2022 February 17
Butterfly! Jules Thomson sends us the first butterfly sighting we have heard of this year – a Mourning Cloak. On Sunday, February 13, around noon, under the powerlines on the north side of Francis/King Park.
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 February 16
2022 February 16
Jochen Möhr sends a photograph of a Hypena californica from his office window at his Metchosin home.
Hypena californica (Lep.: Erebidae – Hypeninae) Jochen Möhr
2022 February 15
2022 February 15
Jochen Möhr sends a photograph of another pug from his kitchen window in Metchosin. It looks like probably a different individual from the one shown yesterday, although, like yesterday’s, it might be Eupithecia annulata – or it might not! Difficult to be sure with these small Eupithecias, of which there are many similar species.
Eupithecia sp. (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr
Jeremy Tatum sends a photograph of an Orthosia praeses from UVic woods this morning.
Orthosia praeses (Lep.: Noctuidae) Jeremy Tatum
2022 February 14
2022 February 14
Jochen Möhr sends a photograph of a pug from his kitchen window in Metchosin yesterday. Jeremy Tatum writes: With its prominent elongated discal spot, a zigzag pale subterminal line, a dashed line along the termen of both wings, and a chequered fringe, this could be
either i) Eupithecia annulata
or ii) not
Alas, these pugs can be too difficult for us ordinary mortals to identify with certainty, though annulata is at least a reasonable guess.
Eupithecia (perhaps annulata) (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr
2022 February 13
2022 February 13
Jeremy Tatum writes that there was a Hydriomena nubilofasciata at the door of the Swan Lake Nature House this morning. Too high up for a photograph.