2020 May 5

   Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

1 Melanlophia imitata

2 Perizoma curvilinea

4 Tyria jacobaeae

1 Venusia obsoleta/pearsalli

    And he also saw some butterflies on his property!

3 Sara Orangetips

2 Western Spring Azures

1 Cabbage White

1 Propertius Duskywing  (a lifer for Jochen!)

Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Jochen Möhr

Sara Orangetip Anthocharis sara (Lep.: Pieridae)  Jochen Möhr

Sara Orangetip Anthocharis sara (Lep.: Pieridae)  Jochen Möhr

   Jeremy Tatum sends a picture of a moth reared from a caterpillar found last year in East Sooke Park.  The caterpillar feeds on Stachys and also on the fern Blechnum.

Euplexis benesimilis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

  Laura Weir sends a photograph of a bunch of Sheep Moth caterpillars from Uplands Park.  If you find any of these caterpillars, you are advised not to handle them – they can give you a rash.  You have been warned.

Sheep Moth Hemileuca eglanterina (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Laura Weir

   Rosemay Jorna sends a photograph of a small soldier beetle from the Sooke Hills, May 4.  Thanks to Scott Gilmore for identifying it as Dichelotarsus sp.

Dichelotarsus sp. (Col.: Cantharidae)  Rosemary Jorna

   Jeremy Tatum writes:   This afternoon I visited the pond near the Pike Lake Substation on Munn Road, and at one spot on the muddy shore there were about 50 (I counted 44, but missed some) Western Spring Azures mud-puddling, shoulder-to-shoulder in a space of just a few square feet.  Quite a spectacle.

2020

May 4^th be with you

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  This insect was flying around in my car –  distracting me!  – while I was driving down the Pat Bay Highway yesterday.  It is an alderfly.  I don’t often see these.  They used to be in the Order Neuroptera, but now they and the fishflies and dobsonflies are in the Order Megaloptera.

Alderfly Sialis sp. (Meg.: Sialidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning.  No pics:

2 Hydriomena manzanita

1 Perizoma curvilinea

2 Venusia obsoleta/pearsalli 

2020 May 3

2020 May 2

    Jochen Möhr’s list of moths from Metchosin this morning follows.  No photographs taken.

1 Behrensia conchiformis

1 Hydriomena manzanita 

1 Perizoma curvilinea

1 Tyria jacobaeae

1 Venusia obsoleta/pearsalli

2020 May 1 afternoon

   Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

1 Tetracis cervinaria

1 Egira simplex

1 Eupithecia – probably graefii

1 Hyalophora euryalus (different, fresher individual than two days ago)

1 Melanolophia imitata

1 Nola minna

5 Tyria jacobaeae

Hyalophora euryalus (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Jochen Möhr

Tyria jacobaeae (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Jochen Möhr

Tetracis cervinaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Egira simplex  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

   Here’s a syrphid fly from Mr E.  Thanks to Dr Jeff Skevington for confirming its identification as a dark morph Toxomerus sp.

Toxomerus sp.  (Dip.: Syrphidae)  Mr E

   Thanks to Scott Gilmore for identifying this click beetle, photographed by Mr E, as Selatosomus suckleyi:

 Selatosomus suckleyi (Col.: Elateridae)  Mr E

Selatosomus suckleyi (Col.: Elateridae)  Mr E

Selatosomus suckleyi (Col.: Elateridae)  Mr E

   Here are some Hymenoptera, photographed by Mr E.  Hymenoptera species are so numerous, and not all well studied, that it is not always possible to be certain from a photograph of an identification at species level.  Thanks to Matthias Buck for a good go!

Ichneumonid  (Hym.: Ichneumonidae)   Mr E

Nomad bee Nomada sp.(Hym.: Apidae)  Mr E

Giant sawfly Abia sp (Hym.: Cimbicidae)  Mr E

Sawfly (Hym.: Tenthredinidae)  Mr E