2020 October 6

  Jochen Möhr photographed a Harvestman in Metchosin on October 4.  Dr Philip Bragg of UBC writes:  Your guess that the specimen might be Nelima is pretty good, but I think that it is more likely to be Leptobunus parvulus. The photograph is good but it does not show clearly important details e.g. that the palpal claw of Nelima is denticulate whereas in Leptobunus it is smooth. Thanks for sending it. (And thanks, Dr Bragg, for identifying it!)

Probably Leptobunus parvulus (Opiliones: Phalangiidae)  Jochen Möhr

   Jochen’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

1 Drepanulatrix sp.

1 Eupithecia sp.

1 Orthosia mys – same as previous two days.

No pics taken

Lots more tomorrow…

2020 October 5 morning

   Here’s a rather fierce-looking spider photographed by Ian Cooper along the Galloping Goose trail, and kindly identified for us by Dr Robb Bennett as a  mature male Callobius pictus.

Callobius pictus (Ara.: Amaurobiidae)  Ian Cooper

   And a beetle, kindly identified for us by Scott Gilmore:

Helops pernitens (Col.: Tenebrionidae)  Ian Cooper

   Jochen Möhr’s short list of moths from Metchosin this morning:

1 Drepanulatrix sp.

1 Orthosia mys

Orthosia mys (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

2020 October 4 afternoon

   (Unfortunately, because of a technical hitch, this was not posted until the morning of of October 5.)

   Jeff Gaskin reports the sighting of an unidentified nymphalid butterfly (a Lady or a Red Admiral) this afternoon at 2:30 pm on Lampson Street at Bewdley Street in Esquimalt.  Jeff and Jeremy Tatum are both seeing a few Cabbage Whites still.

   Ian Cooper sends two more photographs from the Galloping Goose Trail near the 9 km marker. First, a caterpillar (green form) of the Large Yellow Underwing moth.

Noctua pronuba (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Ian Cooper

   Next, this magnificent millipede.   We have been calling this “Probably Eurymerodesmidae”, but we are sure there must be someone out there who knows exactly what it is.  Do let us know!  (jtatum at uvic dot ca)

Flat-backed millipede (Polydesmida: probably Eurymerodesmidae)   Ian Cooper

More tomorrow…

2020 October 4 morning

   A spider photographed by Ian Cooper, and identified by Dr Robb Bennett as an immature male Clubiona sp.:

Clubiona sp. (Ara.: Clubionidae)  Ian Cooper

   Jochen Möhr writes from Metchosin that he photographed a ” funny creature, which looks like a caddis fly larva – but on dry land at 180m above sea level??? “.   Yes, indeed, writes Jeremy Tatum, it does indeed look very like a caddisfly larva, and I was equally puzzled  myself when I first saw one like this.  We’d need to see the adult insect to be certain of the identification, but I believe it is the tineid moth Phereoeca uterella:

Probably Phereoeca uterella (Lep.: Tineidae)  Jochen Möhr

2020 October 3 afternoon

   Rosemary Jorna writes:  We hiked through the Sooke hills from Harbourview to the YMCA Camp Thunderbird. We did not see a variety of insects but there were many snail eating Scaphinotus angusticollis on the trail, at least 12 in the last 3 kilometres.   Over the last couple of weeks, I seem to see one or two every time I am out but they move too fast to photograph. Today was different –  several posed for the camera but as they all look the same I am only sending a shot of one eating the remains of a banana slug.

Snail-eating beetle Scaphinotus angusticollis (Col.: Carabidae) Rosemary Jorna

      Here are two slugs photographed by Ian Cooper:

Limax maximus (Pul.: Limacidae)  Ian Cooper

Ariolimax columbianus (Pul.: Arionidae)  Ian Cooper