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.

2023 April 18

2023 April 18

 

   Ian Cooper writes:  I went out for a pre-dawn bike ride early this morning (April 18) to see what creatures I might spot at Colquitz River Park (*) in Saanich and the Galloping Goose Trail (#) in View Royal, and I managed to get a few decent pictures.  It rained on the ride back, but luckily I’d brought rain gear with me. Also included is a daytime photo of a beetle spotted crawling along the new Dallas Waterfront Trail near Camas Circle on April 5.

 

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* Clubiona lutescens (Ara.: Clubionidae)   Ian Cooper

 

 

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*Male probably  Neriene sp. ( Ara.: Linyphiidae)  Ian Cooper

 

 

 

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*Female probably  Neriene sp. ( Ara.: Linyphiidae)  Ian Cooper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ground beetle Carabus nemoralis (Col.: Carabidae)  Ian Cooper

 

 

 

 

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#Deroceras panormitanum (Pul.: Agriolimacidae)  Ian Cooper

 

 

 

 

2023 April 17

2023 April 17

 

   Jeremy Tatum shows a photograph of a bibionid fly from Saanich today.  Bibionids flies are sometimes rather inappropriately called March flies, although they typically fly in late April, near to St Mark’s Day, April 25, and the more appropriate name is St Mark’s Fly.  The males of many species of flies have eyes that are larger than the eyes of the females. This is particularly marked in the bibionids.  The individual below is a female – which is also indicated by its dark wings.  The species is probably Bibio xanthopus, although out of caution I shall label it just as a bibionid.

 

 

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Female bibionid fly  (Dip.: Bibionidae)  Jeremy Tatum

2023 April 16 morning

2023 April 16 morning

 

   Jochen Möhr sends photographs of upper- and undersides of two moths at his Metchosin house late last evening.

 

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Hypena californica  (Lep.: Erebidae – Hypeninae)  Jochen Möhr

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Hypena californica  (Lep.: Erebidae – Hypeninae)  Jochen Möhr

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Triphosa haesitata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 

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Triphosa haesitata  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

   The caterpillars of these moths are both highly specialized in their foodplants.   H. californica feeds on Stinging Nettle Urtica dioica, and T. haesitata feeds on Cascara Frangula purshiana.

2023 April 14

2023 April 14

 

   Mike McGrenere writes:  I saw two Sara Orangetips this afternoon on the lower southwest slope of Mount Douglas Park.  First of the season for me.  (And the first reported to Invert Alert this year.) Jeremy Tatum writes:  And I saw a California Tortoiseshell flying around the Teacup at the top of Mount Douglas at 4:30 p.m.

2023 April 13

 

2023 April 13

 

  April Butterfly Count. Message from Gordon Hart

 

Hello, Butterfly Enthusiasts,

 

Even though the spring weather has been cool and cloudy, we will have an April count. Five species have been reported to the Invertebrate Alert this year, and the April count usually has 10 or 11 species.

 

The count period starts Saturday April 15 until Sunday April 23. This is an informal census of butterfly numbers and species in Greater Victoria. The area is defined by the Christmas Bird Count circle, extending from Victoria to Brentwood Bay and Island View Road in Central Saanich, and west to Happy Valley and Triangle Mountain, and Langford Lake and Goldstream areas.

 

You can submit a count any time over the count period, just use a separate form for each count and location. In the case of repeat or duplicate counts, I will use the higher numbers. To submit counts, please use the form from the VNHS website at https://www.vicnhs.bc.ca/?p=33

 

If you have difficulty with the form, just send me an email with the information.

Thank-you for submitting your sightings and good luck with your count.

 

Gordon Hart,

Butterfly Count Coordinator

Victoria Natural History Society

 

 

   Egira crucialis/simplex is one of many moth pairs that are difficult to distinguish.  Cheryl Hoyle photographed this one in View Royal yesterday, April 12. If you can find the reniform spot (not obvious in this moth) you will see a small orange smudge inside it.  I think (writes Jeremy Tatum) that this makes it Egira crucialis.  I think that the orange smudge is never present in simplex, and not always obvious in crucialis.  If this is correct, then presence of the smudge indicates crucialis, but absence of the smudge leaves us uncertain.

 

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Egira crucialis (Lep.: Noctuidae)   Cheryl Hoyle

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Egira crucialis (Lep.: Noctuidae)   Cheryl Hoyle

   Jeremy continues:  And here is another one, which turned up at my Saanich apartment last night.  You can just– but only just – catch a glimpse of that tiny orange smudge.  I think this one, too, is E. crucialis

 

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Egira crucialis  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum