2024 June 30 afternoon

Colias alert!  Ron Flower writes:  Today, Sunday June 30, we spent half an hour chasing a sulphur butterfly around McIntyre Pond and fields.  Probably an Orange Sulphur but could not get a pic. It’s the earliest I have seen one.

Milbert alert!  Aziza Cooper writes:  Today, June 30, there was one Milbert’s Tortoiseshell at Swan Lake along the path near Saanich Road.  Photographs were obtained, which we hope can be shown in the next posting.  There were also five  Essex Skippers and one Western Tiger Swallowtail.

Jochen Möhr sends a photograph from Metchosin of a White Satin Moth, unfortunately out of the reach of the tripod mounted camera.

Male Leucoma salicis   (Lep.: Erebidae – Lymantriinae)   Jochen Möhr

Scott Gilmore sends a photograph of a net-winged beetle Dictyoptera simplicipes from Paradise Meadows in Strathcona Provincial Park yesterday June 29.

Dictyoptera simplicipes  (Col.: Lycidae)  Scott Gilmore

Ian Cooper writes:   Here’s another selection of pics from my June 28 pre-dawn / early morning photo shoot at *Colquitz River Park in Saanich & the #Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal.

Enoplognatha ovata (Ara.: Theridiidae)   Ian Cooper

Protolophus niger (Opiliones:  Protolophidae)  Ian Cooper

Common Rough Woodlouse – Porcellio scaber (Isopoda: Porcellionidae)   Ian Cooper

Common Striped Woodlouse – Philoscia muscorum (Isopoda: Oniscidae)   Ian Cooper

2024 June 30 morning

   Ian Cooper photographed these two ants along the Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal on June 28:

Western Black Carpenter Ant  Camponotus modoc (Hym.: Formicidae)   Ian Cooper

Red Carpenter Ant – Camponotus vicinus (Hym.: Formicidae)   Ian Cooper

Gordon Hart photographed this fly in the Highlands on June 27 at 1/3200 of a second.   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I suppose I might have been able to identify this fly by a careful and minute examination of its iridescent green eyes and the details of its wing venation – but none of that was necessary.  At the moment that I set eyes on the creature I felt the immediate and intense emotion of FEAR, and I knew immediately that this was a fly in the Family Tabanidae.  I have had this reaction of fear of tabanids all my life; it is unmistakable.  Tabanids include such flies as horse flies, deer flies, stouts, clegs.  They eat humans – alive.   Dr Rob Cannings identifies this one as Hybomitra sp.   H. distinguenda looks rather similar to this one, but Hybomitra is a large genus including several rather similar-looking flies, so we’ll leave it as Hybomitra sp.

Hybomitra  sp. (Dip.: Tabanidae)  Gordon Hart

2024 June 29 evening

West Coast Lady!
Val George writes:  This West Coast Lady was on the reservoir at the Mount Tolmie summit this afternoon. June 29.

West Coast Lady  Vanessa annabella  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Val George

Ian Cooper writes:  Here are a few more photos from yesterday’s (2024 June 28) photo shoot at *Colquitz River Park in Saanich and the #Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal, taken in the pre-dawn and early morning hours.

Probably Clubiona sp.  (Ara.: Clubionidae)  Ian Cooper

*Woodlouse Hunter Spider – Dysdera crocata  (Ara.: Dysderidae)   Ian Cooper

Juvenile Clubiona lutescens (Ara.: Clubionidae)   Ian Cooper

#Mosquito – Culiseta incidens (Dip.: Culicidae)   Ian Cooper

2024 June 29 morning

   Aziza Cooper sends a photograph of a Golden Jewel Beetle from her home in Saanich yesterday June 28.

Golden Jewel Beetle Buprestis aurulenta  (Col.: Buprestidae)   Aziza Copper

Marie O’Shaughnessy sends photographs of a Red Admiral from Mount Tolmie yesterday June 28 – the same one that Jeremy Tatum reported from there in yesterday’s posting.

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

  Jeremy Tatum writes:  I am happy that Marie refers in correspondence to the underside of the wings shown in the photograph, not, as we sometimes see, the “ventral” side.  This not a ventral view of the butterfly – it is a lateral view.  The words “dorsal” (from above – dorsum meaning “back”), “ventral” (from below, venter meaning belly) and “lateral” (from the side – latus meaning side) should be used to describe the view of the body of the insect.  For the wings, the words “upperside”and “underside” are appropriate.

