2024 July 5 evening

   Marie O’Shaughnessy counted butterflies and dragonflies yesterday, July 4, as follows:

Outerbridge Park
1 Lorquin’s Admiral
1 Western Tiger Swallowtail
1 Cabbage White
4 Essex Skippers

3 Cardinal Meadowhawks
2 Blue-eyed Darners

 McIntyre reservoir
1 Painted Lady
2 Cabbage Whites 

2 Western Pond Hawk, male and female
The female was busily eating a female damsel fly. A vicious predator!
7 Blue Dashers
4 Common Green Darners
4 Blue-eyed Darners
6 Eight-spotted Skimmers
2 Variegated  Meadowhawks
Many damselflies mating

Mount Tolmie
1 Western Tiger Swallowtail
2 Lorquin’s Admirals
2 Painted Ladies
1 Cabbage White
1 Red Admiral

Male Western Pondhawk Erythemis collocata  (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Western Pondhawk Erythemis collocata  (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Western Pondhawk Erythemis collocata with damselfly prey (Odo.: Libellulidae)
Marie O’Shaughnessy

Western Pondhawk Erythemis collocata  (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Variegated Meadowhawk  Sympetrum corruptum  (Odo.: Libellulidae)
Marie O’Shaughnessy

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

   The moth below was photographed by Jochen Möhr in Metchosin this morning.

Eulithis xylina   (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

2024 July 5 morning

Butterfly Walk, Sunday July 7
Message from Gordon Hart

This is a reminder for the Nature Victoria (VNHS) Butterfly Walk on Sunday, July 7.

We will meet at the Mount Tolmie summit by the reservoir, at 1.00 p.m. You can park in the parking lot there, or in the large lot north of the summit. After a look around the summit, we will decide on a destination from there.

I think we can be fairly certain of sunny weather, so come prepared for the heat, with water to keep hydrated, sunscreen, and suitable clothing.

You can review Vancouver Island butterflies at Val George’s website : https://vancouverislandbutterflies.com/

See you on Sunday,

Gordon Hart

The moth below was reared from caterpillar by Charlene Wood’s six-year-old son Nico.

Apple Ermine Moth Yponomeuta malinellus(Lep.: Yponomeutidae)   Charlene Wood

Thanks to Charlene Wood for identifying the creature below, photographed by Ian Cooper along the Galloping Goose Trail, June 30 2024

Bristly Millepede Polyxenes sp. (Diplopoda – Polyxenida:  Polyxenidae)
Ian Cooper

Aziza Cooper draws attention to a sighting of a Grey Hairstreak by Rebecca Reader-Lee, July 4, near Ross-Durrance Road west of Pease Lake.  Rebecca’s excellent photograph can be seen at
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/227183757

2024 July 4 afternoon

   On July 3, Marie O’Shaughnessy counted the following dragonflies at Swan Lake,

  1 Western Pondhawk
14  Blue Dashers
  2  Eight-spotted Skimmers
  2 Cardinal Meadowhawks
  1 Common Green Darner
  2 Blue-eyed  Darners 

Blue Dasher Pachydiplax longipennis  (Odo.: Libellulidae) Marie O’Shaughnessy

Western Pondhawk  Erythemis collocatum  (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

and the following at McIntyre reservoir:

  1 Common Green Darner
  7 Blue Dashers
  2 Variegated Meadowhawk
  3 Cardinal Meadowhawks
  3 Blue-eyed Darners
  8  Eight-spotted Skimmers
25 Tule Bluets in tandem. Probably many more.

Variegated Meadowhawk  Sympetrum corruptum  (Odo.: Libellulidae)
Marie O’Shaughnessy

Common Green Darner Anax junius  (Odo.: Aeshnidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Tule Bluets Enallagma carunculatum  (Odo.: Coenagrionidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

In several localities, Marie saw Tiger Swallowtails, Lorquin’s Admirals, Essex Skippers and 26 Cabbage Whites.

Here is a batch from Ian Cooper.  All were taken in View Royal by the Galloping Goose Trail near Talcott Road, beginning shortly before dusk and into the evening, July 3.

Does anyone know what this is?  Please let us know.      Ian Cooper

Dyslobus sp. (possibly decoratus) (Col.: Curculionidae)  Ian Cooper

Ground beetle – identification uncertain  (Col.: Carabidae)  Ian Cooper

Ladybird beetle pupa  (Col.: Coccinellidae)  Ian Cooper

Red Carpenter Ant – Camponotus vicinus (Hym.: Formicidae)  Ian Cooper

Crane Fly  (Dip.:  Tipulidae)  Ian Cooper

2024 July 4 morning

   This large crane fly (the leaf is a small portion of a leaf of a Bigleaf Maple Acer macrophyllum was photographed by Ian Cooper along the Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal, July 2, evening after dusk.

Crane Fly  (Dip.: Tipulidae)  Ian Cooper

Crane Fly  (Dip.: Tipulidae)  Ian Cooper

Jochen Möhr photographed the moth below at his Metchosin house yesterday morning, July 3.  It is evidently quite an uncommon moth here, identified by Libby Avis as Apamea cuculliformis.  It has appeared on Invertebrate Alert only once before – in Victoria on 2015 May 20.  Libby has seen it only twice in Port Alberni in 2008 and 2009, and she tells us that iNaturalist has only seven sightings for BC and none are from the Victoria area.

Apamea cuculliformis  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

Aziza Cooper writes:  On July 3, I found at least six Clodius Parnassians along Nanaimo River Road near Elk Trails Road. Most of them were east of Elk Trails Road, and two were north up Elk Trails Road. They were constantly moving and only one stopped briefly for a photo. At the same location were two Western Tiger Swallowtails, four Lorquin’s Admirals, one Anise Swallowtail and one Cabbage White. There was one red-brown skipper which did not stop for a photo. At the Pipeline Trail there was a very worn butterfly, presumably a Cedar Hairstreak.

Clodius Parnassian Parnassius clodius  (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Aziza Cooper

Lorquin’s Admiral Limenitis lorquini  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Aziza Cooper

Cedar Hairstreak Callophrys gryneus (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

2024 July 3 afternoon

   Val George writes:  This rather worn Grey Hairstreak was at the summit of Mount Douglas yesterday afternoon July 2.  Jeremy Tatum writes:  This is the first report in Invert Alert of a Grey Hairstreak this year.  Purplish Copper yet to come.

 Grey Hairstreak  Strymon melinus  (Lep.: Lycaenidae)   Val George

   Here are some photographs by Ian Cooper:  All pictures from Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal, July 2nd, evening after dusk.

 Enoplognatha ovata (Ara.: Theridiidae)  Ian Cooper

Ian writes:  Enoplognatha ovata are currently abundant, but sightings of the red ‘candy stripe’ variant have been infrequent.

Believed to be Anyphaena aperta (Ara.: Anyphaenidae)  Ian Cooper

   Ian writes:  Took a while to pin down the identification for this one! I knew I’d seen this species before, and that we had published it on Invert a couple of years ago, [2022 October 22 morning] but its name escaped me. It’s reminiscent of a crab spider (no web, just waits to ambush passing prey [but the 2022 photograph appears to show some webbing]) but it isn’t a crab spider. It’s been referred to as a ‘sac’ spider, but I’m not sure if that term is still used.

Brown Lacewing  (Neu.: Hemerobiidae)  Ian Cooper

Crane fly – (Dip.: Tipulidae)  Ian Cooper

Ian writes:  I saw a few of these crane flies actively laying their eggs in various locations by the trail, including in a tree’s moss.

Western Black Carpenter Ant – Camponotus modoc (Hym.: Formicidae)
Ian Cooper