2021 May 6

 

   Rosemary Jorna, Kemp Lake, sends a photograph of a spider.  Dr Robb Bennett writes:  It’s an amaurobiid, almost certainly Callobius pictus. The relatively light coloration and the blocky light abdominal marks are usually sufficient to identify this species in our area. The other local candidate, Callobius severus, is very much darker and hairier. Both are common Vancouver Island species, especially in Douglas-fir woodlands.

 

Callobius pictus (Ara.: Amaurobiidae)  Rosemary Jochen

 

  Yesterday, writes Jeremy Tatum, we showed a photograph of a butterfly, and I wrote that it was difficult to identify because I could see only the upperside.  Today we have a photograph of a moth, and I write that it is difficult to identify because I can see only the underside.  By this time, viewers will be thinking:  My!  –  Some folks are hard to please !   Well, fortunately Jochen Möhr saw the upperside before he photographed the moth in Metchosin, and saw that it is Xanthorhoe defensaria.

 

Xanthorhoe defensaria  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 

 

    Jochen also sends a photograph of a pug (Eupithecia sp.)   Pugs can be hard to identify, writes Jeremy Tatum, and I have a bad habit of calling any that look a bit like this one E. annulata.  I’ll resist the habit and label this one “sp.”

 

Eupithecia sp. (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr