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.

November 3

2017 November 3

 

   A butterfly in November!  I didn’t know if we were going to make it, but Jeff Gaskin tells us that Kirsten Mills saw a Cabbage White at the corner of Cadboro Bay Road and Tudor Avenue on November 1.  The following day we were surprised to have snow in the evening, so I imagine that our extended butterfly season this year is now really over.  But let us know if anyone sees any more.

 

 

November 2 morning

2017 November 2 morning

 

   Ian Cruickshank sends some pictures of a butterfly (October 26), and a beetle and two spiders (October 27) from the sand dunes among the Ammophila on Sidney Island Spit.

 

Painted Lady Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae)   Ian Cruickshank

 

 

   Charlene Wood identifies the beetle for us as Pterostichus algidus.  Note that it has fused elytra and does not fly.


Pterostichus algidus (Col.: Carabidae)  Ian Cruickshank

 

   Robb Bennett writes:  These two spiders are old friends, both introduced from Britain or western Europe about 100 years ago:

 

         The reddish one is Dysdera crocata, known to the British as the “slater slayer” because of its preference for preying upon woodlice.

 

        The other is one of our two species of Eratigena (previously classified in Tegenaria) – either Eratigena agrestis (hobo spider) or Eratigena atrica (giant house spider).  I suspect it is E. agrestis based on its subtle golden hue – atrica is usually much darker/grayer.

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Latin and Greek Scholars will be wondering what “Eratigena” means.  They may well continue to wonder.  Fans of cryptic crosswords will doubtless immediately notice that Eratigena is merely a meaningless Greek-looking anagram of Tegenaria.

 


Dysdera crocata (Ara.: Dysderidae)  Ian Cruickshank

 


Eratigena (probably agrestis )  (Ara.: Agelenidae)  Ian Cruickshank

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 31 morning

2017 October 31 morning

 

    Thanks to Thomas Barbin for spotting a misidentification of a spider on the October 21 posting.  I have now corrected it.  A reminder to all viewers that, if you spot a mistake, please do let me know. 

 

     Here are three more insects from Metchosin, photographed by Jochen Moehr.  Sincere thanks to Libby Avis for help with the moth identifications, and to Claudia Copley for the caddisfly.

White-speck Moth Mythimna unipuncta (Lep.: Noctuidae)

Jochen Moehr

 

American Tissue Moth Triphosa haesitata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Moehr

 

 

Caddisfly Halesochila taylori (Tri.: Limnephilidae)  Jochen Moehr

 

October 30

2017 October 30

 

   Rosemary Jorna writes:  Here is another small insect from East Sooke  This little lady beetle, 3 mm, landed on my pants while we were enjoying the sun and sea at Iron Mine Bay on Friday October 27.  Charlene Wood writes:  It’s a tiny coccinellid in the genus Psyllobora, of which there are two species in our area: P. vigintimaculata and P. borealis.

 


Psyllobora vigintimaculata or borealis (Col.: Coccinellidae)   Rosemary Jorna

October 29 evening

2017 October 29 evening

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I went to McIntyre reservoir this afternoon hoping to stave off the onset of S.A.D. by one more day, and I saw two Cabbage Whites there.  There have been sightings of this species from other locations in the last few days.

 

   Banded Woolly Bears have also been reported from several places in the last few days – McIntyre Reservoir, Swan Lake, Quick’s Bottom, Rithet’s Bog.  Yesterday I visited Panama Flats, and there were many squashed Banded Woolly Bears along the pathway.  I remarked on this last year, and I think there were far too many to have been accidentally trodden upon.  I think the automatic reaction of many people to seeing a caterpillar is to stomp on it.  Just as the automatic reaction of many people to seeing a mushroom is to kick it over. 

 

   There are two mentions of butterflies in today’s Times-Colonist.  On page C3 there is an article about many Monarchs still remaining in Ontario, from where they should long ago have migrated south.  The warm weather may have delayed their departure, and when winter really starts to kick in, they will be doomed.  Or perhaps the warm fall weather has resulted in an extra generation.  One biologist is quoted in the article as saying:  “It’s not an ominous sign for monarchs, but it is ominous” – an observation of great profundity.

 

  The second mention of butterflies is on page B3.  Kaetlyn Osmond came first in the women’s singles at Skate Canada, though her performance had one or two small glitches in it.  She had to put her hand down to prevent a fall in a triple toe loop, and she fell in a double Axel.  It’s nice to see her back after a few injuries.  She blamed her stumble on the triple toe loop to butterflies – an allegation which I strenuously deny.

 

  Here is another moth photograph from Jochen Moehr in Metchosin, and we are grateful to Libby Avis for identifying it for us.

 


Lithophane baileyi (Lep.: Noctuidae)   Jochen Moehr

 

   I asked Libby if she is still getting some moths in Port Alberni.  She writes:  Not too much happening here any longer – has been fairly cool at night. Still getting one or two Thera juniperata, a few Mythimna unipuncta, Autographa californica and one lonely Sunira decipiens. Not a butterfly to be seen, so you’re lucky in Victoria.