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.

May 15 morning

2019 May 15 morning

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:   It won’t be long now before we start to see Lorquin’s Admiral butterflies.  Here is a caterpillar of one from near Blenkinsop Lake this morning.  I usually find them on Ocean Spray, Willow or Crabapple.  This one is on Black Hawthorn.

 

Lorquin’s Admiral  Limenitis lorquini (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

   And another familiar caterpillar from the same location, on Willow, the White Satin Moth:

 

White Satin Moth Leucoma salicis (Lep.: Erebidae – Lymantriinae) Jeremy Tatum

 

 

 

  

May 14

2019 May 14

Jochen Möhr’s moths in Metchosin this morning.  As ever, thanks to Libby Avis for her huge help in identifying moths.

Eupithecia sp. 5
Egira crucialis 1
Melanolophia imitata 1
Perizoma curvilinea 2
Phyllodesma americana 2
Tyria jacobaeae 2
Venusia obsoleta 6

Hydriomena marinata                                                       1

 

Hydriomena marinata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

May 13 evening

2019 May 13

 

    Jochen Möhr’s moths in Metchosin this morning:

 

Eupithecia sp 2
Egira crucialis 1
Melanolophia imitata 1
Orthosia transparens 2
Perizoma curvilinea 1
Phyllodesma americana 2
Tyria jacobaeae 2
Venusia obsoleta 5
Xanthorhoe defensaria 1

 

 

 

 


Venusia sp. (Lep.: Geometridae)   Jochen Möhr

May 13 morning

2019 May 13 morning

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  A weevil from my Saanich apartment, and a caterpillar from an oak on Christmas Hill, May 12.


Otiorhynchus singularis (Col.: Curculionidae)  Jeremy Tatum


Hydriomena nubilofasciata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

May 12 evening

2019 May 12 evening

 

   Jochen Möhr’s moths in Metchosin this morning:

 

Eupithecia sp. 2
Hyalophora euryalus 1
Hydriomena manzanita 1
Melanolophia imitata 3
Orthosia transparens 2
Perizoma curvilinea 3
Phyllodesma americana 1
Tyria jacobaeae 1
Venusia obsoleta 6

 


Hyalophora euryalus (Lep.: Saturniidae) Jochen Möhr

 


Hyalophora euryalus (Lep.: Saturniidae) Jochen Möhr

 


Hydriomena sp. (Lep.: Geometridae)   Jochen Möhr

 


Protitame subalbaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr