2020 August 6
The moth below was brought into the Swan Lake Nature House and photographed by Coral Forbes. It was misidentified by Jeremy Tatum (i.e. by me!) and identified properly by Claudia Copley (who wrote the paper on the species in British Columbia) as Noctua pronuba – a rather dark specimen:
Noctua pronuba (Lep.: Noctuidae) Coral Forbes
A Perizoma curvilinea from Jochen Möhr in Metchosin:
Perizoma curvilinea (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr
2020 August 5
Gordon Hart writes: On Monday, August 3, we went to Royal Roads University since the wind had died down. The Italian and English gardens were at their peak, but the poor rose garden was not kept up at all. It would not have been good for our group, since there was a limit of 50 people in the gardens, and a short line-up to get in. (The rest of the grounds were still open, though). There were several butterflies: 4 Cabbage Whites, one Lorquin’s Admiral and a Woodland Skipper, and many Pine Whites. Outside the gardens there were small patches of Goldenrod, and another yellow flower, with several Pine Whites on each clump.
Gordon sends photographs of some of the insects he saw there on August 2 and 3.
Pine White Neophasia menapia (Lep.: Pieridae) Gordon Hart
Enallagma carunculatum (Odo.: Coenagrionidae) Gordon Hart
The insect below (incorrectly identified in an earlier version of this posting) is a Giant Case-bearing Caddisfly of the Family Phryganeidae, and almost certainly Philostomis ocellifera. As Merrill Peterson writes of the Family: they have “two spurs on the front tibia”. See them?
Philostomis ocellifera (Tri.: Phryganeidae) Gordon Hart
Perizoma curvilinea (Lep.: Geometridae) Jeremy Tatum
Neoalcis californiaria (Lep.: Geometridae) Gordon Hart
Cardinal Meadowhawk Sympetrum illotum (Odo.: Libellulidae) Gordon Hart
Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning:
1 Eulithis xylina
1 Eupithecia sp.
1 Drepanulatrix (probably secundaria)
1 Neoalcis californiaria
Drepanulatrix (probably secundaria) (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr)
There has been a lot of newspaper publicity recently about the Giant Asian Hornet. The species in question is Vespa mandarinia. It is more of a true hornet (Vespa) than our common White-faced Hornet. It has been found in Nanaimo. We should keep a look out for it here. According to the newspaper, it can decimate honey bee hives – that is, it can reduce them by ten percent. Yes, I know there are those of the “language evolves” school who would say that decimate does not mean only this, and they can quote distinguished writers from a century ago who used it mean something else. This may be so, but my feeling is that it is much easier for us to communicate among and understand ourselves, and to make the best use of the English language, if we use the word “spade” to mean “spade”, “kid” to mean “kid”, and “decimate” to mean “decimate”. I think the current misuse of the word “decimate” is nothing more than a malapropism of the inaccurately-heard “devastate”.
2020 August 4
Two butterflies and a moth from Jochen Möhr in Metchosin:
Essex Skipper Thymelicus lineola (Lep.: Hesperiidae) Jochen Möhr
Woodland Skipper Ochlodes sylvanoides (Lep.: Hesperiidae) Jochen Möhr
Oligia divesta (Lep.: Noctuidae) Jochen Möhr
Jody Wells photographed a Painted Lady near the reservoir at Longview Farms, Wallace Drive:
Painted Lady Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Jody Wells
Some butterflies and a fly photographed by Aziza Cooper on Mount Washington last week. Thanks to Dr Jeff Skevington for identification of the fly, and to David Harris for the identification of the skipper.
Branded Skipper Hesperia comma (Lep.: Hesperiidae) Aziza Cooper
Anise Swallowtail Papilio zelicaon (Lep.: Papilionidae) Aziza Cooper
Great Arctic Oeneis nevadensis (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Satyrinae) Aziza Cooper
Male hover fly Sericomyia chalcopyga (Dip.: Syrphidae) Aziza Cooper
Rick and Libby Avis came across this grisly scene along the Stamp River on Sunday. It is the cocoon formed by the larva of an ichneumon wasp (probably subfamily Campopleginae), after eating its way out of a lepidopterous caterpillar, whose skin can be seen above it.
