2018 December 27

Jeremy Tatum writes:

Winter Moths:   Wanted:  Best quality photographs of good-condition winter moths, male or female.

Winter  moths (Operophtera sp), like so many other insects, are in a state of taxonomic flux.   At present it seems that there are four named species in North America:

O. brumata             European Winter Moth

O. bruceata             Bruce’s Winter Moth

O. occidentalis        Western Winter Moth

O. danbyi                 Danby’s Winter Moth

plus a possible new species in the Santa Catalina Mountains.

There are additional species in Europe (e.g. O. fagata) not (yet?) seen in North America.

   I believe that, in urban and suburban Victoria and the immediate vicinity, almost all of the winter moths are the European Winter Moth O. brumata.

    However, in the surrounding countryside, for example Metchosin and Goldstream Park, in addition to brumata, there is another species, which I have hitherto called bruceata.  It seems, however, that the eastern and western populations of our common native winter moths are best treated as two separate species.  True bruceata is a species of eastern North America.  The one we get here should be called O. occidentalis.  It may be a while (if at all!) before I can get round to relabellng all “bruceata” photographs on Invert Alert as occidentalis.

   We have two photographs in Invert Alert so far of O. danby, a relatively uncommon species, which is distinct enough from the others that its identification may be relatively easy.  The two danbyi photographs were  both from Goldstream Park – one by myself (Invert Alert 2012 December 8) and one by Bill Katz (2018 January 17).

   In the meantime, this morning I went to the Goldsream Park Nature House, where there were hundreds of winter moths around the lights.  I believe both species were there.   Unfortunately, all were males – the females evidently can’t reach the walls of the Nature House.  I took four photographs of males, all of which I believe to be occidentalis, before the camera battery ran out.  (Isn’t it difficult to get good photographs! So many things to go wrong!)

   Then, when I got back to the office, I found that Jochen Möhr had sent two photographs from Metchosin – one of occidentalis and one of brumata.

Western Winter Moth Operophtera occidentalis (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

Western Winter Moth Operophtera occidentalis (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

Western Winter Moth Operophtera occidentalis (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

Western Winter Moth Operophtera occidentalis (Lep.: Geometridae) Jeremy Tatum

Western Winter Moth Operophtera occidentalis (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

European Winter Moth Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

2018 December 17

   Jeremy Tatum writes: we can’t expect to see many caterpillars at this time of year (except perhaps for Noctua pronuba), so it was nice to find a Banded Woolly Bear just inland from Island View Beach today.

2018 December  12

   Scott Gilmore writes:  There is not a lot to report at this time of year but I did have this Scaphinotus marginatus  cross my path yesterday here in Lantzville. 

Scaphinotus marginatus (Col.: Carabidae)  Scott Gilmore

2018 December 10

   Jochen Möhr has sent a series of photographs of Winter Moths from Metchosin, including some interesting undersides, which we don’t often see.  I think they are mostly the European Operophtera brumata, except for one, which I (Jeremy Tatum) think is probably our native O. occidentalis.

Operophtera brumata (Lep.:  Geometridae)   Jochen Möhr

Operophtera brumata (Lep.:  Geometridae)   Jochen Möhr

Probably Operophtera occidentalis (Lep.:  Geometridae)   Jochen Möhr

2018 December 4

   Here is a Common Firebrat Thermobia domestica.  Compare it with the Grey Firebrat Ctenolepisma longicaudata  shown on November 30.  Apart from the difference in pattern and colour, C. longicaudata has a longer and more slender abdomen (“longicaudata” – which presumably refers to the abdomen  rather than to the caudal appendages).

Firebrat Thermobia domestica   (Zygentoma:  Lepismatidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Ron Flower writes:   I don’t know if you have seen the collection of different moths on the trees at the entrance to Cattle Point. I found them a few days ago around November 28.

   Jeremy Tatum replies:  I was at Cattle Point this morning, and I didn’t notice them!   However I went again this afternoon, and I found there about a dozen or so Garry Oaks with these sticky bands around them, presumably put there to trap the wingless female Winter Moths as they climb up the oak trunks.

There were what must have been tens of thousands of insects and spiders caught in the glue, including many male and female Winter Moths.  I didn’t spot any other species of moth.

Moth graveyard, Cattle Point    Ron Flower