2019 July 17

 

   Rosemary sends two pictures of a European Paper Wasp from the Kemp Lake area, July 16:

 

European Paper Wasp Polistes dominula (Hym.: Vespidae)  Rosemary Jorna

 

 

 

European Paper Wasp Polistes dominula (Hym.: Vespidae)  Rosemary Jorna

 

   These wasps seem to have chosen yesterday for posing for photographs, for Cheryl Hoyle photographed one yesterday along the Galloping Goose trail:

 

European Paper Wasp Polistes dominula (Hym.: Vespidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

 

   Another miscellany of various insects from Cheryl:

 

This damselfly was quite beyond my ability to identify, but no trouble for Dr Rob Cannings, who kindly identified it for us, to species, sex, and age!

 

Immature female Tule Bluet Ennalagma carunculatum (Odo.: Coenagrionidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

 

 

Lorquin’s Admiral Limenitis lorquini  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

 

   I believe the next one is a spider-hunting wasp.  There are too many species even to think about identifying it further, although Aporus luxus might be a reasonable guess.

 

Spider-hunting Wasp (possibly Aporus luxus??) (Hym.: Pompilidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

 

 

      Jochen Möhr writes from Metchosin:

 

After a night of full moon and pouring rain still very little at the light:

 

1 Hesperumia sulphuraria

1 Ochlodes sylvanoides (Picture attached)   

1 Scopula quinquelinearia

 

 

 

Woodland Skipper Ochlodes sylvanoides (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Jochen Möhr

 

   Question:  In the above photograph, which is the foreleg, which is the middle leg, and which is the hindleg?  Question:  Do all hesperiine skippers perch like that?

 

  Here’s a puzzler from Rosemary Jorna, Kemp Lake.  This tiny insect (1-2 mm) was in a bowl of local raspberries.  Is it a beetle or a bug?  Where are its wings?  Charlene Wood points out that most beetles have 9-11 antennal segments, whereas bugs have 4 or 5.  So it’s a bug.  But no wings?  That means it’s a nymph.  That’s the best we can do so far!

 

Unidentified bug nymph (Hemiptera – Heteroptera) Rosemary Jorna

 

   Thanks to Annie Pang for confirming Cheryl Hoyle’s photograph below as  a Leaf-cutter Bee of the genus Megachile.  This is a large genus and it may not be possible to go to species.

 

Leaf-cutter Bee Megachile sp. (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

 

   Coincidentally, at the very time when I asked Annie for help with Cheryl’s bee, Annie had just written a short, illustrated paragraph about leaf-cutter bees, so here’s what Annie says:

 

Here are my first GPCG pics of a Megachile female bee, common name, Leafcutter Bee.

Once these bees mate, the males croak, having outlived their usefulness (don’t ask me, I didn’t make the rules!!)  but the females get really busy, busy, busy collecting pollen on their bellies (unique to Megachile bees and a good way to identify them) and look for a suitable place to lay their eggs, finding or forming pencil shaped holes. They form loaves out of the pollen they collect adding some of their own saliva with beneficial "stuff" in it for the "kid" and pack it in with each egg, then seal it off with some chewed up leaves.

If you find a few holes in some of your rose bushes, don’t sweat it. It is not a pest and will not destroy your roses. You just helped out the bee population. Win-win for they will pollinate your garden in return for a few wee bites.  Taken at Gorge Park Community Gardens,Victoria, BC. July 15, 2019.

Don’t ask what species ….there are 100s of  ’em.

Leaf-cutter Bee Megachile sp. (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Annie Pang

 

 

 

Leaf-cutter Bee Megachile sp. (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Annie Pang

 

 

Leaf-cutter Bee Megachile sp. (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Annie Pang

 

 

 

Leaf-cutter Bee Megachile sp. (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Annie Pang

 

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes that at present there are hundreds of Essex Skippers to be seen along the waterfront trail at Island View Beach, and hundreds to be seen at the Orchard end of Witty’s Lagoon Park.