2024 March 15

More Mourning Cloaks.  At 2:30 pm, March 14,  Marie O’Shaughnessy saw – and photographed – her first butterfly of the year near the Swan Lake Nature House.

Mourning Cloak Nymphalis antiopa  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)   Marie O’Shaughnessy

   And at 1:00 pm to day, March 15,  Marie saw and photographed another one, in Uplands Park:

Mourning Cloak Nymphalis antiopa  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)   Marie O’Shaughnessy

Aziza Cooper saw two Satyr Commas  at the western end of Ross Bay cemetary – her first butterflies of the year – at the western end of Ross Bay Cemetery.  She photographed one:

Satyr Comma Polygonia satyrus  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Aziza Cooper

2024 March 13

    Butterfly Alert!  Jules Thomson saw a Mourning Cloak, on Jasmine at 1251 Pearce Crescent, today, March 13, at 12:34 pm.

This is only the second butterfly reported to Invertebrate Alert this year.  The first, also a Mourning Cloak, was on February 13 (February 14 Invert Alert).

2024 March 11

   Kirsten Mills sends a picture of a Banded Woolly Bear caterpillar from Swan Lake, March 9.  We are accustomed to seeing many of these in October, after which they hide away somewhere over the winter.  Overwintering caterpillars are not at all easy to rear.  Occasionally Banded Woolly Bears are to be found early in spring, after they have woken up from wherever they have spent the winter.  When they are found in spring, they have usually finished feeding, and are looking for somewhere to spin a cocoon and pupate.  They are then easy to rear to adulthood.  The adult moths are called Isabella Tiger Moths.

Banded Woolly Bear  Pyrrharctia isabella  (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Kirsten Mills

Kirsten also found at Swan Lake this early European Paper Wasp:

 European Paper Wasp  Polistes dominula  (Hym.: Vespidae)  Kirsten Mills

2024 March 5

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  This bug came into my Saanich apartment this morning.    Some bugs can deliver a painful bite; others can’t.  I don’t know whether this one can or cannot – I don’t care to find out by experiment.

Brochymena affinis (Hem.: Pentatomidae)  Jeremy Tatum

2024 March 2

   More invertebrates photographed by Ian Cooper at Colquitz River Park.   Note that the globose springtail, also shown on February 29, is a new, undescribed species.

Globose springtail Ptenothrix sp. nov.  (Coll.: Dicyrtomenidae) Ian Cooper

Springtail Orchesella cincta (Coll.: Orchesellidae)  Ian Cooper

Araneus diadematus (Ara.: Araneidae)  Ian Cooper

Rugathodes sexpunctatus (Ara.: Theridiidae)  Ian Cooper

Female linyphiid spider, perhaps Neriene sp. (Ara.: Linyphiidae)  Ian Cooper

Male linyphiid spider, perhaps Neriene sp. (Ara.: Linyphiidae)  Ian Cooper

Lauria cylindracea (Pul.: Lauriidae)  Ian Cooper