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.

July 23

2016 July 23

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:   Mount Tolmie, 6:00 pm. July 23.  A Red Admiral on the reservoir, and a Painted Lady on the roadside near the Jeffery Pine.

 

   Annie Pang sends a variety of photographs from Gorge Park.  First a small fly, identified by Dr Matthias Buck as a lauxaniid.

 

Fly (Dip.: Lauxaniidae)   Annie Pang

 

 

   Next, a small moth:

 

Many-plumed moth Alucita montana (Lep.: Alucitidae)  Annie Pang

 

 

   Then a spider:

 

Araneus diadematus (Ara.: Araneidae)   Annie Pang

 

 

      

 

July 22

2016 July 22

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I found a third-instar Red Admiral caterpillar at Swan Lake today.  Unlike the Lorquin’s Admiral caterpillars which I reported on July 20, which overwinter as young caterpillars, the Red Admiral caterpillar will produce an adult butterfly later this summer.

July 21

2016 July 21

 

   Val George writes:  This Silver-spotted Tiger Moth Lophocampa argentata was beside a road near my house in Oak Bay on July 21.

 

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

Val George

   Samantha sends a photograph of a group of nymphs of the Birch Bug – appropriately on a birch catkin. Thanks to Scott Gilmore for the identification. There is an interesting account of this species at

http://entomofaune.qc.ca/entomofaune/punaises/punaises_acanthosomatidae.html

 

 Birch Bug Elasmucha lateralis (Hem.: Acanthosomatidae)

Samantha

   Annie Pang sends a photograph of  the beetle Leptura obliterata, from Gorge Park, July 21.

 

 Leptura obliterata (Col.: Cerambycidae)  Annie Pang

 

 

July 20

2016 July 20

 

   Annie Pang sends a photograph of a leaf-cutting bee from Gorge Park, July 19.

 


Megachile sp. (probably perihirta) (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Annie Pang

 

 

   Jeff Gaskin writes:  Other than the odd Lorquin’s Admiral and Western Tiger Swallowtail that I’ve been seeing today in Colwood, I saw several Pine Whites. There were 17 that I counted at the Royal Roads University and another 9 along Goldstream Avenue right by the Royal Colwood Golf Course.

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I visited Swan Lake for about twenty minutes today, and I didn’t see any adult butterflies at all.  However, I found two tiny (3 mm, first instar) caterpillars of Lorquin’s Admiral, both on Ocean Spray. Lorquin’s Admiral spends the winter as a young caterpillar. There were two rather different geometrid moths under the lights at the front door of the Nature House – a somewhat modest Idaea dimidiata and a spectacular Pero mizon.  At 4:00 p.m. there were three butterflies at the top of Mount Tolmie.  A Western Tiger Swallowtail on the reservoir;  a pristine fresh Anise Swallowtail flying around the picnic table area, occasionally settling on the plum tree at the top of the stairs; and a Painted Lady on the roadside next to the Jeffery Pine.

July 19 part 2

 

2016 July 19 part 2

 

Rosemary Jorna sends a photograph of a beetle just at the tide line at Bear Beach on the Juan de Fuca Trail, July 18.  Thanks to Scott Gilmore for identifying it to Tribe level. [Tribe (-ini)] is a category below Subfamily (-inae).]

 

 Click beetle (Col.: Elateridae – Dendrometrinae – Prosternini)  Rosemary Jorna

   Annie Pang sends a picture of a cerambycid beetle.  Thanks to Rowan French for identifying it as Anoplodera pubera.

 

 Anoplodera pubera (Col.: Cerambycidae)  Annie Pang

 

Jeremy Tatum sends photographs of two moths.  Thanks to Libby Avis for identifying the first as Peridroma saucia.  Jeremy reports that he saw a pristine fresh male Satyr Comma at Rithet’s Bog, July 18.  This is the only wild (i.e. not reared from caterpillar) Satyr Comma that he has seen so far this year.

 

 Pearly Underwing Peridroma saucia (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Nycteola cinereana (Lep.: Nolidae) Jeremy Tatum

 

 

Aziza Cooper writes:  On Sunday, July 17, Moralea Milne and I went out to the logging roads beyond Jordan River and checked a bog where Moralea had seen a couple of Mariposa Coppers two years ago. We found at least 25 Mariposa Coppers in the bog on both sides of the road. Some of the males had the purplish sheen when seen well and every individual we saw was in pristine condition.

 

We saw two other species: two Dun Skippers and one Western Tiger Swallowtail.

 

An interesting dragonfly (Crimson-ringed Whiteface) was along a spur road.

 

Female Mariposa Copper Lycaena mariposa (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

Male Mariposa Copper Lycaena mariposa (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

 

Crimson-ringed Whiteface Leucorrhinia glacialis (Odo.: Libellulidae) Aziza Cooper

Aziza continues:  Two Dun Skippers were also along North Main, on July 17. In the photo, the butterfly is perching on Labrador Tea.

 

Dun Skipper Euphyes vestris (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Aziza Cooper

 

 

Annie Pang sends a photograph of a Spider-hunting wasp.

 

Spider-hunting wasp (Hym.: Pompilidae)  Annie Pang