2018 August 24 morning

   Unknown moth identified!   Viewers may have noticed that we had had to label one of Jochen Möhr’s recent moths (August 21 morning and August 22 morning) merely as “noctuid moth”,  or “Euxoa sp.”   We are happy now to thank Lars Crabo for successfully identifying the moth as Euxoa difformis, and we have labelled the images accordingly.

  Bryan Gates responded quickly to my plea for photographs of the Fall Webworm.  Now we need someone to get a photograph of one of the webs.  There is a photograph of a web in the posting for August 6 morning, taken by Gordon Hart during the VNHS monthly Butterfly Walk.

Fall Webworm Hyphantria cunea (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Bryan Gates

  Val George writes:  Yesterday, August 23, there were seven moths settled on the outside walls of the Nature Centre at Goldstream Park.  Six of them were Neoalcis californiaria, which I haven’t attached photos of because several photos have recently been posted on the Alert.  I’ve attached a photo of the seventh – Coryphista meadii.

Coryphista meadii (Lep.: Geometridae)  Val George

2018 August 23

   Bryan Gates writes:  At least two of these in my beach-side garden, Saratoga Beach, Black Creek, yesterday afternoon.   Jeremy Tatum adds:  Larval foodplant – Stinging Nettle.

Udea profundalis (Lep.: Crambidae)  Bryan Gates

    Jeremy Tatum:  Below is a photograph of Heliothis phloxiphaga.  This is one of the pale sandy-coloured day-flying moths that one often sees flying over the dunes at Island View Beach and Cordova/Saanichton Spit.  Larval foodplant – Gumweed.   While I was there this morning, I saw a few Ringlets (Large Heaths) and Woodland Skippers  – but no Branded Skippers or Purplish Coppers.

Heliothis phloxiphaga (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

  Jeremy continues:  I am sure that viewers will have noticed the many silken webs of the Fall Webworm Hyphantria cunea on the trees this year.  There is a particularly spectacular one at the north end of Fowler Park, in which a Black Hawthorn is totally engulfed.  It would make a spectacular photograph for someone.  My own camera isn’t set up for that sort of thing.   Fowler Park is just a tiny area at the north end of Cordova Bay Road, just south of Sayward Road.  The caterpillars are of the genuine woolly bear type.  The adult moth is totally white.  They are not at all related to the tent caterpillars that we see in Spring.

   Scott Gilmore writes:    I found a very interesting 4mm long beetle sitting on my car windscreen as I was about to drive away from home yesterday. After looking into it a bit I was able to identify it as Peltodytes callosus – a member of the family Haliplidae, commonly called the Crawling Water Beetles.  It is the first time I have found this family and normally you would expect to find it in water and not on your car, so this one must have been on the move.

Peltodytes callosus (Col.: Haliplidae) Scott Gilmore

2018 August 22 evening

   Jeff Gaskin writes:  Today,  August 22, I found Ringlets at the following places  :   23  near Viaduct Flats and 55 at or near Layritz Park  for a total of 78.

   And Jeremy Tatum writes:  This afternoon I counted 33 Woodland Skippers on the UVic campus – most of them in Finnerty Gardens.

2018 August 22 morning

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Here is a female Vapourer Moth, also known as Rusty Tussock Moth. The Women’s Rights movement seems to have made little progress in this species.

Female Vapourer Orgyia antiqua (Lep.: Erebidae – Lymantriinae) Jeremy Tatum

   Here is an egg mass of the tent caterpillar moth Malacosoma californicum.

Malacosoma californicum (Lep.: Lasiocampidae)  Jeremy Tatum

    Jochen Möhr has been seeing and photographing many exciting moths at his moth trap in Metchosin.  One night recently he found

25 (!) Tolype distincta

9 Neoalcis californiaria

2 Ennomos magnaria

1 Perizoma costiguttata

1 Apatensis nevadensis (a new one for here!)

1 Nemoria darwiniata

   Here are some of Jochen’s recent photographs.  As ever, we are grateful to Libby Avis for help with the identifications.

Euxoa difformis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

Hydriomena speciosata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Cosmia praeacuta (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

Euxoa difformis  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

2018 August 21 evening

   Ron Flower sends photographs of three dragonflies.   The first two were photographed at Island View Beach earlier this year.  The third was at Goldstream Park, August 19.

Variegated Meadowhawk Sympetrum corruptum (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Ron Flower

Western Pondhawk Erythemis collocata (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Ron Flower

Pacific Spiketail Cordulegaster dorsalis (Odo.: Cordulegastridae) Ron Flower

   More moths from Metchosin are going to have to wait until tomorrow!