2021 October 7

 (No October 6 posting, in case you were looking.)

    On August 22 we posted a photograph from Mark Wynja in Bowser of a Clouded Sulphur Colias philodice with an egg beneath it on a leaf of Beach Pea Lathyrus japonicus.  Mark found four eggs, and he has now succeeded in the tricky task rearing them to chrysalides.  Mark writes:

 Aug 20, 2021 – female Clouded Sulphur photographed (egg spotted on leaf below her)

 Aug 23, 2021 – collected eggs and parts of host beach pea

 Aug 24/25, 2021 – four caterpillars emerged

 Oct 3/4, 2021 –  first caterpillar has entered the pupal stage

 Oct 6, 2021 – two more Clouded Sulphur caterpillars have entered the pupal stage. One pupa has fallen from where it attached itself. The largest of the caterpillars has stopped moving and eating; it will likely pupate soon. 

 This whole process has taken 40 or more days from the caterpillars emerging to entering the pupal stage. They have spent their time in the rearing container with a regular fresh supply of beach pea.They are in our sunroom, out of direct sunlight, where it is only marginally warmer than the outside temperature.

Clouded Sulphur Colias philodice (Lep.: Pieridae)   Mark Wynja

Clouded Sulphur Colias philodice (Lep.: Pieridae)   Mark Wynja

Clouded Sulphur Colias philodice (Lep.: Pieridae)   Mark Wynja

   Kalene Lillico, Program Naturalist at Swan Lake, sent a photograph of what she described as a sweet little robber fly.  She also suggested a more prosaic name, Neomochtherus willistoni , and Dr Rob Cannings confirms that she was spot on – which is what you’d expect of a Swan Lake Program Naturalist.

Female robber fly  Neomochtherus willistoni (Dip.: Asilidae)   Kalene Lillico

2021 October 5

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  Here is a young (second instar) caterpillar from the large egg mass shown on September 19

Noctua pronuba (Lep.: Noctuidae)    Jeremy Tatum

Noctua pronuba (Lep.: Noctuidae)    Jeremy Tatum

Aziza Cooper writes:  On October 1, I was at Panama Flats, and tiny money spiders kept landing on me. The spiders in the photo are on my hat, greatly enlarged.

Thanks to Dr Robb Bennett for identifying them for us.

Erigone sp. ( Ara.: Linyphiidae – Erigoninae)  Male (upper), female (lower)    Aziza Cooper

Aziza continues:  On October 4, I saw a large dragonfly at Burgoyne Bay Provincial Park.

Thanks to Dr Rob Cannings for identifying it for us.

Female Shadow Darner Aeshna umbrosa (Odo.: Aeshnidae)  Aziza Cooper

2021 October 4 morning

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  I didn’t have to wait long for an answer to my appeal for a photograph of a Banded Woolly Bear.  Rosemary Jorna saw one up there on the Matterhorn along with the American Lady that was shown in yesterday’s posting.

Banded Woolly Bear  Pyrrharctia isabella (Lep.: Erebidae –Arctiinae)  Rosemary Jorna

   Mr E photographed some springtails near Mount Douglas Beach.  We are grateful to Dr Frans Jannsens for identifying them for us.   When I was young, which was a long time ago, life was simple, and springtails were in the Order Collembola in the Class Insecta.  Nowadays, life is more complicated. Springtails are no longer insects, and they are distributed among four Orders, which Dr Jannsens tells us are Poduromorpha, Neelipleona, Entomobryomorpha and Symphypleona.  

   Dr Jannsens gives us not only the species of the globose springtail below, but its subspecies and even its age (a subadult).

Ptenothrix maculosa olympia (Symphypleona – Dicyrtomidae)  Mr E

Ptenothrix maculosa olympia (Symphypleona – Dicyrtomidae)     Mr E

Entomobrya intermedia (Entomobryomorpha – Entomobryidae)

Mr E

2021 October 3

     Yesterday (October 2) Kate Woods and Rosemary Jorna found another American Lady, on the summit of the Matterhorn, which, by the way, is not in Switzerland/Italy, but is in the Sooke Hills.  I am not sure, until I look at the records, but I think Invert Alert may have had more American Ladies than Painted Ladies this year.   On the other hand, it is a long time since we have had a West Coast Lady.

American Lady Vanessa virginiensis (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Kate Woods

Also on October 2, Mr E photographed a Woolly Aphid near the beach at Mount Douglas Park, where several were hovering.

Woolly Aphid.  Probably Adelges sp.  (Hem.: Adelgidae)   Mr E

Woolly Aphid.  Probably Adelges sp.  (Hem.: Adelgidae)   Mr E

October is the month when we see Banded Woolly Bears.  I saw dozens of squashed ones (writes Jeremy Tatum) along the Lochside Trail this afternoon – and  I remember seeing similar numbers at Panama Flats last year.  I think there are far more corpses than would occur from accidental treading by pedestrians and bicyclists.  I think people are conditioned to think of insects as pests to be killed on sight, and I believe that the squashed corpses that we see are deliberately trodden upon by pedestrians.

It would be nice if some viewer were able to get a nice photo of a living Banded Woolly Bear for Invert Alert.

2021 October 1 morning

    Aziza Cooper writes:  On September 30 along Lochside Trail north of Blenkinsop Lake, a Satyr Comma was sunning itself on a blackberry leaf.

Satyr Comma Polygonia satyrus (Lep.: Satyridae)   Aziza Cooper