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.

September 29

2018 September 29

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:   No reports today up to 2:00pm, and I probably shan’t be at the computer again today.  I thought I’d just make the following remarks.

 

    The September 2 VNHS monthly Butterfly walk yielded Cabbage White, Woodland Skipper,Ringlet, Purplish Copper.  Since then, it must have seemed to most of us, individually at least, that the butterfly season was over, most of us not seeing more than an occasional Cabbage White.  Yet collectively it has been a good deal more exciting than that.  Since that September 2 Butterfly Walk, the following additional butterflies have been seen, by one enthusiast or another, in the southern Vancouver Island birdwatching area:

 

Monarch

Lorquin’s Admiral

Red Admiral

Painted Lady

American Lady

California Tortoiseshell

Mourning Cloak

Pine White

Grey Hairstreak

 

   Not a bad haul – thirteen species in September.   And still on Vancouver Island, though not in the above area, there have been sightings of Green Comma and Hoary Comma.  And of course there have been many moths, including some spectaculars such as Black Witch and Catocala, and caterpillars of Lappet and Polyphemus moths.

September 28

2018 September 28

 

   There are still Cabbage Whites around.  Jeremy Tatum writes that he saw several in various places on the Saanich Peninsula today.

 

   Ron Flower writes:  Today Friday 28th, we went to Beacon Hill Park and found this fresh looking Mourning Cloak. We found it along the paved trail by the maintenance yard.   Jeremy Tatum comments:  We have had very, very few Mourning Cloaks this year.  Offhand, without looking it up, I can think of only one previous sighting this year in the southern Vancouver Island birdwatching area.

Mourning Cloak Nymphalis antiopa (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Ron Flower

Mourning Cloak Nymphalis antiopa (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Ron Flower

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Here is a Yellow Woolly Bear caterpillar from Longview Farms, Central Saanich, today.   The colour of this caterpillar may vary from brown, like this one, through yellow, even to white.  At this time of year, we may find several species of woolly bear.  October, especially, is the month for the Banded Woolly Bear.  Many are often seen in Panama Flats.   Some of the woolly bears, such as the Yellow Woolly Bear, are fairly easy to rear to adult moth.  Viewers should be aware, however, that the Banded Woolly Bear is among the most difficult caterpillars to rear successfully.  If you are interested in rearing caterpillars for the first time, the Banded Woolly Bear is not a good one to start with.

Yellow Woolly Bear Spilosoma virginica (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 27

2018 September 27

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Today I saw a Cabbage White from the window of my Saanich apartment buidling, and yesterday I saw one in Uplands Park, where I had gone in an unsuccessful attempt to relocate Dave Fraser’s Monarch (see yesterday’s posting).

 

  Scott Gilmore writes from Upper Lantzville:   I had three species of Orbweaver within 50cm of each other in my back yard yesterday.  The Cross Orbweaver, Araneus diadematus, the Banded Garden Spider, Argiope trifasciata, and the Shamrock Orbweaver, Araneus trifolium. 

 



Araneus diadematus (Ara.: Araneidae)  Scott Gilmore

 


Argiope trifasciata (Ara.: Araneidae) Scott Gilmore

 


Araneus trifolium (Ara.: Araneidae)   Scott Gilmore

  

September 26

There was no Invert Alert on September 25

 

2018 September 26

 

   Monarch Alert!   David Fraser reports a Monarch today (message sent to BCVIBRDS at 1:35 pm) in Uplands Park.  It was flying 3 m above the path from the path at the corner of Dorset and Lincoln Roads.

 

   Anne-Marie Hart saw a pristine Painted Lady yesterday morning (September 25) at her home in the Highlands.   And yesterday afternoon Jeff Gaskin saw a nice-looking California Tortoiseshell on Wascana Street, which is on the Gorge .  He remarks that it looked in very good shape.

 

September 24

2018 September 24

 

   Scott Gilmore writes from Upper Lantzville that he saw a Red Admiral fly through his yard yesterday.

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes that he has seen Cabbage Whites today at UVic, on Mount Tolmie, and from his Saanich apartment window.