2022 September 6

    Marie O’Shaughnessy photographed this Ringlet at Island View Beach on September 5.  There were still many Woodland Skippers there nectaring on Douglas Aster.

Ringlet Coenonympha tullia (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Satyrinae) 

Marie O’Shaughnessy

   Kirsten Mills saw a Lorquin’s Admiral at Victoria airport this afternoon, September 6.

   Cabbage Whites and Woodland Skippers are still being seen in various locations.

   Jeff Gaskin reports a Paddle-tailed Darner, a Black Saddlebags and a Common Green Darner from Esquimalt Gorge Park today.

2022 September 5 evening

 Colias alert!

   Jeff Gaskin and Kirsten Mills saw an Orange Sulphur on the trail off the end of Lochmanetz Road at Cowichan Bay. The only other butterflies we saw were Cabbage Whites and the odd Woodland Skipper.   Also, Jeff saw a Common Green Darner at the end of Dock Road.  [Jeremy Tatum writes:  As every dragonfly-watcher knows, the Common Green Darner, one of our larger and more spectacular dragonflies, isn’t all that common!]

   Richard Rycraft saw this moth in his house on September 3.  Kindly identified by Libby Avis as Caradrina montana.  According to the Pacific NW website, this moth is common, widespread and nearly ubiquitous in the Pacific Northwest.  Jeremy Tatum writes:  That may well be so – but I have never seen one!  It has appeared only once before on this site – in 2018.

Caradrina montana (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Richard Rycraft

   Ian Cooper has been photographing, in View Royal, a number of interesting creatures with which not all of us are very familiar.

  We don’t know for sure what the bug below is, but it may be a Damsel Bug of the Family Nabidae – possibly even the genus Nabis.  This is a predaceous bug, preying on other insects rather than sucking plant juices.

Possibly Nabis (Hem.: Nabidae)  Ian Cooper

Possibly Nabis (Hem.: Nabidae)  Ian Cooper

   Next is a wingless ichneumonid, probably Gelis.  It is believed to be a hyperparasitoid – that is to say it parasitises other parasitoid insects, such as the Braconidae.

Probably Gelis (Hym.: Ichneumonidae)  Ian Cooper

   Next may be an immature (nymph) pentatomid bug:

Probably a nymph of a stink bug (Hem.: Pentatomidae)  Ian Cooper

Springtail, Orchesella villosa (Coll.: Orchesellidae) Ian Cooper

   More familiar is the spider Araneus diademadus, although the photographs below show the less familiar male:

Araneus diadematus (Ara.: Araneidae)  Ian Cooper

Araneus diadematus (Ara.: Araneidae)  Ian Cooper

2022 September 5 morning

    Here’s another grey version of Neoalcis californiaria.   This one by Cheryl Hoyle in View Royal, September 4.

Neoalcis californiaria ( Lep.:  Geometridae) Cheryl Hoyle

Also from Cheryl:

Crane Fly Tipula paludosa (Dip.: Tipulidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

Jeremy Tatum writes:  I don’t know what this fly is, except I think it is probably in the Family Tephritidae, and just possibly genus Terellia.  If any viewer can help, please let us know.

Unknown fly (Dip.: Probably Tephritidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

Jochen Möhr  sends a photograph os Pero mizon  from Metchosin.  He also

reports seeing several Udea profundalis there.

Pero mizon (Lep.:Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Gordon Hart sends a photograph of a Ringlet, nectaring on Yarrow, from the field behind Island View Beach, September 4.  This photograph well illustrates that the Vancouver Island population of this widespread and variable Holarctic species, also known as Large Heath, has no trace of any “ringlet” mark.

Ringlet Coenonympha tullia (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Satyrinae)  Gordon Hart

2022 September 4

    We start today with three photographs of the unusual grey (rather than the usual brown) form of Neoalcis californiara, two from Jochen Möhr in Metchosin today, and one from Keith Taylor in Victoria, August 31.  Keith’s is so pale that at first, writes Jeremy Tatum, I didn’t recognize it as this species.

Neoalcis californiara (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Neoalcis californiara (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Neoalcis californiara (Lep.: Geometridae)  Keith Taylor

   Another identification problem – Jochen sent two photographs of the June Beetle.  (September is a little late!)  I asked Scott Gilmore how I could distinguish between Polyphylla decemlineata and P. crinita.  Scott writes:  Having chatted with Andrew Smith about this recently, I conclude that it is currently not possible. It is likely that everything on the island is crinita but there is a bunch of genetic work needed to confirm species within this rather confusing genus.

Polyphylla (probably crinita) (Col.: Scarabaeidae)  Jochen Möhr

Polyphylla (probably crinita) (Col.: Scarabaeidae)  Jochen Möhr

Here’s a spider photograph at night by Ian Cooper in Colquitz River Park, September 3.  We thank Dr Robb Bennett for confirming Ian’s identification:

Metellina sp. (Ara.: Tetragnathidae)  Ian Cooper

That night Ian made some interesting observations of a pair of Araneus diadematus.  Ian writes: I went for a pre-dawn photo shoot this morning and witnessed the mating drama of a male and female Araneus diadematus spiders in Colquitz River Park around 5 a.m. yesterday morning (2022 September  3). This was by chance, as I happened to notice a small male in the vicinity of a much larger female that I’d just photographed in the middle of her web.  Realizing this may be the beginning of a mating encounter, I stuck around to see what, if anything, would happen. Every so often, the female could be seen shaking vigorously in the centre of her web and I realized there were threads of silk connecting the two, as I could see he was also being shaken by the vibrations from some distance away. I’m not sure which of the two was initiating / propagating the vibrations, or if they were both doing it, but the female shook much more intensely than the smaller male.  It was intriguing to watch the drama play out.

2022 September 3 evening

    September Butterfly Walk tomorrow.  For Gordon’s  announcement, scroll down to this morning’s posting on Invertebrate Alert.

   Marie O’Shaughnessy writes: I was very fortunate to see this lovely dragonfly at Cattle Point, yesterday lunch time,  September 2nd.  It is a female Variegated Meadowhawk.  This is the second one I have seen here over the past month.

Variegated Meadowhawk  Sympetrum corruptum (Odo.: Libellulidae)

  Marie O’Shaughnessy