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.

July 28

2020 July 28

 

   Absolutely overwhelmed today – so I regret no Invert Alert today.  Shall try to catch up tomorrow.  Jeremy  

July 27

2020 July 27

 

 Thanks yet again to Libby Avis for a lot of help with today’s identifications.

 

  Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning, plus two recent crane flies

1 Callizzia amorata 

1 Campaea perlata

1 Caripeta divisata

1 Eupithecia sp.

4 Hesperumia latipennis 

1 Nemoria darwiniata

1 Plemyria georgii

1 Protitame subalbaria

1 Sphinx perelegans

2 Sicya crocearia 

1 Ypsilopha canariella  

 

 


Alucita montana (Lep.: Alucitidae)  Jochen Möhr


Campaea perlata (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr


Caripeta divisata (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr


Plemyria georgii  (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr


Nemoria darwiniata (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr


Ypsolopha canariella (Lep.: Plutellidae) Jochen Möhr


Sphinx perelegans (Lep.: Sphingidae) Jochen Möhr


Sphinx perelegans (Lep.: Sphingidae) Jochen Möhr


Smerinthus ophthalmica (Lep.: Sphingidae) Jochen Möhr

Male probably Tipula paludosa (Dip.: Tipulidae) Jochen Möhr

Female probably Tipula paludosa (Dip.: Tipulidae) Jochen Möhr

   Gordon Hart sends photographs of moths and a fishfly from the Highlands district:

 

 


Campaea perlata (Lep.: Geometridae) Gordon Hart


Eulithis xylina (Lep.: Geometridae) Gordon Hart

Unidentified (Lep.: Crambidae) Gordon Hart


Perizoma curvilinea (Lep.: Geometridae) Gordon Hart

 Eupithecia (probably annulata) (Lep.: Geometridae)  Gordon Hart


Protochauliodes spenceri (Neu.: Corydalidae) Gordon Hart

Pero (possibly morrisonaria) (Lep.: Geometridae)  Gordon Hart

   Wendy and Gerry Ansell write:  Today, Monday July 27, we saw 6 Pine Whites and 1 Lorquin’s Admiral by Beaver Lake.  Those were our first Pine Whites of the year.

 

July 26

2020 July 26

 

   Warm thanks to Libby Avis,  Annie Pang and Scott Gilmore for continued help with the identification of, respectively, moths, bees and beetles on this site.   Without their help, I could not manage this site.  Jeremy Tatum

 

   Jochen Möhr’s moths and a beetle from Metchosin this morning:

 

1 Callizia amorata 

1 Caripeta divisata

1 Eulithis xylina

1 Eupithecia sp.

2 Hesperumia latipennis

1 Hesperumia sulphuraria

1 Lacinipolia strigicollis

1 Leucania farcta

1 Oligocentria pallida

1 Perizoma curvilinea

1 Schizura ipomoeae

1 Scopula quinquelinearia

1 Sicya crocearia 

1 Ypsilopha canariella 

1 Polyphylla crinita

 


Oligocentria pallida (Lep.: Notodontidae)  Jochen Möhr


Schizura ipomoeae (Lep.: Notodontidae) Jochen Möhr


Furcula scolopendrina (Lep.: Notodontidae) Jochen Möhr

 


Leucania farcta (Lep.: Noctuidae) Jochen Möhr


Perizoma curvilinea (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr

 


Scopula quinquelinearia  (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr


Caripeta divisata (Lep.: Geometridae) Jochen Möhr

June Beetle Polyphylla crinita (Col.: Scarabaeidae) Jochen Möhr

   Here are some shots of two bees photographed by Rosemary Jorna at Muir Creek on July 25:

 

 


Bombus flavifrons (Hym.: Apidae)  Rosemary Jorna


Bombus flavifrons (Hym.: Apidae)  Rosemary Jorna


Bombus flavifrons (Hym.: Apidae)  Rosemary Jorna


Bombus (probably bifarius)(Hym.: Apidae) Rosemary Jorna

   Gordon Hart writes from the Highlands:  Last evening, Saturday July 25, we saw the grey Sphinx perelegans on the purple petunias it seems to like. It was gone by the time I set up my camera. I took a walk around with the flash on the camera and a headlamp, and saw many moths on the Buddleia bushes and around the porch light. There was a beautiful Pyrausta perrubralis.

 

 

July 25

2020 July 25

 

   Jochen Möhr’s moths from Metchosin this morning:

 

3 Eulithis xylina

1 Hesperumia latipennis

1 Hesperumia sulphuraria

1 Lacinipolia pensilis

1 Nadata gibbosa 

1 Panthea virginarius

1 Protitame subalbaria

 


Lacinipolia pensilis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr


Protitame subalbaria (Lep.: Geometridae)   Jochen Möhr


Hesperumia sulphuraria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Yesterday, July 24, I saw two large (female) Western Tiger Swallowtails on Buddleia in UVic’s Finnerty Gardens.   I would not normally report sightings of such a usually common butterfly, except that I have seen so few of them this year.  I had almost forgotten how large and spectacular they are.

 

July 24 afternoon

2020 July 24 afternoon

 

   Jochen Möhr writes from Metchosin:  I found this large caterpillar crawling in my garage.  I picked it up and got the impression that its bristles are stinging.  

 

   Jeremy Tatum replies:  Yes indeed its bristles have an effect a bit like stinging nettles.  It affects some people more than others.  It certainly affects me, and apparently Jochen, too.  Viewers who find one are advised not to handle it.

 

Sheep Moth Hemileuca eglanterina (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Jochen Möhr

 

   Mike McGrenere writes:  This caterpillar came home with me from Rocky Point on my pack.  Jeremy Tatum writes:  This is not a moth, but is rather the larva of a giant sawfly:

 


Trichiosoma triangulum (Hym.: Cimbicidae)  Mike McGrenere