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 November 25

2022 November 25

    Ian Cooper writes:  I went on a very productive, multi-hour photoshoot overnight (November 25 morning) at Colquitz River Park in Saanich and the Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal. Recent precipitation and mild weather seem to have brought many critters out of the woodwork and leaf litter, some of which I’d not seen in many months. The photo-shoot ended only because it started to rain around 6:00 a.m. in View Royal. Luckily, I had rain gear on, as it rained continuously on the 40-minute ride back to James Bay.

The identifications below are the best that Ian and Jeremy Tatum can come up with.  We make no claim to be experts, but we have given them all some thought and we believe they are all “probably or better” correct.   If anyone disagrees, or can go further, do please let us know.

Linyphiid spider (Ara.: Linyphiidae)  Ian Cooper

Callobius pictus (Ara.: Amaurobiidae) Ian Cooper

 

Robust Lancetooth Snail – Haplotrema vancouverense (Pul.: Haplotrematidae) Ian Cooper

 

Emmelina monodactyla (Lep.: Pterophoridae)  Ian Cooper

Scaphinotis angusticollis (Col.: Carabidae)  Ian Cooper

 

Centipede (Class Chilopoda. Order possibly Lithobiomorpha)  Ian Cooper

 

The same centipede is shown below, taking an interest in a Porcellio woodlouse for possible dinner

Centipede (Class Chilopoda. Order possibly Lithobiomorpha)  Ian Cooper

Flat-backed Millepede Scytonotus sp. (Class Diplopoda,  Order Polydesmida:  Polydesmidae)

Ian Cooper

  Thanks to Sam McNally for the millepede identification.