2017 August 02

   Ken Vaughan photographed the beetle below at Fork Lake, Highlands, on July 29.  Thanks to Scott Gilmore for identifying it as an earth-boring dung beetle Odonteus obesus, the first member of its Family to appear on the site.

Earth-boring dung beetle Odonteus obesus (Col.: Geotrupidae) Ken Vaughan

   Barbara McLintock photographed the beetle below on July 21, and we are again indebted to Scott Gilmore for its identification, as probably Trichocnemis spiculatus. Scott writes that he would like a clearer photo of the pronotum to know for sure. [There is a similar species, S. pauper, and it would need a close look with a magnifying glass to be sure which it is.  Jeremy]  This is a very large beetle, about 2½ inches in length.  One of its common names is Ponderous Borer.  It also seems sometimes to be called a Pine Sawyer – a name also given to Jochen Moehr’s July 31 beetle!  I have therefore removed any English name from the caption to both beetles and have left them with just a scientific name.  The one below has a long ovipositor!

Trichocnemis spiculatus (Col.: Cerambycidae)  BarbaraMcLintock

Liam Singh sends a photograph of a clearwing moth from Pedder Bay today.  Although it is much yellower than the one on Kathleen Burton’s photograph (see July 26 posting), it is the same species, Synanthedon bibionipennis.  Liam’s is a female; Kathleen’s was a male.  Here are the three indications that Liam’s is a female:

She is fatter (carrying eggs!).  She is much yellower.  The hairs on her labial palpi are all yellow not tipped with brown.  It is remarkable to receive photos of sesiids within a few days of each other.  Strawberry has been recorded as the larval foodplant of S. bibionipennis.  The person who named it bibionipennis (Jean Baptiste Boisduval – of Blue fame) must have thought that the male was a mimic of a St Mark’s Fly (Bibionidae).

Synanthedon bibionipennis (Lep.: Sesiidae)  Liam Singh

Synanthedon bibionipennis (Lep.: Sesiidae)  Liam Singh

2017 July 31

Ken Vaughan photographed the moth below in the Highlands on July 29.  Libby Avis identifies it as Scopula quinquelinearia. She quotes from the new BC Lepidoptera List:

“This taxon (i.e. quinquelinearia) was historically treated as a subspecies of S. junctaria (Walker) but was raised to species status by Pohl et al. (2010).” The 2010 reference is to the revised Alberta Lepidoptera List. Extract from the Alberta appendix below:

Scopula quinquelinearia (Packard, 1870) REVISED STATUS This taxon was treated as a subspecies of S. junctaria (Walker) by Covell (1970). The two taxa are sympatric in southwestern Alberta (Waterton–Crowsnest Pass region), without evidence of intergradation. Molecular data indicate a divergence of about 1.5% (in the “bar code” fragment of the cox1 gene of mitochondrial DNA) between these two southern mountain populations. We therefore revert to treating both as full species.”

You can see one of Libby’s photographs of this new species at

mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/species.php?hodges=7164.1

Scopula quinquelinearia (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

Jeremy Tatum photographed a moth at his Saanich apartment this morning:

Xanthorhoe defensaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  There are now to be found, on Lochside Drive north of Blenkinsop Lake, caterpillars of the Red Admiral on the nettles.  Here is one of them:

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   He continues:  At 6:00 pm today there were Painted and West Coast Ladies, and Western Tiger and Anise Swallowtails, at the top of Mount Tolmie.

Jochen Moehr writes:  I spotted this fellow on my driveway in Metchosin:

 Monochamus mutator (Col.: Cerambycidae)  Jochen Moehr

2017 July 30

   Heather Proctor gives a probable identification of the mites on Ren Ferguson’s July 27 photograph of a long water scorpion. Scroll down to July 27 to see.

   Today’s (July 30) issue of the Times-Colonist page D2 carries an item about a nature photographic contest organized by the SPCA.  Proceeds from the competition go towards WildARC.  Insects are included in the eligible subjects. (It doesn’t mention other invertebrates!)  The quality of photographs submitted to our Invert Alert site is exceedingly high.  I would encourage contributors to have a go at the SPCA competition.

   Jeremy Tatum writes that he found a caterpillar of a Red Admiral at Witty Beach Road, Metchosin, today.

   Bill Katz sends a photograph of a Panthea sp. from Goldstream Park.  It closely resembles the moth that I (Jeremy Tatum) posted on June 24 and which I labelled P. virginarius.  However, I am now wondering of both of them might in fact be P. acronyctoides.  Am looking into it, and will post if we make any progress!

Panthea sp. (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Bill Katz

   Bill also photographed a caddisfly at Goldstream:

Caddisfly (Trichoptera)  Bill Katz

   Ren Ferguson photographed a spectacular Sphinx perelegans on her railing on Salt Spring Island, July 29.

Sphinx perelegans (Lep.: Sphingidae)  Ren Ferguson

   Ken Vaughan was busy at Fork Lake in the Highlands on July 29.

