2021 February 20

   More springtails from Ian Cooper, kindly identified for us by Dr Frans Janssens.   Most of us rarely see these tiny animals, so it is quite an education to see them so close up.

Globose springtail Ptenothrix sp. nov.  (Symphypleona – Dicyrtomidae)  Ian Cooper

Dicyrtomina minuta f. saundersi  (Symphypleona – Dicyrtomidae)  Ian Cooper

Dicyrtomina minuta f. saundersi  (Symphypleona – Dicyrtomidae)  Ian Cooper

   And here are two spiders.   Among the numerous small creatures we come across, we cannot always identify every one, and we’ll have to settle with admiring and appreciating these two without necessarily being able to attach a label to them.

Linyphiine spider     Ian Cooper

Immature male spider   Ian Cooper

   Rosemary  Jorna photographed this gnat on a maple in her Kemp Lake garden.  I am not expert enough, writes Jeremy Tatum, to make an identification, but I think it is probably either a limoniine tipulid (a sort of small crane fly) or a trichocerid (winter gnat).

Dip.: probably Tipulidae – Limoniinae,  or Trichoceridae  Rosemary Jorna

   Caterpillars are easier for me to identify.  This one, on Indian Plum, is Paraseptis adnixa – first shown as a very young caterpillar on February 8, now almost full grown, perhaps one more instar to go.

Paraseptis adnixa (Lep.: Noctuidae)   Jeremy Tatum

2021 February 21

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Here is one of a number of commensal creatures that share my table (Latin mensa, a table) with me – or at least share my apartment building in Saanich if not my actual table.

Anthrenus verbasci (Col.: Dermestidae)   Jeremy Tatum

2021 February 18

   Ian Cooper sends an unusual photograph of a harvestman on snow, Colquitz River Park, February 17.   Dr Philip Bragg writes:  I have not seen a harvestman on snow before. I notice that it is keeping its body well away from the snow on its long legs. The photo is not clear enough for a positive identification but I think that it is Platybunus triangularis.

Harvestman, probably Platybunus triangularis (Opiliones: Phalangiidae)  Ian Cooper

  Rosemary Jorna, sends photographs of spider engaged in Anglo-Saxon attitudes in her Kemp Lake basement, February 17.   Dr Robb Bennett writes:

Hmm, not your usual indoor trashy theridiid. It’s a linyphiine linyphiid – always have trouble eyeballing them based on colour patterns: probably either a Neriene or Microlinyphia but I really don’t know.

Probably Neriene or Microlinyphia (Ara.: Linyphiidae – Linyphiinae)  Rosemary Jorna

Probably Neriene or Microlinyphia (Ara.: Linyphiidae – Linyphiinae)  Rosemary Jorna

2021 February 17

   Ian Cooper cycles along the Galloping Goose trail, which is covered with hard-packed snow and ice, alone at night, and gets down his hands and knees to photograph all sorts of unfamiliar invertebrates.  Pretty risky – but he gets some interesting results.  How many of us, I wonder, have seen the animal below, or know what it is?  It’s a springtail – a group formerly in an Order Collembola, but now considered to comprise several Orders within a Subclass Collembola of the Class Entognatha.  (Not an insect.)  The one in the next two photographs (two different individuals, same species) is in the Order Entomobryomorpha.

Orchesella villosa (Orchesellidae)   Ian Cooper

Orchesella villosa (Entomobryomorpha – Entomobryidae)   Ian Cooper

   The globose springtails are perhaps more familiar (if they are familiar at all!), and belong to the Order  Symphypleona.  The one below is in the genus Ptenothrix, but Collembola expert Frans Janssens tells us that this one is a new, undescribed species!

Ptenothrix sp. nov. (Symphypleona – Dicyrtomidae)  Ian Cooper

    Thanks to Dr Robb Bennett for identifying the spider below.

Pimoa altioculata (Ara.: Pimoidae)  Ian Cooper

Large Yellow Underwing Moth Noctua pronuba (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Ian Cooper

2021 February 16

   Libby Avis sends a photograph of Egira hiemalis from Port Alberni, February 6, her earliest date for the species there.   This is often the first noctuid to appear in the year, often appearing in February or even January.   The earliest recorded by Invertebrate Alert  was  January 16, in Victoria, 2014.

Egira hiemalis (Lep.: Noctuidae)   Libby Avis