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.

November 14

2020 November 14

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  This wasp was fast asleep on the side of my moth-rearing box this morning.  At first I thought it was a solitary wasp, but a close look shows it to be a forlorn Polistes dominula.

 


Polistes dominula (Hym.: Vespidae)   Jeremy Tatum


Polistes dominula (Hym.: Vespidae)   Jeremy Tatum


Polistes dominula (Hym.: Vespidae)   Jeremy Tatum


Polistes dominula (Hym.: Vespidae)   Jeremy Tatum

I also had a Winter Moth at my apartment this morning.  I resisted the temptation to photograph it, but here’s one from Ian Cooper, plus two more creatures from Colquitz River Park, November 13.


Operophtera brumata (Lep.:  Geometridae)   Ian Cooper

Dark-bodied Glass Snail Oxychilus draparnaudi (Pul.: Daubebariidae )  Ian Cooper

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

 

November 13

2020 November 13

 

Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

 

3 Epirrita autumnata

1 Operophtera brumata



Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 

November 12 morning

 

   More strange creatures found by Ian Cooper in Colquitz RiverPark.   Thanks to Dr Frans Janssens of Antwerp  University for identifying the globose springtail, and to Dr Robb Bennett of the Royal British Columbia Museum for identifying the spider.

 


Ptenothrix beta (Collembola – Symphypleona – Dicyrtomenidae)

Ian Cooper

 


Ptenothrix beta (Collembola – Symphypleona – Dicyrtomenidae)

Ian Cooper

 

 


Philodromus dispar (Ara.: Philodromidae)  Ian Cooper

 

   Late dragonflies:  Are there any dragonflies still to be seen?  If you see any, please let us know.  If you can photograph one, or even identify it without a photo, that would be nice, but let us know if you just see one, even without a photo or an ID.

 

 

  We have had just a few sightings of the Winter Moth this fall, although it is still technically autumn, and there are appropriately lots of Autumnal Moth around, as Jochen shows below.

  

   Jochen Möhr writes from Metchosin:  This morning, after a week of nothing but one E. autumnata on the wall (one was there for two days), this morning there were four of them.  And as they exhibited quite some variation in their markings, I took a picture of each.  That was not easy, as they were all beyond the reach of a tripod mounted camera.  So I had to do with free-hand photography.

 


Epirrita autumnata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 


Epirrita autumnata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 


Epirrita autumnata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 


Epirrita autumnata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

November 11

2020 November 11

    Ian  Cooper has been getting some interesting photographs of unfamiliar creatures at Colquitz River Park by getting down on his hands and knees and searching in the ground detritus.  Most harvestmen that we see are the common European Phalangium opiliio, but the one shown below , identified by Dr Philip Bragg, is the less familiar Paroligolophus agrestis.

 

 


Paroligolophus agrestis (Opi.: Phalangiidae) Ian Cooper

   Thanks to Dr Robb Bennett for identifying the spider below as an immature male Philodromus dispar.

Immature male running crab spider Philodromus dispar (Ara.: Philodromidae)

  Ian Cooper

Deroceras reticulatum (Pul.: Agriolimacidae)  Ian Cooper

Red Cross Shield Bug  Elasmostethus cruciatus (Hem.: Acanthosomatidae)  Ian Cooper

Red Cross Shield Bug  Elasmostethus cruciatus (Hem.: Acanthosomatidae)  Ian Cooper

Winter Moth Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ian Cooper

   The snail below was less than 2 mm long.  Probably Lauria cylindracea


Probably Lauria cylindracea sp. (Pul.: Lauriidae)  Ian Cooper

 

November 10 morning

2020 November 10 morning

 

Astonishing Butterfly Sighting!!!

 

   Jeremy Gatten sends the photograph below of an American Lady he saw on November 8 at Silver Spray in East Sooke.   Notice that you cannot see its abdomen, and that it because the butterfly is ovipositing!!!    The plant is a young Pearly Everlasting, one of the main foodplants of the species.

This is an astonishing record!

 

American Lady Vanessa virginiensis (Lep.: Nymphalidae)   Jeremy Gatten