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.

April 30

2016 April 30

 

    Here is Mike Yip’s geometrid from Cross Road, Nanoose Bay, April 29.  It is Xanthorhoe defensaria.

 

Xanthorhoe defensaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Mike Yip

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Bill Savale and I went to the Kinsol Trestle today, hoping to find Western Tailed Blues.  No luck – the Lathyrus that they depend on were not yet in flower. Besides Western Spring Azures and Cabbage Whites, we saw a Red Admiral and a Two-banded Grizzled Skipper.  Jeremy adds that at 6:00 p.m. this evening there were a Red Admiral and a California Tortoiseshell on the Mount Tolmie reservoir.

 

   Annie Pang sends a picture of a Two-spotted Ladybird.

 

Two-spotted Ladybird Adalia bipunctata  (Col.: Coccinellidae)  Annie Pang

 

   Rosemary Jorna writes: I’ll bet this Ladybird Beetle found on the spit at Witty’s Lagoon, April 30 2016, is Harmonia axyridis.  Jeremy Tatum responds: With that big black W on its thorax, so do I!

 

 

Harmonia axyridis (Col.: Coccinellidae)  Rosemary Jorna

 

   Rosemary continues:  This little bug that appeared on the lens of my camera at Witty’s Lagoon, April 30 2016, was tentatively identified as a spittle bug nymph by the naturalists at Metchosin’s Biodiversity Day.  [Yes – I’ll go along with that – Jeremy.]  She also sends a photograph of a bee from the same area.

 Spittlebug nymph, possibly Philaenus spumarius (Hem.: Aphrophoridae)

Rosemary Jorna

 

Honey Bee Apis mellifera (Hym.: Apidae)  Rosemary Jorna.

 

   Mike Yip writes from Nanoose Bay:  It really felt like butterfly weather this morning so I decided to check out the Sundew Main logging road. As usual, Western Spring Azures were abundant, and commas continued to be non-existent. [I still haven’t seen a Satyr Comma! – Jeremy]  Species available were a pair of first-of-year Mylitta Crescents, 5 Pale Tiger Swallowtails, 1 Sara Orangetip, 2 Western Brown Elfins, 4 Grey Hairstreaks, 5 Two-banded Grizzled Skippers, and 1 Cabbage White.  A late afternoon walk at the Cross Road trail was relatively quiet with only a few Western Spring Azures, 3 Western Brown Elfins, one Western Tailed Blue, and one Mourning Cloak. The Western Tailed Blue had better tails than the previous one I sent you.

 

Western Tailed Blue Everes amyntula (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Mike Yip

 

Mourning Cloak Nymphalis antiopa (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Mike Yip

 Grey Hairstreak Strymon melinus (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Mike Yip

Male Mylitta Crescent Phyciodes mylitta (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Mike Yip

 

Western Spring Azures Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Mike Yip