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.

June 2

June 2

 

    Monthly Butterfly Walk.   Sunday June 5.  Meet at the top of Mount Tolmie at 1:00 p.m.  All welcome!   We decide on a destination by mutual consent when we meet at Mount Tolmie.  One possibility that has been mentioned is Boas Road, near Spectacle Lake for Boisduval’s Blue.

 

   Aziza Cooper sends pictures of a bombyliid fly from the field east of Lochside Trail, south of Lohbrunner Road, June 1;  and a damselfly along the railroad tracks at Goldstream, May 30.  Jeremy Tatum writes:  I’ll have a stab at identifying them, though I’d be glad of confirmation from anyone who knows these insects.  The fly is Anthrax sp.

As for the exact species, I can’t be sure, but I’d guess either A. georgicus  or A. analis.  These may be synonyms for the same species. The larvae are said to be parasitoidal on tiger beetles.  I think the damselfly is the Western Red Damsel.

 

Anthrax sp. (analisgeorgicus?) (Dip.: Bombyliidae)  Aziza Cooper

 Western Red Damsel Amphiagrion abbreviatum (Odo.: Coenagrionidae)  Aziza Cooper