2020 April 23

St George’s Day

 

   Mr E sends a photograph of a Yellow-bordered TaIldropper Slug from Saanich (rather a large area!) yesterday:

 

 

Prophysaon foliolatum (Pul.: Arionidae)  Mr E

   And a non-biting midge, Family Chironomidae,  possibly genus Chironomus.  Although we cannot be absolutely certain of the genus, we can at least be certain of the sex.  The males have large feathery antennae;  this one is a female.

 

Non-biting midge (Dip.: Chironomidae)  Mr E

Non-biting midge (Dip.: Chironomidae)  Mr E

   And a young spiderling.  Dr Bennett writes:  A juvenile theridiid, a species of broad-sense “Theridion” which includes a number of genera more-or-less recently split off from Theridion.

 

Spiderling  (Ara.: Theridiidae)  Mr E

 

   Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

2 Egira rubrica

1 Egira simplex/crucialis

1 Feralia comstocki

4 Hydriomena manzanita 

4 Melanolophia imitata

1 Orthosia revicta

1 Orthosia praeses

1 Orthosia transparens

4 Venusia obsoleta /pearsalli 

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  On April 21 and 22 we showed clear unambiguous examples from Jochen of Egira crucialis  and E. simplex.  It seemed that the problem was solved.  Now Jochen comes up with the moth below.  Libby Avis and I are in complete agreement – we don’t know which of the two it is!

Egira crucialis/simplex (Lep. Noctuidae) Jochen Möhr

Egira rubrica (Lep.: Noctuidae) Jochen Möhr

  Thanks to Libby for spotting the ID of the next one – I was on the point of posting it as something else!  Jeremy Tatum.

Orthosia revicta (Lep.: Noctuidae) Jochen Möhr

 

Orthosia praeses (Lep.: Noctuidae) Jochen Möhr

 

Orthosia transparens (Lep.: Noctuidae) Jochen Möhr

 

Feralia comstocki (Lep.: Noctuidae) Jochen Möhr

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Here is a caterpillar of a Winter Moth.  It came in on a leaf that was intended for someone else, but I thought I might as well photograph it before putting it out again on Mount Tolmie.  At this time of year it is difficult to find foodplants that do not already have one or more Winter Moth caterpillars per twig.

 

Winter Moth Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae) Jeremy Tatum