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.

April 17 morning

2020 Aptil 17 morning

 

From Gordon Hart:

Hello Butterfly Enthusiasts,

While we have had to cancel our Butterfly Walk, I think we can still safely go ahead with an April Butterfly Count. Some areas will be closed or inaccessible and you should avoid areas where physical distancing would be difficult. If you want to count in your yard or neighbourhood, that would be fine.

It will take place from Saturday, April 18 to Sunday, April 26. You can submit a count anytime over the period and you can do more than one count, just use a separate form for each count. In the case of repeat counts, or people doing the same area, I will use the highest number.

To submit counts, please use the form at: https://www.vicnhs.bc.ca/?p=33. If you have any difficulty with the form, just send me an email with the information. hartgordon19 at gmail dot com

The count area is the Victoria Christmas Bird Count Circle, so it does not go beyond Central Saanich at Island View Road, or west past Witty’s Lagoon in Metchosin.

Thank-you for submitting your sightings and good luck with your count!

-Gordon Hart

   Jeremy Tatum adds:  While doing your Butterfly Count, keep your eyes open for the new fly, especially around thistle plants.  See the April 17 afternoon Invert Alert for details.

   Peter Boon photographed an interesting bunch of moths in Nanaimo on April 14, some of which we have already posted.  Two of them, however, were a bit of a puzzle, and we post them now. The first one looks at first a bit like the familiar Orthosia hibisci, but Libby Avis and I (Jeremy Tatum) now feel that it is more likely the much less common Orthosia pacifica:

 


Orthosia pacifica (Lep.: Noctuidae) Peter Boon

   The next one seems to be a dark form of an otherwise familiar moth.  Because of its more-or-less uniform dark colour, it is hard to be sure of its identity, but Libby and I both think probably Orthosia praeses:

 


Orthosia praeses  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Peter Boon

   Wendy Ansell photographed a Propertius Duskywing on Mount Tolmie on April 16:

 

Propertius Duskywing Erynnis propertius (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Wendy Ansell