Misumena vatia (Ara.: Thomisidae)  Ken Vaughan

Campaea perlata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

Hydriomena nevadae (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

   Of the next one, Ken comments that “it is the neatest geometrid I have seen in a while.”

The caterpillar of this moth is even more remarkable.  We’ll have to look out and see if we can find and photograph one.  I think the colour pattern of the moth is what is called “disruptive coloration”.  It divides the moth into two sharply demarcated areas, neither of which has the shape of any sort of insect or edible morsel.

Nematocampa resistaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

Neoalcis californiaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

Perizoma curvilinea (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

Caripeta aequaliarea (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

   There are still a few photographs in the queue – some of them awaiting identification.

2017 July 28

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  I visited Mount Tolmie just after 6:00 pm today.  There were one or two Painted Ladies and Red Admirals on the reservoir or flying around the Jeffery Pine, and at least one West Coast Lady on the reservoir.  Also, just outside the entrance to the reservoir, flying around or perching on the Mahonia or the Laburnum, a pristine fresh Anise Swallowtail.  I wonder if it had bred on the hill, perhaps on one of the numerous Fennels there.  Also below, a very young caterpillar of a Western Tiger Swallowtail found on willow at Panama Flats. Botanists might be interested to see the huge expanse of Alisma plantago-aquatica there at present.

Western Tiger Swallowtail Papilio rutulus (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Jeremy Tatum

2017 July 27

   Ren Ferguson sends some photographs taken on Pender Island on July 4 in brackish marsh habitat.  We get very few aquatic animals on this site (challenge for photographers – please note!) so we welcome Ren’s photograph of a long waterscorpion Ranatra sp.  I don’t know if we’ll be able to go below genus level.   Dr Heather Proctor writes, of the red dots:

 

Long waterscorpion Ranatra sp.: (Hem.: Nepidae) Ren Ferguson

Red-veined Meadowhawk Sympetrum madidum (Odo.: Libellulidae) Ren Ferguson

Larva of giant sawfly Trichiosoma triangulum (Hym.: Cimbicidae) Ren Ferguson

Thomas Barbin sends a varied collection of insect close-ups.  The first one from Pender Island, June 10:

Greater Night-stalking Tiger Beetle Omus dejeani (Col.:  Carabidae – Cicindelinae)

Thomas Barbin

   We have seen before on this site photographs of crab spiders overcoming much larger bees and wasps.  This one is another spectacular example.  Photographed in the Highlands District, June 21.  The bee is Bombus sp. (mixtus, flavifrons and ternarius all look like reasonable fits) and the spider is Mecaphesa sp.

Bumblebee Bombus sp. (Hym.: Apidae)

Crab spider Mecaphesa sp.(Ara.: Thomisidae)

Thomas Barbin

A spider found in the Highlands District, June 21:

Phrurotimpus borealis (Ara.: Phrurolithidae) Thomas Barbin

An unusual beetle from Goldstream Campground, July 1:

Phellopsis porcata (Col.: Zopheridae)  Thomas Barbin

   A bug from Goldstream Park, July 5:

Two-spotted Grass Bug Stenotus binotatus (Hem.: Miridae)  Thomas Barbin

   A sharp-tailed leafcutter bee from Island View Beach, July 7:

Coelioxys sp. (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Thomas Barbin

   A thread-tailed wasp, also from Island View Beach, July 7:

Prionyx parkeri (Hym.: Sphecidae)  Thomas Barbin

   A cuckoo wasp, Island View Beach – evidently a good place for interesting bees and wasps – July 13:

Probably Chrysis sp. (Hym.: Chrysididae)  Thomas Barbin

  A sand wasp from – you  guessed it – Island View Beach, July 13:

Sand wasp Bembix sp. (Hym.: Crabronidae)  Thomas Barbin

   A strikingly-coloured jumping spider, Island View Beach, July 13:

Habronattus americanus (Ara.: Salticidae)  Thomas Barbin

   Lastly, two photographs of a longhorn beetle from Goldstream Campground, July 26.  Thanks to Scott Gilmore for the identification.

Strophiona laeta (Col.: Cerambycidae)  Thomas Barbin

Strophiona laeta (Col.: Cerambycidae)  Thomas Barbin

   Aziza Cooper sends a photograph of a teneral damselfly from Martindale Road, July 23.  Aziza writes that there were 45 Cabbage Whites over the cabbage field there.  Rob Cannings writes:  Yes, this is a teneral… (an individual, soon after moulting/emergence, whose cuticle is almost colourless and still unhardened). This is a male Tule Bluet Enallagma carunculatum. In this species, the superior appendages (cerci) are distinctive and are visible in this photo The middle abdominal appendages have much black dorsally, more than the other common local species have.

Tule Bluet Enallagma carunculatum (Odo.: Coenagrionidae)  Aziza Cooper