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.

2022 September 27 evening

2022 September 27 evening

    Ian Cooper has taken to photographing some quite tiny flies.  Thanks to Cheryl Hoyle for identifying the fly depicted in the first three photographs.  Suggestion by viewers for the unidentified flies would be welcome.

 

Opomyza sp. (Dip.: Opomyzidae)  Ian Cooper

 

Opomyza sp. (Dip.: Opomyzidae)  Ian Cooper

  

Opomyza sp. (Dip.: Opomyzidae)  Ian Cooper

  

Unidentified fly (Diptera)  Ian Cooper

  

Unidentified fly (Diptera)  Ian Cooper

       Jochen Möhr sends another view of the moth seen in this morning’s posting.

Pleromelloida cinerea (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

2022 September 27 morning

2022 September 27 morning

Jeff Gaskin writes:  On September 26,  I was with Kirsten Mills at Cowichan Bay (Lochmanetz Road) and we saw two interesting butterflies.  First , a real late and in good shape Lorquin’s Admiral and also a Woodland Skipper both in the same area of Cowichan Bay.

Following is a variety of insects photographed by Jochen Möhr in Metchosin and Ian Cooper along the Galloping Goose trail in the last two days.  We thank both photographers for help with identifying some of the insects.

Helophilus sp. (Dip.: Syrphidae)  Ian Cooper

 

 

Probably Eupeodes fumipennis  (Dip.: Syrphidae)  Jochen Möhr

Probably Eupeodes fumipennis  (Dip.: Syrphidae)  Jochen Möhr

Probably Eupeodes fumipennis  (Dip.: Syrphidae)  Jochen Möhr

Greenbottle Lucilia (probably sericata) (Dip.: Calliphoridae)  Ian Cooper

Honey Bee Apis mellifera (Hym.:  Apidae)  Ian Cooper

Araneus diadematus (Ara.: Araneidae)  Ian Cooper

Udea profondalis (Lep.: Crambidae) Ian Cooper

Pleromelloida cinerea (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

2022 September 26

2022 September 26

   Ian Cooper writes (September 25):   I have just returned from another photo shoot along the Galloping Goose trail between Harriet Road and Tillicum Road.   There were a few of these odd-looking weevils feeding on a broad leafy plant that looked a bit like giant rhubarb growing amidst the cattails.

  We thank Scott Gilmore for identifying it as Lixus (probably rubellus).

 

Lixus (probably rubellus) (Col.: Curculionidae)  Ian Cooper

2022 September 25 morning

2022 September 25 morning

    Jochen Möhr sends, from Metchosin, an upperside and an underside view of a moth kindly identified for us by Libby Avis as Antepirrhoe semiatrata, the Black-banded Carpet moth  (formerly Eustroma semiatrata).

Antepirrhoe semiatrata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 

Antepirrhoe semiatrata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

2022 September 24 evening

2022 September 24 evening

    John McClarnon sends photographs from Hazlitt Creek, September 23.

Yellow Woolly Bear Spilosoma virginica (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)  John McClarnon

Araneus diadematus (Ara.: Araneidae)  John McClarnon

Araneus diadematus (Ara.: Araneidae)  John McClarnon

Probably Melanoplus sp. (Orth.: Acrididae)  John McClarnon

Horntail wasp Urocerus (probably flavicornis)  (Hym.: Siricidae) John McClornan

 

Ian Cooper sends a photograph of a red mite:

Red Mite (Acari:  Tetranychidae)  Ian Cooper