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 March18

 2023 March 18

 

 Butterflies Galore!  

 

 Mourning Cloaks:   March 17 – one at Viaduct Flats, Don Kramer.    March 18 –  one at Gorge Road and Dunedin, Thomas Barbin;   three at Swan Lake,  Jeff Gaskin

 

California Tortoiseshells:   March 18 – one at Amy Road, Langford,1:30 pm. Robin Robinson;    one on Mount Tolmie Reservoir, 4:15 pm. Jeremy Tatum.

 

Cabbage White:  March 18 –  one, Panama Flats,  Val George

 

The only butterflies reported earlier this year to Invert Alert were single Mourning Cloaks on February 21 and March 15.

 

 

    Some moths have also been reported:  Jochen Moehr reported and photographed a Eupithecia ravocostaliata/nevadata in Metchosin  (Sorry, Jochen – my new computer is resisting my attempts to do an umlaut!); Libby Avis sighted a Xylena nupera and an Orthosia praeses in Part Alberni; and Val George photographed a Hydriomena nubilofasciata at his home in Oak Bay.

 

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Eupithecia ravocostaliata/nevadata (Lep.: Geometridae)     Jochen Moehr

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Hydriomena nubilofasciata (Lep.: Geometridae)   Val George

2023 March 16

2023 March 16

 

 

   Invertebrates photographed by Ian Cooper last night along the Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal.

 

 

 

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Female Pimoa altioculata (Ara: Pimoidae)  Ian Cooper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Female linyphiid spider (Ara.: Linyphiidae)   Ian Cooper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Two Grey Field Slugs in copula    Deroceras reticulatum

(Pul.: Agriolimacidae)                                        Ian Cooper

 

 

2023 March 15

2023 March 15

 

    Butterfly!   Ron Flower reports a Mourning Cloak along the Pike Lake power line today.  This is the second butterfly of the year reported to Invert Alert.  The first was on February 21 – also a Mourning Cloak.

 

Here are an earthworm and a snout mite photographed yesterday by Ian Cooper:

 

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Common Earthworm  Lumbricus terrestris (Hap.: Lumbricidae)  Ian Cooper

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Snout mite  (Acari: Bdellidae)  Ian Cooper

   And another collection of invertebrates photographed last night by Ian Cooper in *Colquitz
River Park or along the #Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal.

 

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#Snout mite  (Acari: Bdellidae)  Ian Cooper

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#Snout mite  (Acari: Bdellidae) with prey.  Ian Cooper

 

 

 

 

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*Common RoughWoodlouse – Porcellio scaber (Isopoda: Porcellionidae)

  Ian Cooper

 

 

 

 

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*Male (left) and female (right) linyphiid spiders  (Ara.; Linyphiidae)

  Ian Cooper

 

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*Springtail Orchesella cincta (Coll.: Orchesellidae)    Ian Cooper

 

 

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#Globose springtail, possibly Ptenothrix sp. (Coll.: Dicyrtomidae)    Ian Cooper

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Soil Centipede – Order Geophilomorpha    Ian Cooper

 

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Barklouse  Ectopsocus californicus (Psocodea:  Ectopsocidae)

  Ian Cooper

2023 March 14

2023 March 14

 

More interesting invertebrates by Ian Cooper this morning.  The springtail is from Colquitz River Park; the others are from the Galloping Goose Trail, View Royal.  The two earthworms (certainly invertebrates!) are in copula.  Although we haveseveral native earthworms, most of the ones we see in suburbia are probably L. terrestris.

 

 

 

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Common Earthworms in copula

Lumbricus terrestris (Hap.: Lumbricidae)

Ian Cooper

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Common striped woodlouse

Philoscia muscorum (Isopoda: Oniscidae)

  Ian Cooper

 

 

 

 

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Springtail  Orchesella villosa (Coll.: Orchesellidae) 

Ian Cooper

 

2023 March 13

2023 March 13

 

A few more invertebrates photographed by Ian Cooper, March 13, at *Colquitz Creek Park or the #Galloping Goose Trail, View Royal.

 

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#Probably Arion subfuscus (Pul.: Arionidae)  Ian Cooper

 

 

 

 

 

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*Deroceras reticulatum (Pul.: Agriolimacidae)  Ian Cooper

 

 

 

 

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Snout mite (Acari:  Bdellidae)  Ian Cooper

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Pimoa altioculata (Ara: Pimoidae)  Ian Cooper

 

 

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Tetragnatha versicolor (Ara.: Tetragnathidae)  Ian Cooper

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Hydriomena nubilofasciata (Lep.: Geometridae) Ian Cooper

   Rosemary Jorna photographed a fly on March 11 on the beach between Muir and Kirby Creek.

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Kelp fly (Dip.: Coelopidae)  Rosemary Jorna

 

 

 

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Kelp fly (Dip.: Coelopidae)  Rosemary Jorna