juvenile Cybaeus sp. (Ara.: Cybaeidae)   Ian Cooper

Forest Spider  Pimoa altioculata (Ara: Pimoidae)   Ian Cooper

• Possibly a juvenile Beaded Lancetooth snail, Ancotrema sportella  (Pul.: Haplotrematidae)
  Ian Cooper

Tiny snail, possibly a Dot Snail   (Ara.: Punctidae)   Ian Cooper

Grey Field Slug  Deroceras reticulatum (Pul.: Agriolimacidae)   Ian Cooper

2025 January 10

  Ian Cooper writes:  Here are six more pictures from my January 8 pre-dawn photo shoot in View Royal. Enjoy!

Crane fly larva – a “leatherjacket” – probably Tipula paludosa (Dip.: Tipulidae)  Ian Cooper

Dusky Arion  Arion subfuscus  (Pul.: Arionidae)  Ian Cooper

A very young Limax maximus (Pul.: Limacidae)  Ian Cooper

Unidentified globose springtail (Coll.: Dicyrtomidae)  Ian Cooper

Female linyphiid spider Neriene digna  (Ara.: Linyphiidae)  Ian Cooper

Cross Orb-weaver  Araneus diadematus (Ara.: Araneidae)  Ian Cooper

2025 January 9

No Invertebrate Alert was posted on January 8.

Here are some pictures taken by Ian Cooper in View Royal before dawn on January 8 near the 9 km marker of the Galloping Goose trail.

  Springtails  Orchesella villosa (Coll.: Orchesellidae)   Ian Cooper

Snail-eating Beetle  Scaphinotus angusticollis (Col.: Carabidae)   Ian Cooper
with two mites hitching a ride.

Long-jawed Orb Weaver Metellina sp. (Ara.: Tetragnathidae)   Ian Cooper

Snout mite (Acari:  Bdellidae)   Ian Cooper

Globular springtail, probably Ptenothrix sp.  (Coll.: Dicyrtomidae)   Ian Cooper

2025 January 7

   Here are two more photographs from Ian Cooper’s 2024 January 5 photoshoot:

Lady Beetle Calvia quatuordecimguttata (Col.: Coccinellidae)  Ian Cooper

  Also in the picture is a globose springtail, which would be well advised to stay out of the way of the lady beetle.  If I remember my Latin correctly (writes Jeremy Tatum), XIV is spelled quattuordecim, with two ts.  But, if the first person to describe and name a species new to science spells it wrongly, the name given must stick.

Linyphiid spider (Ara.: Linyphiidae)   Ian Cooper

   Globose springtails should also keep out of the way of linyphiid (or other) spiders.   The one in this photograph obviously didn’t.

A nice surprise for Jeremy Tatum along Carey Road today – this handsome moth.  There are several (many?) noctuid moths that overwinter as imagines, but I didn’t realize that this one did.   [My computer says I have made a mistake with grammar in the previous sentence.  Apparently, it doesn’t like “as imagines”.  I don’t see what’s wrong with it.]

Girdler Moth  Dargida procinctus  (Lep.: Noctuidae)   Jeremy Tatum

   I don’t know how this moth acquired the English name of “Girdler”. The caterpillars feed on grasses.
The spellings procinctus and procincta are both to be found in the literature.  On this site, since 2024, we are following spellings given in the ATC.