This blog provides an informal forum for terrestrial invertebrate watchers to post recent sightings of interesting observations in the southern Vancouver Island region. Please send your sightings by email to Jeremy Tatum (tatumjb352@gmail.com). Be sure to include your name, phone number, the species name (common or scientific) of the invertebrate you saw, location, date, and number of individuals. If you have a photograph you are willing to share, please send it along. Click on the title above for an index of past sightings.The index is updated most days.

2022 October 22 evening

2022 October 22 evening

    Mike Yip sends a photograph of a grasshopper from Nanoose.  He writes:  “When I first saw this creature flying by I thought it might be a moth. It had black wings with a yellow border and finally landed about 50 m away. When I finally got a clear view it turned out to be a grasshopper.” 

  This is the Carolina Grasshopper, often known colloquially as the Mourning Cloak Grasshopper, since it can be mistaken in flight for that butterfly.  

Dissosteira carolina (Orth.: Acrididae)  Mike Yip

   Here are some more creatures of the night, photographed by Ian Cooper.

Harvestman (Opiliones) Ian Cooper

Common Rough Woodlouse Porcellio scaber (Isopoda – Porcellionidae) 
Ian Cooper

Large Yellow Underwing Noctua pronuba (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Ian Cooper