INVERTEBRATE ALERT
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.

2022 June 17

2022 June 17

    Aziza Cooper found this caterpillar on Fennel in her yard in Saanich.  Alas, it’s not an Anise Swallowtail butterfly – it’s a Silver-spotted Tiger Moth whose presence on the Fennel is purely incidental – its normal food is Douglas Fir.

Lophocampa argentata (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Aziza Cooper

   Jeremy Tatum shows a caterpillar of Zotheca tranquilla found on Sambucus at Blenkinsop Lake, June 17.

Zotheca tranquilla (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Also at Blenkinsop Lake today, writes Jeremy Tatum, I saw (but was unfortunately not able to photograph) a beautifully pristine Hydrelia albifera (Geometridae) resting, with perfect wings fully spread, on a leaf of Cornus stolonifera, the larval foodplant.