2018 November 5

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  In the November 3 posting, I said I’d look up the date of the last 2017 butterfly.  It was a Cabbage White on 2017 November 1.  Thus Kirsten’s November 2 sighting of a Cabbage White this year beats last year’s by one day!   

  We may have seen the last butterfly of the year, but there are still a few invertebrates around, so Invert Alert will remain open, though doubtless at a reduced rate of activity, so please continue to send your observations or photographs in.

IKNov0319

2018 November 3

   Jochen Möhr sends photographs of two moths from Metchosin.  One is Drepanulatrix sp. – I think D. monicaria.  The other is Epirrita autumnalis.

Drepanulatrix (probably monicaria)  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Epirrita autumnalis (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

   Kirsten Mills writes that she saw a Cabbage White yesterday, November 2,  at Eddy’s Storage on Stelly’s Cross Road.   This is surely going to be a good candidate for last butterfly of the year!  I’ll have to look it up when I get a moment, but I believe that November 2 last year was also the date of the last butterfly – a Cabbage White.   I’ll post a confirmation when I have had a chance to search last year’s records.   Jeremy Tatum

2018 October 30

   Val George writes:  Yesterday, October 29, I counted 26 of these guys on the walls of the Nature House at Goldstream Park.  

   Thanks to Libby Avis for confirming the photo as Autumnal Moth Epirrita autumnata.

Autumnal Moth Epirrita autumnalis (Lep.: Geometridae) Val George

2018 October 27

    It’s Winter Moth time again!   This one was at Jeremy Tatum’s Saanich apartment this morning.   Maybe not the first one of the season, for Aziza photographed a probable, though very early, one on October 10 (see October 12 posting).  They should start to become common during November.  Try the Goldstream Park Nature House, or maybe Metchosin,  to see if you can get one of the native winter moths – Bruce’s or Danby’s.  I think in Victoria they are all likely to be the European Winter Moth.

European Winter Moth  Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

2018 October 26

   Val George writes:  Yesterday, October 25, I found some pupae of the Cabbage White caterpillars reported on the October 24 Alert.  This one was in a window opening.

Cabbage White Pieris rapae  (Lep.: Pieridae)  Val George