INVERTEBRATE ALERT
This blog provides an informal forum for terrestrial invertebrate watchers to post recent sightings of interesting observations in the southern Vancouver Island region. Please send your sightings by email to Jeremy Tatum (tatumjb352@gmail.com). Be sure to include your name, phone number, the species name (common or scientific) of the invertebrate you saw, location, date, and number of individuals. If you have a photograph you are willing to share, please send it along. Click on the title above for an index of past sightings.The index is updated most days.

February 22

2014 February 22

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:   Here’s another Tineola bisselliella  (clothes moth!) from my Saanich apartment building.  Recognized by its orange thorax. Not much else around in these cold days!

 


Tineola bisselliella (Lep.: Tineidae) Jeremy Tatum

February 21

2018 February 21

 

   Over the last couple of years we have accumulated a number of photographs by myself and by Annie Pang of various unidentified tortricid moths which were never posted on Invert Alert.  Thanks to Scott Gilmore, we have now been able to contact Dr Jason Dombroskie, tortricid expert at Cornell University, who has very kindly identified them for us.  Although the photographs below are not strictly “alerts”, because they were taken some time ago and not strictly eligible for an Invert Alert posting, I show them below anyway – one of the privileges of being Moderator!

 

Acleris forsskaleana (Lep. Tortricidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Acleris rhombana (Lep.: Tortricidae)   Jeremy Tatum

 

 

Acleris variegana (Lep.: Tortricidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Carcina quercana (Lep.: Tortricidae) Jeremy Tatum

Clepsis spectrana (Lep.: Tortricidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Clepsis spectrana (Lep.: Tortricidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Tortricid moth (Lep.: Tortricidae – Grapholitini) Anne Pang

Tortricid moth (Lep.: Tortricidae – Grapholitini) Anne Pang

Hedya ?nubiferana (Lep.: Tortricidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Hedya ?nubiferana (Lep.:  Tortricidae)   Jeremy Tatum

Olethreutes ?appendiceum (Lep.: Tortricidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Olethreutes electrofuscum (Lep.: Tortricidae) Annie Pang

 

February 20

2019 February 20

 

   The photograph below was obtained by Gordon Hart at Royal Bay Beach Park, Metchosin, on February 19.  Although we cannot identify the unhappy caterpillar – other than at family level, Noctuidae – it serves as a reminder that caterpillars are to be found at this season, even if it takes the sharp eyes of a pipit to find one.  The caterpillar is in its penultimate instar and, before the unfortunate incident, it was planning to undergo ecdysis soon – as can be seen by the small old head capsule.

 

Unidentified caterpillar (Lep.: Noctuidae),  and

American Pipit Anthus rubescens (Pas.: Motacillidae)

Gordon Hart

February 17

2018 February 17

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  My first moth of the year reared from a caterpillar found last year – Orthosia praeses.  ’Pologies for poor focus – in my excitement at the first emergence of the year, I forgot to check the camera settings  –  shall try to do better next time!

 


Orthosia praeses (Lep.: Noctuidae)   Jeremy Tatum

February 15

2018 February 18

 

   Nathan Fisk writes from Fort Rodd Hill Nursery:  I found these two had just emerged and were fluffing out their wings on the Chocolate Lilies.

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  A remarkable find!  The first one is the geometrid Hydriomena nubilofasciata.  We can’t be 100 percent sure about the second.  At first glance it looks more like a noctuid than a geometrid.  However, with two moths emerging at exactly the same time so very close to each other makes it likely that they are the same species, and Libby Avis points out that the markings on the thorax and the legs are virtually identical on the two moths.  Thus we think it is likely that the second moth is also Hydriomena nubilofsciata.

 


Hydriomena nubilofasciata (Lep.: Geometridae)   Nathan Fisk

 

Freshly-emerged moth, probably also Hydriomena nubilofasciata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Nathan Fisk