2022 May 06 morning

    Jochen Möhr set us a puzzle yesterday with photographs from Metchosin of the undersides of several moths – the geometry of the situation prevented him from getting his camera to the other side of the window to photograph the uppersides.  Libby Avis and Jeremy Tatum had a go at identifying them, and, considering how difficult it is to identify moths from their undersides alone, we came to remarkably good agreement – although our proposed identifications remain tentative.

Drepanulatrix?  Spodolepis?   (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Drepanulatrix?  Spodolepis?  (Lep,: Geometridae)   Jochen Möhr

Triphosa?  Coryphista?  (Lep.: Geometridae)   Jochen Möhr

Hypena?  (Lep.: Erebidae – Hypeninae)   Jochen Möhr

   Rather easier to identify was a Ceanothus Silk Moth laying eggs near Kemp Lake and photographed by Rosemary Jorna:

Hyalophora euryalus (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Hyalophora euryalus (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Hyalophora euryalus (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Rosemary Jorna

2022 May 4

    Aziza Cooper sends a photograph of a Honey Bee on Camas at Cedar Hill Golf Course, May 3.

Honey Bee Apis mellifera (Hym.: Apidae)  Aziza Cooper

   Jochen Möhr sends pictures of Gluphisia severa from his Metchosin home, May 3.

Gluphisia severa (Lep.: Notodontidae)  Jochen Möhr

Gluphisia severa (Lep.: Notodontidae)  Jochen Möhr

2022 May 2 afternoon

    Mr E sends photographs of a beetle and a spider, and also a miscellany of tiny creatures, some of which are a challenge to identify.

Scott Gilmore kindly identified the beetle as Syneta albida within seconds of my sending him the image.

Female Western Fruit Beetle Syneta albida (Col.: Chrysomelidae)  Mr E

   Scott writes:  It is occasionally this pale but is often a little darker. There are other species in the genus which look very similar but show more colour variation.

Dr Robb Bennett writes about the spider below:  It’s a female philodromid crab spider. Probably in the genus Philodromus (less likely Rhysodromus) and I’ll stick my neck out and guess that it is Philodromus dispar (in British Columbia, a common introduced species with distinctive, easily identified males and somewhat cryptic females.).

Philodromus (probably dispar)  (Ara.: Philodromidae)   Mr E

Jeremy Tatum writes:  I have labelled the following miscellany of tiny creatures with my best wild guesses of what they might be.  If any viewer can help with these, please let us know.

Possibly a thrips     Mr E

Probably a springtail   Mr E

Just possibly a larval case of a coleophorid moth    Mr E

2022 May 2 morning

    May 1 was a lovely spring-like day after a long period with few butterflies, and sandwiched between two wet days, so we were lucky with the VNHS May Butterfly Walk led by Gordon  Hart.   Seven participants came along, and, although there weren’t huge numbers of butterflies, there were far more than we have typically been seeing  earlier this year.  Aziza Cooper kept score, and we totalled 14 individuals of six species.   One of them – the Propertius Duskywing – was a “lifer” for one participant.

On Mount Tolmie:

Cabbage White – 2

Western Brown Elfin – 1

Comma sp. – 1

California Tortoiseshell – 1, very worn

On Christmas Hill:

Sara Orangetip: 8

Propertius Duskywing – 1

California Tortoiseshell Nymphalis californica (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Aziza Cooper

Propertius Duskywing Erynnis propertius (Lep.: Hesperiidae) Aziza Cooper

Western Brown Elfin Incisalia iroides (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Gordon Hart

   Among other insects seen were the wasp and the caterpillar below:

European Paper Wasp Polistes dominula (Hym.: Vespidae)  Aziza Cooper

Winter Moth Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Gordon Hart

Greater Victoria Bioblitz

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I failed in my efforts to include information on the bioblitz in this morning’s Invertebrate Alert.  Here I’ll try and copy some of the text:

    Coming soon is a fantastic opportunity to help inventory the local landscape and track biodiversity in a global bioblitz. From April 29 to May 2 the iNaturalist City Challenge is on and Greater Victoria is participating. For four days, the goal is to record every living thing, anywhere within the Greater Victoria area on land and in the Salish Sea (special call out to underwater photographers!), be it a moss, fish, bird, insect, you name it.  This includes from Port Renfrew up to and including the Gulf Islands (see map). What better group to get on board with this than Victoria Natural History Society members and their friends and families?

Here are a few links:
This is the Greater Victoria Project page where the map is and where you will go to check out our numbers as they grow over the weekend. If you click on and read the “About” portion there are links to information on how to start up in iNaturalist if you are new, plus other general information.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2022-greater-victoria
You don’t need to sign up, everything that you record during this period will be automatically added to the Victoria tally.
 
The overall City Challenge Page is here:
https://citynaturechallenge.org/
It has information about the challenge, other cities participating, past results and ways to start out and get involved. It is easy!  The iNaturalist City Challenge began in 2016 as a “friendly” rivalry between San Francisco and Los Angeles and has now grown to include over 400 cities around the world.  It is a great way for citizens to help collect data on the wild species living in and around our cities, which helps local governments and scientists to better protect local biodiversity.

Good luck!