2024 May 3 evening

Ian Cooper writes:  Here are six invertebrate pictures taken very early this morning, May 03 2024, starting before dawn at Colquitz River Park and the Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal. The bee picture was taken by the Selkirk Trestle on my way back, when the sun was up.

Bombus melanopygus (Hym.: Apidae)  Ian Cooper

Probably Dicyphus discrepans (Hem.: Miridae)   Ian Cooper

Euceratia sp.  (Lep.: Ypsolophidae)  Ian Cooper
E. castella  is the most abundant species here.  E. securella is another possibility.

Limax maximus  (Pul.: Limacidae) Ian Cooper

Tetragnatha versicolor (Ara.: Tetragnathidae)  Ian Cooper

Aziza Cooper writes:  On Mount Douglas west slope today, May 3, I found 6 Western Spring Azures, 3 Propertius Duskywings and two Sara Orangetips. At Gore Park, there were at least 6 Western Spring Azures.  [This is the first report that Invert Alert has had of a Propertius Duskywing this year.]

Western Spring Azure  Celastrina echo  (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

Sara Orangetip Anthocharis sara (Lep.: Pieridae)  Aziza Cooper

Propertius Duskywing Erynnis propertius  (Lep.: Hesperiidae)   Aziza Cooper

2024 May 3 morning

   Note to photographers.  If you work from a PC, and if it is convenient for you, please send photographs to Invert Alert as an attachment and as a .jpg or .jpeg extension.   If you send it in some other form, I can sometimes figure out how to handle it, but I am not a computer expert, and it may take me quite a long while to do so.  I think there are just two contributors working from a Mac at the moment.  Please continue to do what you at present do.

  Marie O’Shaughnessy writes, May 2:A visit to Maber Flats revealed early afternoon at 1.15pm,
1 Mourning Cloak
6 Cabbage Whites
1 Western Spring Azure

At Gore Park, there were at 1.10pm
5 Western Spring Azures
1 Cabbage White 

At Mount Tolmie at 5.30pm,
1 California Tortoiseshell, a brief put down on the reservoir and then disappeared
A Painted Lady that settled briefly on my sleeve and was then  gone.
1 Western Spring Azure.

There was one dragonfly, hanging  off a cone high up in a fir tree near the Jeffrey Pine at the summit of Mt. Tolmie. It was basking in the late afternoon sun.

Aziza Cooper writes:

May 2, there was a dragonfly and a California Tortoiseshell at the reservoir on Mount Tolmie at about 6 pm.

Jeremy Tatum writes:  Although there have been a few reports of Pacific Forktail damselflies this year, this is the first report we have received of a true dragonfly (Suborder Anisoptera).   It looks as if Marie and Aziza have found the same individual!

California Darner Rhionaeschna californica (Odo.: Aeshnidae)  Aziza Cooper

California Darner Rhionaeschna californica (Odo.: Aeshnidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

California Tortoiseshell Nymphalis californica  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Aziza Cooper

Cabbage White Pieris rapae (Lep.: Pieridae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

2024 May 02 morning

   Note to photographers.  If you work from a PC, and if it is convenient for you, please send photographs to Invert Alert as an attachment and as a .jpg or .jpeg extension.   If you send it in some other form, I can sometimes figure out how to handle it, but I am not a computer expert, and it may take me quite a long while to do so.  I think there are just two contributors working from a Mac at the moment.  Please continue to do what you at present do.

Yesterday, May 1, Marie O’Shaughnessy saw four Western Spring Azures, a Painted Lady, a Mourning Cloak, a Cabbage White and a Cedar Hairstreak  at Outerbridge Park.  Aziza Cooper saw a Western Spring Azure, a Mourning Cloak, and a Cabbage White at Tod Creek Flats.  Val George saw a Painted Lady near the Jeffrey Pine on Mount Tolmie.

Painted Ladies often seem to fly near the Mount Tolmie Jeffrey Pine.  I am not sure if I have always spelled Jeffrey correctly in earlier Invert Alerts.  The correct spelling is Jeffrey.

This is the first Cedar Hairstreak reported this year to Invertebrate Alert.  The Cedar Hairstreak has had what the taxonomists call an “extensive synonymy”  – i.e. it has been given many scientific names.  In previous years we have called it Mitoura rosneri.  We are now attempting to follow the 2023 ATC, in which it is listed as Callophrys gryneus.  The ATC treats Mitoura as a subgenus within Callophrys, and rosneri as a subspecies of gryneus.

Here are some photographs from yesterday’s sightings.

Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

Painted Lady  Vanessa cardui  (Lep.:  Nymphalidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Painted Lady  Vanessa cardui  (Lep.:  Nymphalidae)   Val George

Cedar Hairstreak  Callophrys gryneus  (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Aziza Cooper writes, re spraying for Gypsy Moths:

And as well as the above impacts, the insects that birds depend on for food will die in large numbers from the spraying.