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.

October 21

2019 October 21

 

   Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin yesterday morning:

 

1 Drepanulatrix sp.

1 Dryotype opina

1 Hypena californica 

7 Sunira sp.

 

and from this morning:

 

2 Agrochola purpurea

1 Epirrita autumnata

4 Sunira decipiens

2 Sunira verberata

1 Tetracis sp.

 

 

 

Sunira decipiens/Sunira verberata   is another of these very difficult pairs.  We  (Libby Avis, Jochen Möhr, Jeremy Tatum) believe (hope?!) that the two Sunira  species below are labelled correctly.   And we also show the somewhat similar Agrochola purpurea.  Jochen photographed all three species on the same night, to  make a good comparison.


Agrochola purpurea Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr


Sunira verberata (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

 



Sunira decipiens (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

 


Dryotype opina (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

 


Tetracis jubararia/pallulata  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 


Epirrita autumnata  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 

 

 

October 18

2019 October 18

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I found this spider in my bedroom this morning. This species is one of several creatures, including harvestmen and crane flies, that are known, in different parts of the world, as “daddy-long-legs”.

 


Pholcus phalangioides (Ara.: Pholcidae)  Jeremy Tatum


Pholcus phalangioides (Ara.: Pholcidae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

October 16

2019 October 16

 

    Jeff Gaskin writes:  Today, Oct 16  I saw a Cabbage White in the Gorge Park community garden.  Also, if you look on eBird for Oct. 13, 8:40 ,  I believe ,  Randy Dzenkiw saw a Painted Lady at Whiffin Spit on that day.

 

   Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning.    Tetracis jubararia/pallulata  and Drepanulatrix secundaria/monicaria  are two pairs that can be very difficult to separate, because the variation within a species seems to be greater than the difference between them, and a lot also depends on state of wear.  Viewers, I hope, will forgive us if we don’t always identify them to species.  The Tetracis shown on October 6 is guaranteed jubararia – it was reared from caterpillar on Snowberry.   T. pallulata is a conifer feeder.

 

 

Tetracis jubararia/pallulata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 


Tetracis jubararia/pallulata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 


Drepanulatrix secundaria/monicaria  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen  Möhr

 


Eupithecia tripunctaria (Lep.: Geometridae)

Sunira decipiens (Lep.: Noctuidae)

Drepanulatrix secundaria/monicaria  (Lep.: Geometridae)

Jochen Möhr

 

   Mr E found this spider inside a residence on Prospect Lake Road on October 15:

 


Steatoda grossa (Ara.: Theridiidae)  Mr E

 


Steatoda grossa (Ara.: Theridiidae)  Mr E

 


Steatoda grossa (Ara.: Theridiidae)  Mr E

 

   Jody Wells forwards a photograph from C.D. Mazoff of a tick on the face of a Brewer’s Blackbird.  We cannot tell from the photograph exactly which species of tick it is.  In a recent paper, seven species of tick were recorded from passerine birds in Canada – six of them from the genus Ixodes, and one from Haemaphysalis.   The tick will probably drop off when it is engorged.

 

Tick  (Ixo.: Ixodidae) and Brewer’s Blackbird 

Euphagus cyanocephalus (Pas.: Icteridae)   C.D.Mazoff

 

October 15

2019 October 15

 

   Mr E sends photographs of two small insects from Port Renfrew:

 

 

Toxomerus geminatus (Dip.: Syrphidae)  Mr E

 

Hymenoptera.  Probably Chalcidoidea.  Possibly Eulophidae.    Mr E

 

Hymenoptera.  Probably Chalcidoidea.  Possibly Eulophidae.    Mr E

 

October 14

2019 October 14

    Mr E sends some photographs from Port Renfrew:

 


Arion rufus (Pul.: Arionidae)  Mr E


Arion rufus (Pul.: Arionidae)  Mr E


Arion rufus (Pul.: Arionidae)  Mr E


Spiramater lutra (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Mr E

 


Spiramater lutra (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Mr E


Spiramater lutra (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Mr E

Thanks to Charlene Wood for identifying the beetle below.


Scaphinotus angusticollis (Col.: Carabidae)  Mr E

Thanks to Dr Robb  Bennett for identifying the two spiders below.


Callobius (probably pictus) (Ara.: Amaurobiidae)  Mr E

Dirksia cinctipes (Ara.: Cybaeidae)  Mr E

Probably Chlorochroa ligata (Hem.: Pentatomidae)  Mr E

   Val George writes:  Yesterday, Oct 13, this rough stink bug was on one of my window frames at my house in Oak Bay.  Looks like a species of Brochymena to me  [me, too, Jeremy];  my best guess is B. affinis [mine, too – J].  But then, what do I know? [At least as much as I do – J]

Probably Brochymena affinis (Hem.: Pentatomidae)  Val George