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 3 morning

2021 April 3 morning

 

No Butterfly Walk on Sunday.

Message from Gordon Hart:

Hi Everyone,

I just want to confirm that there is no April butterfly walk this weekend. It was cancelled on the VNHS online calendar but does appear in The Naturalist. We hope we will be able to meet in May. In the meantime, we will have an early butterfly count starting April 17, and I will send out a reminder for that later.

 

Butterflies are starting to appear. Check the Invertebrate Alert  for the latest sightings!

Gordon

 

   Rosemary Jorna sends a photograph of a small spider from near Kemp Lake, April 1.  Unfortunately it is not always possible to be sure of the identity of small invertebrates from even a good photograph.  Dr Robb Bennett’s best attempt is:

 

Perhaps Ethobuella tuonops

or perhaps  Dirksia cinctipes

or perhaps something totally different!

 

Possibly Ethobuella tuonops (Ara.: Cybaeidae)   Rosemary Jorna

 

   On the other hand, this moth, of which we get just a glimpse, is a relatively easy one.  Photographed by Rosemary on the Galloping Goose on April 2 between the Charters and Todd Creek trestles.

 


Archiearis infans (Lep.: Geometridae)   Rosemary Jorna

 

   Also photographed nearby by Rosemary was this Banana Slug:

 

Banana Slug Ariolimax columbianus (Pul.: Arionidae)  Rosemary Jorna

 

   We don’t know what this fly is, photographed by Ian Cooper.  If any viewer can help, please let us know.

 

Unknown fly (Diptera)  Ian Cooper