2022 December 27

   Jochen Möhr writes from Metchosin:  After a moist night with temperatures around
+9 degrees C, this morning a dozen Operophtera near the light, some dead in the rain, some out of reach of the tripod-mounted camera.  Here are pictures of some of them.

  Jeremy Tatum writes:  The question is:  Are they European Winter Moths O. brumata, or our native Western Winter Moths O. occidentalis?   In my (not infallible!) judgement, two are almost certainly brumata, two are almost certainly occidentalis, and I’m not sure of the other two.

Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Operophtera brumata/occidentalis? (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Operophtera brumata/occidentalis? (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Operophtera occidentalis (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Operophtera occidentalis (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

2022 December 21

   The Sun reached its greatest southerly declination at 1:48 pm  PST today.  In other words, winter has started – and it has started with a wintry blast. Unsurprisingly no invertebrates have been reported today.   Instead, I pass along a small item of interest from outside the place and time interval usual for this site.  I just heard recently that an American Lady was
seen in September in Cornwall, southwest England.

2022 December 15

  CHANGE OF ADDRESS:   Contributions (photographs or observations) to
Invertebrate Alert should now be sent to
 tatumjb352@gmail.com   and no longer to  jtatum@uvic.ca

  Viewers may remember a photograph by Jochen Möhr on the November 24 posting of a moth that we had been unable to identify.  It has now been identified as Acleris (probably semiannula).  For more details, see the November 24 posting, which has now been modified in view of this identification.

2022 December 14

Cheryl Hoyle sends, from View Royal, a photograph, taken on December 12 at View Royal,  of a fly, which (writes Jeremy Tatum) I believe to be probably Calliphora vicina.  Note the orange patch beneath the eye, which suggests this species.  By measuring the size of the petals after the fly had left, Cheryl found that the length of the fly was a little over 10 mm.

Probably Calliphora vicina (Dip.: Calliphoridae)  Cheryl Hoyle

Probably Calliphora vicina (Dip.: Calliphoridae)  Cheryl Hoyle

2022 December 10

   Ian Cooper gives us another collection of miscellaneous invertebrate creatures from Colquitz River Park and the Galloping Goose Trail last night.  Ian and I (writes Jeremy Tatum) have worked hard on the identifications, and while we cannot guarantee them 100 percent, we think we are probably pretty accurate as far as we can go.

Crane Fly or Winter Gnat (Dip.:  Tipulidae or Trichoceridae)

Ian Cooper

Same animal below

Crane Fly or Winter Gnat (Dip.:  Tipulidae or Trichoceridae)

  Ian Cooper

Dark-winged Fungus Gnat (Dip.: Sciaridae)  Ian Cooper

   Harvestmen usually have four pairs of legs.  The one below has presumably had an accident, since it has only three pairs.  The missing pair is probably the second pair,
which, in an uninjured animal, is longer than the other pairs.  Hence the short-legged appearance of this harvestman.

Harvestman (Opiliones)  Ian Cooper

   The sharp-eyed will spot a tiny animal near the end of one of the legs of the spider below.  This is probably a springtail (Collembola).

Male linyphiid spider  (Ara.: Linyphiidae)  Ian Cooper

Male linyphiid spider  (Ara.: Linyphiidae)  Ian Cooper

Running Crab Spider (Ara.: Philodromidae)  Ian Cooper

Flat-backed Millepede Scytonotus sp.  (Polydesmida: Polydesmidae)

Ian Cooper