A butterfly or moth has two pairs of wings  –  forewings and hindwings.  The hindwings are sometimes called the “underwings” – but this can be, and often is, misunderstood to mean “underside”, so it is best avoided.  We see in the above photograph of the lateral view of the butterfly, the underside of a hindwing, and part of the underside of a forewing.

Marie photographed this ladybird larva in the Martindale area, June 28:

Seven-spotted Ladybird Coccinella septempunctata  (Col.: Coccinellidae)
Marie O’Shaughnessy

Also on June 28, she photographed these dragon- and damselflies at the McIntyre reservoir.

Eight-spotted Skimmer Libellula forensis  (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Cardinal Meadowhawk Sympetrum illotum (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Variegated Meadowhawk Sympetrum corruptum  (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Tule Bluets  Enallagma carunculatum (Odo.: Coenagrionidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

2024 June 28

Jeremy Tatum writes:  A couple of days ago I posted the image below, taken by Ian Cooper, as an “unknown beetle larva”.  I subsequently sent the image to beetle expert Charlene Woods wondering if perhaps she might be able to identify it.   Embarrassment – it wasn’t a beetle at all, but something quite different! This, however, was no obstacle to Charlene, who identified it as the larva of a Brown Lacewing (Hemerobiidae), and probably genus Hemerobius.   I hastily asked Ian if he would go out and photograph an adult brown lacewing for us, so we could see what the larva was a larva of.   Because brown lacewing larvae feed on aphids, you can apparently buy the larvae by the bucket-load if you know where, although Ian’s were genuinely wild ones!   Here are Ian’s two photographs:

Larva of a Brown Lacewing, probably Hemerobius sp.  (Neu.: Hemerobiidae)  Ian Cooper

Adult Brown Lacewing  (Neu.: Hemerobiidae)  Ian Cooper

Here’s a photograph of a running crab spider photographed by Ian Cooper along the Galloping Goose trail in View Royal on June 24.

Philodromus rufus  (Ara.: Philodromidae)  Ian Cooper

Anne Ashley sent this photograph of a Golden Jewel Beetle photographed by her neighbour Colleen Irwin in the Fairfield Gonzales area of Victoria.

Golden Jewel Beetle   Buprestis aurulenta  (Col.: Buprestidae)  Colleen Irwin

Here are the results of a predawn and early morning shoot by Ian Cooper this morning, June 28.  All were taken at either *Colquitz River Park in Saanich or the #Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal.

#Larva of Asian Ladybeetle  Harmonia axyridis (Col.: Coccinellidae)  Ian Cooper

#Larva of Seven-spotted Ladybird  Coccinella septempunctata  (Col.: Coccinellidae)
Ian Cooper

#Larva of Seven-spotted Ladybird  Coccinella septempunctata  (Col.: Coccinellidae)
Ian Cooper

Seven-spotted Ladybird  Coccinella septempunctata  (Col.: Coccinellidae)
Ian Cooper

*Ambigolimax valentianus (Pul.: Limacidae)   Ian Cooper

*Spittle Bug – Philaenus spumarius (Hem.: Cercopidae)   Ian Cooper

#Large Yellow Underwing Noctua pronuba  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Ian Cooper

# Callobius pictus (Ara.: Amaurobiidae)   Ian Cooper

Jeremy Tatum writes:  I went to Mount Tolmie today at 5:30 pm, and the one and only butterfly I saw there was a single Red Admiral just outside the entrance to the reservoir.  That reminds me that, earlier this week, while I was doing a cryptic crossword, I discovered that Red Admiral and the Spanish football team Real Madrid are anagrams of each other.

Kirsten Mills writes:   Today, June 28, Jeff Gaskin and I travelled to Nanaimo.  Along Nanaimo River Road, particularly at Elk Trails Way,  we saw two  Clodius Parnassians.  A little further down the road or towards the highway was a Dun Skipper.

Clodius Parnassian  Parnassius clodius  (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Kirsten Mills

Clodius Parnassian  Parnassius clodius  (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Kirsten Mills

Clodius Parnassian  Parnassius clodius  (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Kirsten Mills

Butterfliers who see any parnassian butterflies are reminded to examine them closely in case any of them might be P. smintheus.  These photographs above are clearly P. clodius, but if you see any red spot on the forewing, or if the antennae are chequered, you may have smintheus.