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.

2021 December 12

2021 December 12

    Gordon Hart writes:  Michael Simmons, of Brentwood Bay, sent me a photograph of a bee seen on Thursday December 9, feeding on a Winter Sun Mahonia in full bloom.  I think it is likely Bombus melanopygus, the Black-tailed Bumblebee, based on the bit of orange with very little yellow, and the fact that this is a common species on the west coast, with a long season.

Probably Bombus melanopygus (Hym.: Apidae)  Michael Simmons