2021 October 10 morning

    Jeff Gaskin tells me that Kirsten Mills saw a Lady (identity uncertain) on the top of Mount Tolmie on Thursday.  Butterfliers are encouraged to visit the tops of our hills where butterflies often hill-top in the late afternoons to see if there are more ladies, and, if so, which species they are.  Mount Douglas, Mount Tolmie, Christmas Hill and Highrock Park are obvious places to try. 

2021 October 9 morning

    Jeff Gaskin reports a Painted Lady on the summit of Christmas Hill, 3:45 pm, October 9.  If we get some sun, it might be worth going up there – especially in the late afternoon – just on the off-chance that it might be an American Lady.

   Aziza Cooper sends a photograph of a Yellow Woolly Bear from the Lochside Trail north of Blenkinsop Lake, October 8.  (woolly = British spelling,  wooly  = American;  here we takes our choice.)

Yellow Woolly Bear Spilosoma virginica (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Aziza Cooper

   And Ian Cooper sends another woolly bear from the same trail, October 6:

Banded Woolly Bear Pyrrharctia isabella (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Ian Cooper

    Three spiders and two bugs from Ian.   Thanks to Dr Robb Bennett for the spider identifications.  Robb writes:

 A is a female Agelenopsis grass funnel-web spider. Most likely A. potteri or A. utahana although there are other species in our neighbourhood.

B is an Antrodiaetus in her burrow. Local coastal species is A. pacificus.

C is a male Eratigena duellica

Grass funnel-web spider Agelenopsis potteri/utahana (Ara.: Agelenidae – Ageleninae)

Ian Cooper

Antrodiaetus pacificus (Ara.– Myg.: Androdiaetidae) Ian Cooper

Eratigena duellica (Ara.: Agelenidae)  Ian Cooper

Red-cross Shield Bug Elasmostethus cruciatus (Hem.: Acanthosomatidae)  Ian Cooper

Rhododendron Leafhopper Graphocephala fennahi (Hem.: Cicadellidae)

Ian Cooper

2021 October 7

 (No October 6 posting, in case you were looking.)

    On August 22 we posted a photograph from Mark Wynja in Bowser of a Clouded Sulphur Colias philodice with an egg beneath it on a leaf of Beach Pea Lathyrus japonicus.  Mark found four eggs, and he has now succeeded in the tricky task rearing them to chrysalides.  Mark writes:

 Aug 20, 2021 – female Clouded Sulphur photographed (egg spotted on leaf below her)

 Aug 23, 2021 – collected eggs and parts of host beach pea

 Aug 24/25, 2021 – four caterpillars emerged

 Oct 3/4, 2021 –  first caterpillar has entered the pupal stage

 Oct 6, 2021 – two more Clouded Sulphur caterpillars have entered the pupal stage. One pupa has fallen from where it attached itself. The largest of the caterpillars has stopped moving and eating; it will likely pupate soon. 

 This whole process has taken 40 or more days from the caterpillars emerging to entering the pupal stage. They have spent their time in the rearing container with a regular fresh supply of beach pea.They are in our sunroom, out of direct sunlight, where it is only marginally warmer than the outside temperature.

Clouded Sulphur Colias philodice (Lep.: Pieridae)   Mark Wynja

Clouded Sulphur Colias philodice (Lep.: Pieridae)   Mark Wynja

Clouded Sulphur Colias philodice (Lep.: Pieridae)   Mark Wynja

   Kalene Lillico, Program Naturalist at Swan Lake, sent a photograph of what she described as a sweet little robber fly.  She also suggested a more prosaic name, Neomochtherus willistoni , and Dr Rob Cannings confirms that she was spot on – which is what you’d expect of a Swan Lake Program Naturalist.

Female robber fly  Neomochtherus willistoni (Dip.: Asilidae)   Kalene Lillico

2021 October 5

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  Here is a young (second instar) caterpillar from the large egg mass shown on September 19

Noctua pronuba (Lep.: Noctuidae)    Jeremy Tatum

Noctua pronuba (Lep.: Noctuidae)    Jeremy Tatum

Aziza Cooper writes:  On October 1, I was at Panama Flats, and tiny money spiders kept landing on me. The spiders in the photo are on my hat, greatly enlarged.

Thanks to Dr Robb Bennett for identifying them for us.

Erigone sp. ( Ara.: Linyphiidae – Erigoninae)  Male (upper), female (lower)    Aziza Cooper

Aziza continues:  On October 4, I saw a large dragonfly at Burgoyne Bay Provincial Park.

Thanks to Dr Rob Cannings for identifying it for us.

Female Shadow Darner Aeshna umbrosa (Odo.: Aeshnidae)  Aziza Cooper

2021 October 4 morning

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  I didn’t have to wait long for an answer to my appeal for a photograph of a Banded Woolly Bear.  Rosemary Jorna saw one up there on the Matterhorn along with the American Lady that was shown in yesterday’s posting.

Banded Woolly Bear  Pyrrharctia isabella (Lep.: Erebidae –Arctiinae)  Rosemary Jorna

   Mr E photographed some springtails near Mount Douglas Beach.  We are grateful to Dr Frans Jannsens for identifying them for us.   When I was young, which was a long time ago, life was simple, and springtails were in the Order Collembola in the Class Insecta.  Nowadays, life is more complicated. Springtails are no longer insects, and they are distributed among four Orders, which Dr Jannsens tells us are Poduromorpha, Neelipleona, Entomobryomorpha and Symphypleona.  

   Dr Jannsens gives us not only the species of the globose springtail below, but its subspecies and even its age (a subadult).

Ptenothrix maculosa olympia (Symphypleona – Dicyrtomidae)  Mr E

Ptenothrix maculosa olympia (Symphypleona – Dicyrtomidae)     Mr E

Entomobrya intermedia (Entomobryomorpha – Entomobryidae)

Mr E