2019 July 21

   Ted Dobie sent me the photograph below of a caterpillar found on Gordon Head Road.  He kindly allowed me to collect it for rearing.

Orgyia pseudotsugata (Lep.: Erebidae – Lymantriinae)  Ted Dobie

   The caterpillar shown on July 8, and the chrysalis on July 11, this morning produced the Red Admiral butterfly shown below.  Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get a good shot of the upperside.  I released the butterlfy on a Buddleia in Finnerty Gardens, where it was joined on the same bush by one each of Lorquin’s Admiral, Painted Lady, Western Tiger Swallowtail, Cabbage White and Anna’s Hummingbird, all enjoying the copious nectar. I stood watching them for 45 minutes, wondering if I had woken up in Heaven.

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Jochen Möhr’s moths in Metchosin this morning:

1 Amorbia cuneanum

1 Callizzia amorata

I Drepanulatrix secundaria

1 Eupithecia sp.   

2 Homorthodes hanhami

2 Nadata gibbosa

2 Nemoria darwiniata

1 Pyrausta perrubralis

1 Schizura ipomoeae

1 probably Apamea sordens

1 Coryphista meadii

1 Dichagyris variabilis

1 Leucania or mythimna

and at least a dozen micros of different kinds.

Amorbia cuneanum (Lep.: Tortricidae)  Jochen Möhr

Pyrrausta perrubralis (Lep.: Crambidae) Jochen Möhr

Nemoria darwiniata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

   Ren Ferguson sends these pictures of a bee from Salt Spring Island.  Thanks to Annie Pang for confirming the identification.

Bombus flavifrons (Hym.: Apidae)  Ren Ferguson

Bombus flavifrons (Hym.: Apidae)  Ren Ferguson

Bombus flavifrons (Hym.: Apidae)  Ren Ferguson

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I saw two Mylitta Crescents today (July 21) along a Hydro line across Millstream Road, as well as a very small (and as yet unidentified) sesiid moth.  Also, I saw a Pine White flying over the McKenzie Interchange.

   That’ll have to be all for today!  More tomorrow morning.

Layla Munger sends some pictures from Oak Bay.

The first shows a Sand Wasp.  That one was easy, and I was going to ignore the tiny fly at the bottom – until Layla managed to identlfy it!

Sand wasp Bembix americana (Hym.: Crabronidae)

Frit fly Thaumatomyia glabra (Dip.: Chloropidae)

Layla Munger

Crab spider Misumena vatia (Ara.: Thomisidae)  Layla Munga

Next is a Wool Carder Bee¸ in the act of carding wool from a woolly leaf with which to line its nest,

Wool Carder Bee Anthidium manicatum (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Layla Munger

Wool Carder Bee Anthidium manicatum (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Layla Munger

Annie Pang sends a photograph of a Yellow-fronted Bumblebee.  [The “front” in such animal names as Yellow-fronted Bumblebee and White-fronted Goose, etc., refers to the “frons – frontis” or forehead.]

Bombus flavifrons (Hym.: Apidae)  Annie Pang

Jochen Möhr’s moths in Metchosin this morning:

2 Callizia amorata

One each  of:

Eulithis xylina

Hydriomena marinata /californiata

Lophocampa argentata

Nadata gibbosa

Pero mizon

Pyrausta perrubralis

Schizura ipomoeae

Hesperumia latipennis

Hydriomena marinata/californiata (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr

Pero mizon (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Schizura ipomoeae (Lep.: Notodontodae) Jochen Möhr

Hesperumis latipennis (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr

That will have to be enough for today!

2019 July 19 morning

Notice from Gordon Hart: 

The July Butterfly Count starts Saturday, July 20,  running until next Sunday, July 28. You can submit a count anytime over this period, and you can do more than one count, just use a separate form for each count. In the case of repeat counts, or more than one person counting an area, I will take the highest count for each species.

Please use the form at https://www.vicnhs.bc.ca/?p=33 on the Victoria Natural History Society website .

The count area is the same as the Victoria Christmas Bird Count circle. For butterfly identification there are numerous internet sites, but most or all Victoria species are listed on E-Fauna. If you select by photographer, all the photos under James Miskelly’s name are of Victoria species. Here is the link: http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/efauna/photoGallery/Gallery.aspx?gr=showall&pid=175&photographer=miskelly,%20james&specrep=0

If you would like a suggestion for an area to count, please send me an email.

In addition to the counts, a monthly Butterfly Walk is held on the first Sunday of each month – the next walk will be on August 4. We start at the summit of Mount Tolmie at 1pm, and decide where to go from there. I will send out another reminder the week before.

Thank-you for submitting your sightings and happy counting!

Gordon Hart,

Butterfly Count Coordinator,

Victoria Natural History Society

   Jochen Möhr writes from Metchosin:

Yesterday, there was almost nothing (1 Hesperumia sulphuraria and 1 Hormothodes hanhami)

Today, It’s a little better, as there is one new one for this wall and for July.  [And for this site – Jeremy T.]

