2018 April 19

   We start today’s Invert Alert with a spectacular beetle, photographed by Bill Katz at Goldstream Heights.  Thanks to Charlene Wood, who tells us that it is a net-winged beetle (Lycidae) – probably the northwest species Punicealis hamata.

Net-winged beetle, probably Punicealis hamata (Col.: Lycidae)   Bill Katz

Re Robin Robinson’s report and photographs (see April 17) of Tissue Moths overwintering in a cave, see the Website   https://bugguide.net/node/view/15272

where it mentions the habit of this moth of overwintering in caves.

It’s time for hilltopping nymphalids in the late afternoons on the Mount Tolmie reservoir again.  Jeremy Tatum writes:  I’ve been up there once or twice recently with no luck, but Val George found and photographed a California Tortoiseshell there this afternoon.  April is traditionally the best month for this species.

California Tortoiseshell Nymphalis californica (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Val George

Wendy Ansell writes:  Today I saw one Cabbage White in our yard (Cordova Ridge) around lunch time.  Our first this year.

Also, this evening Gerry and I saw our first Western Spring Azure of the year by Beaver Lake.  It was flying around looking quite content to stay there.

2018 April 18

   Barb McGrenere writes: Mike and I took a walk along the Lochside Trail in Blenkinsop Valley this afternoon.  We saw one Western Spring Azure (quick flyby) along Lohbrunner, and one Cabbage White along Lochside Trail just south of Lohbrunner.

   Nathan Fisk writes “What a Day!”  And he sends photographs from Fort Rodd Hill Learning Meadow, April 17, mostly of our lovely spring flowers, but (only just!) allowed on this site because there is an insect in each! 

Bombus vosnesenskii  and Dodecatheon sp.   Nathan Fisk   

Bombus sp.  and Dodecatheon sp.   Nathan Fisk   

Bombus sp.  and Dodecatheon sp.   Nathan Fisk   

Andrena sp. and Camassia sp.  Nathan Fisk

Anthocharis sara (Lep.: Pieridae) and Erythronium sp.  Nathan Fisk

2018 April 17

   Today’s posting is hardly an “alert”, since it dates from last fall, but I thought that it was sufficiently interesting that it certainly ought to be shared.  Robin Robinson writes that he saw some moths that “were hibernating in a prospector mine shaft that I was looking through last fall on Jocelyn Hill. There were probably about 50 of them on the ceiling of the cave.”

American Tissue Moth Triphosa haesitata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Robin Robinson

American Tissue Moth Triphosa haesitata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Robin Robinson

2018 April 15

   Jeremy Tatum writes:   There are lots of dark-coloured flies that one encounters on the rotting seaweed on the seashore. I managed to photograph one of them on Mount Douglas Beach yesterday afternoon.  I think it is probably a coelopid, but there are flies in other families (e.g. Scathophagidae, Muscidae) that have members that occur on rotting seaweed.  It’s certainly not a muscid, so for the time being I’m labelling it as a probable coelopid.

Fly (Dip.: probably Coelopidae)   Jeremy Tatum

   I see from the bcvibirds website that Robin Robinson saw a Moss’s Elfin on Skirt Mountain on April 14.

2018 April 13

   Thomas Barbin writes:  Here are a couple of photographs of a Golden Buprestid Buprestis aurulenta that I found on April 9, 2018, at Goldstream Provincial Park.

Golden Buprestid Buprestis aurulenta (Col.: Buprestidae) Thomas Barbin

Golden Buprestid Buprestis aurulenta (Col.: Buprestidae) Thomas Barbin