2021 March 19

 

   More photographs by Ian Cooper from Colquitz River Park and the Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal yesterday morning, March 18.  We start off with an extraordinary wingless hymenopteran kindly identified for us by Claudia Copley as Polyaulon canadensis.  Jeremy Tatum writes:  I know nothing about the natural history of this unusual insect, although it is classified in the Family Ichneumonidae, most (all?) of whose members are parasitoidal on other invertebrates.

 

Polyaulon canadensis (Hym.: Ichneumonidae)   Ian Cooper

Polyaulon canadensis (Hym.: Ichneumonidae)   Ian Cooper

   Ian writes:  I finally got to see the mature resident trapdoor spider of the large burrow entrance spotted some days ago that I was so excited about.

Trapdoor spider – Antrodiaetus pacificus (Ara.-Myg.:  Antrodiaetidae) Ian Cooper

Possibly Neriene sp. (Ara.: Linyphiidae) Ian Cooper

Harvestman probably Protolophus sp. (Opi.: Phalangiidae)

feeding on a larva of some sort

Drone Fly Eristalis tenax (Dip.: Syrphidae)  Ian Cooper

   Rosemary Jorna sends photographs of a bumble bee from her Kemp Lake area garden, March 18.   We are grateful to Gordon Hart, who, while pleading that he is not an expert, answered our request to have a go at identification.  He comes up with probably Bombus sitkensis

 

Probably Bombus sp. (Hym.: Apidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Probably Bombus sp. (Hym.: Apidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Probably Bombus sp. (Hym.: Apidae)  Rosemary Jorna