2016 October 25

   Rosemary Jorna has a sad tale to tell:  “We were hiking in the hills on the east side of the Sooke River yesterday and had stopped for lunch when this wasp circled round and just right into a cup of hot tea. It did not survive.”

  Thank you to Sean McCann anyway for identifying the victim as Dolichovespula arenaria.  Sean also kindly identified wasps appearing on this site for the dates September 21 and 22.  Scroll to these dates to see them.

Dolichovespula arenaria (Hym.: Vespidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Dolichovespula arenaria (Hym.: Vespidae)  Rosemary Jorna

   Cheryl Hoyle sends a photograph of a spider from Metchosin, October 24.  Thank you, Robb Bennett, for the identification as a female Cybaeus, almost certainly C. signifer.

Jeremy Tatum writes that he mentioned to Robb that he hadn’t heard of this genus – perhaps not the most diplomatic of admissions! Robb writes:  They are quite common forest floor spiders with about 50 or more species found in western North America.  Signifer is the largest of several species found in our neck of the woods.  We put a Cybaeus male on the cover of the Journal of the Entomological Society of BC a number of years back.  The genus and its family (Cybaeidae) have been the main subject of my taxonomic research for years, starting with my PhD.

Cybaeus signifer (Ara.: Cybaeidae)   Cheryl Hoyle