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.

June 27

2016 June 27

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  There have been almost no moths at my apartment porch light for a long time, so I am reduced to photographing a harvestman.  Some people call them “daddy-long-legs” – although this name is used in different parts of the world for other sorts of arachnid or insect, so it is best to call them harvestmen.

 

Harvestman Phalangium opilio (Opiliones:  Phalangiidae)   Jeremy Tatum

 Harvestman Phalangium opilio (Opiliones:  Phalangiidae)   Jeremy Tatum

   Jeremy continues:  Although there was nothing else near our porch light, I found this assassin bug on the window of my living room in Saanich today.  If you see one of these bugs, you would be well advised not to handle it.  They have a reputation for being able to give a painful bite.

 

Assassin bug   Zelus tetracanthus (Hem.: Reduviidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Val George writes:  Attached is a photo of a Variegated Meadowhawk Sympetrum corruptum I took at the Victoria Golf Course, June 26.

 

Variegated Meadowhawk Sympetrum corruptum (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Val George

   Aziza Cooper writes:   On Sunday, June 26, Moralea Milne and I went to several places looking for butterflies and a moth.

 

Nanaimo River Road, between 9:30 and 10:30am:

Dun Skipper – 1

Pale Tiger Swallowtail – 1

Sylvan Hairstreak – 1

Grey Hairstreak – 2

Fritillary – possibly Hydaspe – 1

Lorquin’s Admiral – 1

 

Notch Hill, off Powder Point Rd. in Nanoose

– search for a Grammia moth was unsuccessful

 

Mount Cokely: Cameron Main to Pass Main to old ski area:

Dun Skipper 1 on lower part of Cameron Main near the Connector

Pale Tiger Swallowtail – 10

Anise Swallowtail – 1

Western Tiger Swallowtail – 5

Comma species – 1 flyby

Fritillary species – 5 flybys

Lorquin’s Admiral – 2

Clodius Parnassian – 7

Silvery Blue

Anna’s Blue

Western Tailed Blue

Sara Orangetip – 6

Persius Duskywing – 1

Arctic Skipper (Carterocephalus palaemon) – 3

Margined White – 3 near the last bridge/trailhead on Pass Main

 

Total species for the day (including Cabbage White along the highway) – 18

 

Dun Skipper Euphyes vestris (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Aziza Cooper

Dun Skipper Euphyes vestris (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Aziza Cooper

 

Sylvan Hairstreak Satyrium sylvinum (Lep.: Lycaenidae) Aziza Cooper

Lepturobosca chrysocoma (Col.: Cerambycidae)  Aziza Cooper

 

June 25

2016 June 25

 

Annie Pang sends a photograph of a young female Blue-eyed Darner from Gorge Park, June 16.  Thanks to Rob Cannings for the identification.

 

Blue-eyed Darner Rhionaeschna multicolor (Odo.: Aeshnidae)  Annie Pang

 

  Jeremy Tatum sends a photograph of a caterpillar of Nycteola cinereana  from near Blenkinsop Lake.  It and its congeners are recognized by the sparse very fine hairs. Usually found on poplar, but this one was on willow.

 

Nycteola cinereana (Lep.: Nolidae)   Jeremy Tatum

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Two Red Admirals at the top of Mount Tolmie at 6:30 pm, June 25.  He continues:  On June 14 and 16 we showed pictures of two species of mite, and I had a clumsy attempt at trying to identify them.  They have now been properly identified by acarologist Heather Proctor, to whom I am most grateful.  To see the correct identifications, scroll to June 14 and 16.

 

 

June 24

2016 June 24

 

   Monthly Butterfly Walk.  No, it’s not quite yet – it will be on Sunday July 3.  We usually meet on the top of Mount Tolmie in the early afternoon, but on July 3 we are meeting there at 10:00 a.m. because we are contemplating going farther afield than usual, maybe Shawnigan Lake or Cowichan.  We’ll put a reminder on this site closer to the time, but I thought I’d mention it now because of the change in the meeting time.

 

   Jeff Gaskin reports that a Western Sulphur has been in a private garden in the Prospect Lake area for a week.  Also there – a Red Admiral and a Mourning Cloak.  Jeff  also reports a Red Admiral on the college grounds at Royal Roads today, June 24.

 

   Gordon Hart writes:  Even though the weather has not been great, there have been 19 counts submitted so far, with 12 species seen. Numbers are down from May, and several species only have one individual butterfly. After Cabbage Whites, Western Tiger Swallowtails and Lorquin’s Admirals are most common.

 

   Gordon Hart sends a photograph of a Dot-tailed Whiteface from Munn Road.

 Dot-tailed Whiteface Leucorrhinia intacta (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Gordon Hart

 

 

   Rosemary Jorna writes:  This is the second Pacific Sideband Snail  Monadenia fidelis I’ve found on our Kemp Lake Road property in the last week.  The cool damp weather must be bringing them out.  This one pulled in his “horns“ as I took its photo this afternoon, June 23, 2016.

 


Pacific Sideband Snail Monadenia fidelis (Pul.: Bradybaenidae)  Rosemary Jorna

 

   Mike Yip sends a photograph of two ladybirds (or should that be a gentleman and a lady?) enjoying themselves in his Nanoose Bay potato patch.

 

Harmonia axyridis (Col.: Coccinellidae)   Mik Yip

June 23

2016 June 23

 

   Annie Pang sends a photograph of a Western Pondhawk from Gorge Park, Victoria, June 22.

 

Western Pondhawk Erythemis collocata (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Annie Pang

June 22

2016 June 22

 

   Marie O’Shaughnessy writes: Here are a couple of butterflies I found at Government House yesterday, June 21st – a Painted Lady and a Lorquin’s Admiral.  Also there, 9 Cabbage Whites and 4 Western Tiger Swallowtails.

 

Painted Lady Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

 

Lorquin’s Admiral Limenitis lorquini (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

 

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Today, June 22, I found a first or, probably, second instar caterpillar of Lorquin’s Admiral at Swan Lake.  This is unusual at this time of year.  In this stage of development, it should be just about ready to construct its little hibernaculum in which it spends the winter.  I don’t know how it will enjoy spending the hottest months of the year, July and August, in a hibernaculum hoping that spring is just ahead. The other slightly unusual thing is that it was feeding on Black Hawthorn Crataegus douglasii.  I have never seen it on this plant before, the usual foods being Ocean Spray, willow, or crabapple.  However, hawthorn is listed by Guppy and Shepard as a recorded foodplant.