Ichneumonid cocoon (Hym.: Ichneumonidae – Campopleginae) Rick Avis
Rosemary Jorna sends pictures from Sheilds Lake of a rather pale Banana Slug, some carpenter ants, and a bumble bee identified for us by Annie Pang.
Carpenter ants Camponotus sp. (Hym.: Formicidae) Rosemary Jorna
Banana Slug Ariolimax columbianus (Pul.: Arionidae) Rosemary Jorna
Bombus vosnesenskii (Hym.: Apidae) Rosemary Jorna
Bombus vosnesenskii (Hym.: Apidae) Rosemary Jorna
Bombus vosnesenskii (Hym.: Apidae) Rosemary Jorna
2020 August 3
Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning:
1 Apamea amputatrix
1 Nemoria darwiniata,
2 Neoalcis californiaria
1 Pero (honestaria?)
plus 6 Woodland Skippers and 1 Essex Skipper
Pero (probably honestaria) (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr
Apamea amputatrix (Lep.: Noctuidae) Jochen Möhr
Essex Skipper Thymelicus lineola (Lep.: Hesperiidae) Jochen Möhr
2020 August 2 evening
About a dozen optimists turned up at Mount Tolmie today for the monthly Butterfly Walk. I say “optimists”, because we were all aware that butterflies have been exceedingly scarce this year, and that we would be lucky if we saw any at all. I don’t think it actually says in the Holy Bible “Blessed is he who expecteth nothing; for he shall not be disappointed”. As it is, we saw one Cabbage White on Mount Tolmie before we decided that our destination for the day should be Island View Beach. We saw two or three additional Cabbage Whites on the way to Island View Beach. And while there, we saw 1 Cabbage White, 1 Lorquin’s Admiral and 2 Essex Skippers. Nevertheless a good time was had by all, we enjoyed our walk talking with our friends about butterflies, and we never once approached each other closer than two metres (six feet).
Before we left Mount Tolmie we saw a rather nice snail, shown below, on a nearby Fennel.
Cepaea nemoralis (Pul.: Helicidae) Jeremy Tatum
The day before, Jeremy Tatum saw this long-leggedy spider at King’s Pond. Thanks to Dr Robb Bennett for the identification.
Tetragnatha (probably versicolor) (Ara.: Tetragnathidae) Jeremy Tatum
Jeremy Tatum writes:
Viewers may have seen an article in today’s Times-Colonist (page A3) in which it is stated that the Vancouver Island Blue was last seen in Victoria in 1979. The article does not say who saw it, exactly where it was seen, to whom it was reported, or how it was authenticated. And many of us may not have heard of the “Vancouver Island Blue” or know what it is or was. The butterfly in question is the Vancouver Island population of the Greenish Blue Plebeius saepiolus. This is a butterfly with a fairly wide distribution on the mainland of British Columbia, and which apparently had – but no longer has – a small population on Vancouver Island. Presumably, there were sufficient apparent small differences between it and the mainland populations as to attract a trinomial subspecific appellation: Plebeius saepiolus insulanus.
In natural history circles we generally do not – and should not – use a separate English name for an isolated local population (which is, after all, what a subspecies is). To do so gives an erroneous impression that we are dealing with a distinct species. If we do use an English name for a subspecies, it is usual to put it in parentheses, or quotes, or both. Thus we write about the Yellow-rumped (“Audubon’s”) Warbler, not about Audubon’s Warbler as if we were talking about a separate species. It would make it easier for us to understand each other if we referred to the Vancouver Island population of the Greenish Blue as the Vancouver Island population of the Greenish Blue, and not to talk about it as if there were such a species as the “Vancouver Island Blue”. I find it easier to communicate with and understand others if we all use the word “spade” to mean “spade”, “bug” to mean “bug”, and “species” to mean “species”.
The Times-Colonist article refers to a report about 308 endemic species in Canada. I suspect that many (most?) of these “species” are in fact local populations (subspecies) rather than full species.