2021 January 12

   Erratum:  A slug tentatively identified in yesterday’s posting as Prophysaon coeruleum is actually P. foliolatum.  See yesterday’s posting for details.

    Ian Cooper sends a photograph of a tiny spider of the sort that I (writes Jeremy Tatum) used to call a “money spider”.  I sent the photo to Dr Robb Bennett somewhat apologetically, referring to it as “just another linyphiid spider”, and was mildly chided for the word “just” – for Robb says they are very interesting!  But he also says there are literally hundreds of species in British Columbia and they usually can’t be confidently identified from a photograph.  So we’ll settle for Linyphiidae – subfamily either Linyphiinae or Erigoninae.  In any case, we can all enjoy the photograph.

Linyphiid spider       Ian Cooper

2021 January 11

Here is a series of photographs of slugs and snails photographed by Ian Cooper in recent days (and nights!) either along the Galloping Goose Trail or in Colquitz River Park.   The identifications, by Ian, are tentative, but probably correct – though we’d welcome any alternative suggestions.  The first is the Yellow-bordered Taildropper.  In an earlier version of this posting I had labelled it as a Blue-grey Taildropper from the same genus, but, as Ian suspected and Jeremy Gatten confirmed, from the yellow border to the mantle and the larger size, it is actually the Yellow-bordered.

Yellow-bordered Taildropper Prophysaon foliolatum (Pul.: Anadeniidae)  Ian Cooper

Arion (fasciatus group?)(Pul.: Arionidae)  Ian Cooper

Cryptomastix germana (Pul.: Polygyridae)  Ian Cooper

Vespericola columbianus (Pul.: Polygyridae)  Ian Cooper

Vespericola columbianus (Pul.: Polygyridae)  Ian Cooper

Cryptomastix germana (Pul.: Polygyridae)  Ian Cooper

Robust Lancetooth  Haplotrema vancouverense (Pul.:  Haplotrematidae)  Ian Cooper

Robust Lancetooth Haplotrema vancouverense (Pul.: Haplotrematidae)  Ian Cooper

Arion subfuscus?  (Pul.: Arionidae)  Ian Cooper

2021 January 9

   Not much doing today, but Jeremy Tatum writes: Here is a pholcid spider from my Saanich apartment.

Depending on where you live in the world, the name “daddy-long-legs” is used for various creatures.  In the UK a “daddy-long-legs” means a crane fly.  Here it usually means a harvestman.  But sometimes the term is also used for a pholcid spider like this one.

Pholcus phalangioides (Ara.: Pholcidae)   Jeremy Tatum

2021 January 8

   Two snouts in today’s offerings!   A snout mite by Ian Cooper, and a snout moth by Jochen Möhr.  And yes, they both have snouts.  Ian’s spiders are a bit difficult to be sure about to the exact species – the Family Linyphiidae is a huge Family with thousands of species of small spiders, which have not by any means all been sorted out.  Perhaps better to leave them as Linyphiidae.

A snout mite (Bdellidae) and a spider (probably Linyphiidae)  Ian Cooper

Snout moth Hypena californica (Lep.: Erebidae – Hypeninae)

 Jochen Möhr

Probably Linyphiidae   Ian Cooper

Probably Agelenidae    Ian Cooper

   An interesting photograph of a winter moth from Jochen Möhr.  I agree with Jochen that it is probably Operophtera occidentalis – the middle terminal cell is slightly darker that the adjacent cells, and this is especially evident when viewed from a distance.  But it is the hindwings that are interesting.  One rarely gets to see the hindwings of Operophtera, and I don’t believe that O. brumata has any markings like this.

Is this perhaps a way of distinguishing between the two species?

Operophtera occidentalis (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

2021 January 4

    Ian Cooper continues with his efforts to find strange creatures of which many of us are unaware by searching along the Galloping Goose trail in pouring rain in the middle of the night.  Here is a strange, flat Bark Crab Spider, identified by Ian and confirmed by Dr Robb Bennett, as Bassaniana utahensis.  Dare I say it – although it may look fierce, its Bark is worse than its Bite.

Bassaniana utahensis (Ara.: Thomisidae)  Ian Cooper

Bassaniana utahensis (Ara.: Thomisidae)  Ian Cooper

Bassaniana utahensis (Ara.: Thomisidae)  Ian Cooper

Bassaniana utahensis (Ara.: Thomisidae)  Ian Cooper

   Also found by Ian, another snout mite:

Snout mite (Acari.: Bdellidae)  Ian Cooper