INVERTEBRATE ALERT
This blog provides an informal forum for terrestrial invertebrate watchers to post recent sightings of interesting observations in the southern Vancouver Island region. Please send your sightings by email to Jeremy Tatum (tatumjb352@gmail.com). Be sure to include your name, phone number, the species name (common or scientific) of the invertebrate you saw, location, date, and number of individuals. If you have a photograph you are willing to share, please send it along. Click on the title above for an index of past sightings.The index is updated most days.

November 19

2019 November 19

 

   Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

 

2 Drepanulatrix

2 Operophtera

1 Sunira decipiens – same individual as lately, now on the floor.

 

   As winter approaches, we are almost being reduced to photographing just winter moths and firebrats.

 

Male Winter Moth Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

Female Winter Moth Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

Common Firebrat Thermobia domestica (Thysanura:  Lepismatidae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

 

November 18

2019 November 18

 

   Kirsten Mills sends a photograph showing the underside of a Winter Moth from Hillside Mall, November 17.

 

 

Winter Moth Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae) Kirsten Mills

 

 

   Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

 

3 Drepanulatrix sp.  

1 Epirrita autumnata

5 Operophtera sp.

1 Sunira decipiens, the same individual as the last four days, and to my surprise it is alive as it turned a bit and moved a few cm.

 

November 17

2019 November 17

 

   Butterfly!   The butterfly season is not yet over!   It’s a dark, soggy, rainy November day – not the sort of day to look for butterflies.  Yet Anne-Marie Hart and Tina Akhavan have just seen a California Tortoiseshell sunning (!) on a Manzanita bush at the Highlands Community Hall on Finlayson Arm Road.

 

California Tortoiseshell Nymphalis californica (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Tina Akhavan

 

   Jeremy Tatum shows two Winter Moths from his Saanich apartment.

 

Winter Moth Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae)   Jeremy Tatum

 

Winter Moth Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae)   Jeremy Tatum

 

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

 

3 Drepanulatrix sp.  

1 Epirrita autumnata

7 Operophtera sp.

1 Sunira decipiens (same individual at same spot for three days now)

 

 

 

November 16

2019 November 16

 

   Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

 

2 Drepanulatrix sp.

2 Epirrita autumnata

4 Operophtera brumata 

1 Sunira decipiens

 


Epirrita autumnata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 


Epirrita autumnata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 


Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 


Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 


Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 


Drepanulatrix sp.  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 


Drepanulatrix sp.  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 

November 15

2019 November 15

 

   Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

 

3 Epirrita autumnata

1 Operophtera brumata

1 Drepanulatrix sp

1 Sunira decipiens

 


Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 


Epirrita autumnata (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr

 


Drepanulatrix sp. (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr

 


Sunira decipiens (Lep.: Noctuidae) Jochen Möhr