2023 March 24
Aziza Cooper and Jeremy Tatum each send photographs of a small moth from their Saanich homes:
Alucita montana (Lep.: Alucitidae) Aziza Cooper
Eupithecia annulata (Lep.: Geometridae) Jeremy Tatum
2023 March 24
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 March 22
2023 March 22
Ron Flower saw five (5!) Mourning Cloaks at the Goldstream River today. March 22, and Jeremy Tatum saw a California Tortoiseshell basking on the Mount Tolmie reservoir (presumably the same individual that was seen there on March 18).
2023 March 21
2023 March 21
Jochen Möhr photographed three moths in Metchosin last night:
Hydriomena nubilofasciata (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr
Eupithecia ravocostaliata (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr
Venusia sp. (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr
Jeremy Tatum found a third instar caterpillar on Oemleria cerasiformis at UVic this morning:
Paraseptis adnixa (Lep: Noctuidae) Jeremy Tatum
2023 March 20
2023 March 20
Spring started at 2:24 pm PDT
Gordon Hart photographed this fly in the Highlands on March 18. Thanks to Dr Jeff Skevington for identifying it as Brachypalpus sp.
Brachypalpus sp. (Dip.: Syrphidae) Gordon Hart
Jeff Gaskin tells us that Lynda Dowling saw a Satyr Comma at her herb farm on Happy Valley Road, March 18.
2023 March 19
2023 March 19
More Butterflies!
Mark Wynja writes:
Three Mourning Cloaks and one Hoary Comma seen yesterday March 18, on the logging road on the west side of Okay Mountain (access from the Northwest Bay Logging roads), Nanoose. Temperature 13-15 C at an elevation of 300 m
with patches of snow still present along the roadside.
Hoary Comma Polygonia gracilis (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Mark Wynja
Gordon Hart saw three Mourning Cloaks, as well as the moth Enchoria lacteata nectaring at a Snowdrop,in his Highlands garden, March 18.
Mourning Cloak Nymphalis antiopa (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Gordon Hart
Enchoria lacteata (Lep.: Geometridae) Gordon Hart
Jeremy Tatum photographed a woodling moth on the wall of his Saanich apartment building this morning, March 19.
Egira curialis (Lep.: Noctuidae) Jeremy Tatum