1 Dichagyris variabilis

1 Drepanulatrix secundaria

1 Eulithis xylina

1 Nadata gibbosa 

1 Pero mizon

1 Sicya crocearia 

2 pictures attached

Drepanulatrix secundaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Dichagyris variabilis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

2019 July 18

   Jeremy Tatum writes:   Hundreds of Essex Skippers in the fields inland from Island View Beach – but no Ringlets at the moment.  All the Teasels at McIntyre Reservoir have been cut down.  There will be no butterflies there this year.

   Cheryl Hoyle sends some photographs taken on July 17 at the Gorge Park Community Gardens:

Polyphylla crinita (Col.: Scarabaeidae) Cheryl Hoyle

Syritta pipiens (Dip.: Syrphidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

   Cheryl  found this spider in View Royal on July 11.  Thanks to Dr Robb Bennett for identifying it as a Lynx Spider, Oxyopes scalaris, the only member of the Oxyopidae so far recorded in British Columbia.

Lynx spider Oxyopes scalaris (Ara.: Oxyopidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

Rosemary Jorna sends some photographs  taken on July 17 from the Kemp Lake area:

Coccinella septempunctata (Col.: Coccinellidae)  Rosemary Jorna

   This next insect looks very like an ichneumonid indeed – although it is keeping its antennae rather still.  The antennae of an ichneumonid are constantly in motion.  It didn’t deceive Rosemary, who recognized it as a beetle.  Scott Gilmore identifies it as Necydalis laevicollis.

Necydalis laevicollis  (Col.: Cerambycidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Silver-spotted Tiger Moth Lophocampa argentata (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Rosemary Jorna

2019 July 17

   Rosemary sends two pictures of a European Paper Wasp from the Kemp Lake area, July 16:

European Paper Wasp Polistes dominula (Hym.: Vespidae)  Rosemary Jorna

European Paper Wasp Polistes dominula (Hym.: Vespidae)  Rosemary Jorna

   These wasps seem to have chosen yesterday for posing for photographs, for Cheryl Hoyle photographed one yesterday along the Galloping Goose trail:

European Paper Wasp Polistes dominula (Hym.: Vespidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

   Another miscellany of various insects from Cheryl:

This damselfly was quite beyond my ability to identify, but no trouble for Dr Rob Cannings, who kindly identified it for us, to species, sex, and age!

Immature female Tule Bluet Ennalagma carunculatum (Odo.: Coenagrionidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

Lorquin’s Admiral Limenitis lorquini  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

   I believe the next one is a spider-hunting wasp.  There are too many species even to think about identifying it further, although Aporus luxus might be a reasonable guess.

Spider-hunting Wasp (possibly Aporus luxus??) (Hym.: Pompilidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

      Jochen Möhr writes from Metchosin:

After a night of full moon and pouring rain still very little at the light:

1 Hesperumia sulphuraria

1 Ochlodes sylvanoides (Picture attached)   

1 Scopula quinquelinearia

Woodland Skipper Ochlodes sylvanoides (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Jochen Möhr

   Question:  In the above photograph, which is the foreleg, which is the middle leg, and which is the hindleg?  Question:  Do all hesperiine skippers perch like that?

  Here’s a puzzler from Rosemary Jorna, Kemp Lake.  This tiny insect (1-2 mm) was in a bowl of local raspberries.  Is it a beetle or a bug?  Where are its wings?  Charlene Wood points out that most beetles have 9-11 antennal segments, whereas bugs have 4 or 5.  So it’s a bug.  But no wings?  That means it’s a nymph.  That’s the best we can do so far!

Unidentified bug nymph (Hemiptera – Heteroptera) Rosemary Jorna

   Thanks to Annie Pang for confirming Cheryl Hoyle’s photograph below as  a Leaf-cutter Bee of the genus Megachile.  This is a large genus and it may not be possible to go to species.

Leaf-cutter Bee Megachile sp. (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

   Coincidentally, at the very time when I asked Annie for help with Cheryl’s bee, Annie had just written a short, illustrated paragraph about leaf-cutter bees, so here’s what Annie says:

Here are my first GPCG pics of a Megachile female bee, common name, Leafcutter Bee.

Once these bees mate, the males croak, having outlived their usefulness (don’t ask me, I didn’t make the rules!!)  but the females get really busy, busy, busy collecting pollen on their bellies (unique to Megachile bees and a good way to identify them) and look for a suitable place to lay their eggs, finding or forming pencil shaped holes. They form loaves out of the pollen they collect adding some of their own saliva with beneficial "stuff" in it for the "kid" and pack it in with each egg, then seal it off with some chewed up leaves.

If you find a few holes in some of your rose bushes, don’t sweat it. It is not a pest and will not destroy your roses. You just helped out the bee population. Win-win for they will pollinate your garden in return for a few wee bites.  Taken at Gorge Park Community Gardens,Victoria, BC. July 15, 2019.

Don’t ask what species ….there are 100s of  ’em.

Leaf-cutter Bee Megachile sp. (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Annie Pang

Leaf-cutter Bee Megachile sp. (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Annie Pang

Leaf-cutter Bee Megachile sp. (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Annie Pang

Leaf-cutter Bee Megachile sp. (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Annie Pang

   Jeremy Tatum writes that at present there are hundreds of Essex Skippers to be seen along the waterfront trail at Island View Beach, and hundreds to be seen at the Orchard end of Witty’s Lagoon Park.