2020 December 23

   Gordon Hart writes: Yesterday, Tuesday, December 22, while parts of Greater Victoria were covered in ice and snow, we walked along the snow-free Songhees walkway bordering the Inner Harbour, and found bees and flies enjoying winter-blooming Mahonia and other flowers. I have attached photos of a Bombus vosnesenskii (Yellow-faced Bee) and a fly species (House Fly?).

Bombus vosnesenskii (Hym.: Apidae) Gordon Hart

      Jeremy Tatum writes:   I’m pretty sure that the fly is a muscine, but not certain that it is Musca domestica. The venation of the fly below is very similar to that of M. domestica, but M. domestica usually has a few longitudinal stripes on the thorax, which I don’t see on this one.  If any viewer can go further, please let us know.

Dip.:  Muscidae – Muscinae        Gordon Hart

2020 December 21

   Another interesting bunch from Colquitz River Park, December 18-20, by Ian Cooper.  Thanks to Dr Robb Bennett for confirming Ian’s spider identification.

Scotophaeus (probably blackwalli)  (Ara.:  Gnaphosidae)  Ian Cooper

Limax maximus (Pul.: Limacidae)  Ian Cooper

Devil’s Coach Horse Ocypus olens (Col.: Staphylinidae)  Ian Cooper

   We can’t identify them all!   If anyone has any ideas on the one below, please let us know.  My guess (Jeremy Tatum) is possibly Insecta.  Maybe even, a very slight possibility, Diptera.  In other words possibly the maggot of some species of fly.   But I could be way out.

Insecta?   Larval Diptera??   Ian Cooper

2020 December 18

   Some spiders and slugs from Ian Cooper, identified to Subfamily (it’s a huge Family – thousands of species!) by Dr Robb Bennett:

Spider (Ara.: Linyphiidae – Linyphiinae)  Ian Cooper

Another (different) spider (Ara.: Linyphiidae – Linyphiinae)  Ian Cooper

   And some difficult slugs.   Robert Forsyth writes:

The smaller slugs are Arion (subgenus Carinarion), as I see the characteristic, pale “pseudo-keel” of enlarged tubercles along the centre of the tail. This is the group that includes A. fasciatus, A. silvaticus, and A. circumscriptus.

The large slug is interesting. I’m not sure what it is. A very pale Ambigolimax valentianus ???

Large slug possibly Ambigolimax valentianus (Pul.: Limacidae)

Small slugs Arion (Carinarion) (Pul.: Arionidae)

Ian Cooper

2020 December 17

Jochen Möhr sends a photograph of a Ctenolepisma  firebrat from Metchosin.  This one lacks the four rows of pale spots that Libby Avis’s one of December 13 had.  That is why, writes Jeremy Tatum, I *think* Jochen’s  is Ctenolepisma longicaudatum, whilst Libby’s was L. lineatum.

Ctenolepisma longicaudatum (Thysanura: Lepismatidae)  Jochen Möhr

   And here’s a globose springtail and a slug from Colquitz River Park, photographed by Ian Cooper:

Ptenothrix sp.  (Coll:  Symphypleona – Dicyrtomidae)   Ian Cooper

Limax maximus (Limacidae)   Ian Cooper

2020 December 14

   Ian Cooper recently photographed two small beetles at Colquitz River Park, identified for us by Charlene Wood as staphylinids (rove beetles).  The first is a bit too dark to identify safely below Family level. 

Rove beetle (Col.: Staphylinidae)  Ian Cooper

   The second (below) is in the genus Stenus, which, according to a Web reference, is reputed to be the largest genus in the Kingdom Animalia, with a reputed 56,000 species.   Charlene writes:   Stenus sp. are very cool, large eyed, rove beetles adapted to live at the edge of water margins. They can propel at high speeds across the surface of water by expelling “stenusol” from the tip of their abdomen, changing the surface tension and making them pretty fantastic predators in this situation. They also have a very long extendable labrum with sticky pads for grasping prey. 

Rove beetle Stenus sp. (Col.: Staphylinidae)  Ian Cooper

   And here, from the same place, is an immature male linyphiine spider, just possibly (Dr Bennett) a species of Neriene

Possibly Neriene (Ara.: Linyphiidae – Linyphiinae) Ian Cooper