2024 April 5

    Jeff Gaskin writes: Today, April 5th, there were two Mourning Cloaks at Panama Flats.  I saw one with Les Peterson in the south-east end of the flats and Les saw the other one by the gravel trail next to Interurban Road.

Val George writes:  This Drepanulatrix moth (secundaria? monicaria?) was on the wall of my Oak Bay house this morning, April 5.   Jeremy Tatum agrees:  Yes, I can’t tell the difference between monicaria  and secundaria, either, though this one does look a lot like monicaria.  It’s a male, anyway – see the bipectinate antennae.

Drepanulatrix monicaria/secundaria  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Val George

Here are more miscellanea from Ian Cooper.  It’s amazing, the number of creatures under our feet that most of us never notice.   Thanks to Robert Forsyth, Heather Proctor, Robb Bennett for help with the identification of the slugs/snail, mite, spider, respectively.

First, a Leopard Slug.  Compare this unspotted variety with the very spotted one shown on April 2.  Is the April 2 one what gave Rudyard Kipling the inspiration for How the Leopard Got His Spots?

Limax maximus (Pul.: Limacidae)  Ian Cooper

Another pair of slugs below in a tender moment. Labelled Deroceras panorbitanum in earlier photographs in this site of this species,  Robert Forsyth tells us that recent work has led to the recognition that P. panorbitanum is a Sicilian endemic, and the species that we have here is P. invadens.

 Deroceras invadens  (Pul.: Agriolimacidae)  Ian Cooper

Vespericola columbianus  (Pul.:  Polygyridae)   Ian Cooper

If anyone is unsure about the statement that millepedes have two pairs of legs on each segment, have a look at the millepede below.

Flat millepede Scytonotus sp. (Diplopoda:  Polydesmidae)   Ian Cooper

Velvet Mite  (Acari:  Trombidiidae)  Ian Cooper

Female linyphiine spider (Ara.:  Linyphiidae – Linyphiinae)  Ian Cooper