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.

June 12

2018 June 12

 

  Invert Alert received three photographs of beetles yesterday.  We are grateful to Scott Gilmore for identifying them for us at genus level.

 


Serica sp. (Col.: Scarabaeidae)  Nathan  Fisk

 


Dichelonyx sp. (Col.: Scarabaeidae)   Liam Singh

 


Curculio sp. (Col.:  Curculionidae)  Liam Singh

 

 

   Val George writes:  Yesterday afternoon, June 11, there was a bonanza of butterflies on and in the immediate vicinity of the Mount Tolmie reservoir: at least 5 Western Tiger Swallowtails, 3 Pale Swallowtails, 2 Anise Swallowtails, at least 3 Painted Ladies, 4 Lorquin’s Admirals, and one Propertius Duskywing.

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  And at 6:30 p.m. I took David Harris, straight off the flight from England, to Mount Tolmie, and we saw nothing there!   Well, almost nothing.  Just when we were about to give up in total disappointment David spotted a rather worn Painted Lady (same species as he sees in England) near the Jeffery Pine.  David cheerfully remarked that it was exciting because it was the first one he had seen this year.  Then we caught a brief glimpse of a Lorquin’s Admiral disappearing over a bush.  We visited the reservoir again this morning – and saw nothing!  Later on today, we had more success – a Cabbage White at UVic, and a brief glimpse from the car of a distant Western Tiger Swallowtail.  We found three caterpillars – a Western Spring Azure on Ocean Spray on Mount Douglas, a lost Silver-spotted Tiger Moth at UVic (we put it on a nearby Grand Fir), and a Euthyatira pudens on Cornus stolonifera at UVic.

 

   Sonia Voicescu writes:  I was doing my bi-monthly count for my RNS project at Rithet’s Bog and I saw quite a few butterflies yesterday! Specifically:  12 Lorquin’s Admirals, 19 Ringlets (Large Heath), 1 Mourning Cloak, 7 Western Tiger Swallowtails, 4 Cabbage Whites.  Attached are some pictures of the Lorquin’s Admiral and the Ringlet (which has had a rough time judging by its mangled wings).

 

Lorquin’s Admiral Limenitis lorquini  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Sonia Voicescu

Lorquin’s Admiral Limenitis lorquini  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Sonia Voicescu

 

Ringlet (Large Heath)  Coenonympha tullia (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Satyrinae)

  Sonia Voicescu