2017 July 5

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  This will be the last Invert Alert before I start on holiday tomorrow.  If by any chance I should find myself near a computer and can figure out how it works (both of which are very unlikely) I may try and make one or two postings. Otherwise Invert Alert won’t be back in business before July 22.  By all means save up a very few of your most interesting photographs, but please don’t flood me with huge numbers of photographs of our most frequently-photographed insects when I get back!

We start off today with an insect photographed by Ken Vaughan in the Highlands. This has been identified by Claudia Copley and Libby Avis as a caddisfly of the family Leptoceridae, possibly, suggests Libby, of the genus Oecetis

Caddisfly (Tri.: Leptoceridae)  possibly Oecetis sp.

  Ken Vaughan

   Ken also photographed a soldier beetle in the Highlands.  Charlene Wood writes that they are tricky to identify to species, but that this one does look a lot like Podabrus cavicollis.

Soldier beetle, possibly Podabrus cavicollis (Col.: Cantharidae)  Ken Vaughan

Re the VNHS Monthly Butterfly Walk on Sunday July 2, Jeff Gaskin writes:  At Mount Tolmie we had  :  12 Lorquin’s Admirals, 5 Western and 1 Pale Tiger Swallowtails, and the usual Cabbage Whites. On Stelly’s Cross Road Eddy’s Storage we had :   2 Field Crescents, 25 Essex Skippers, and 1 Cabbage White.  At Island View Beach we had  :  9 Lorquin’s Admirals, 1 Purplish Copper, 14 Large Heaths (Ringlets), 1 Painted Lady, and 19 Essex Skippers.  When we returned to Mount Tolmie at 4:30 pm. on the Mount Tolmie reservoir were  :  1 West Coast Lady and 4 Painted Ladies.

Ann Tiplady writes:  Here is a photo from July 2, in my garden.  A crab spider with a dead honey bee, and particularly interesting was the cloud of very small insects buzzing around the dead honey bee.  I was reminded of jackals around lions at a kill, or arctic foxes around a polar bear at a kill.

Goldenrod Crab Spider Misumena vatia (Ara.: Thomisidae)  Ann Tiplady

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  This is the second time recently that we have seen a crab spider overcome a bee (see June 14 evening).  We can see two of the tiny insects.  They are hymenopterans, probably of the Superfamily Chalcidoidea.

Jeremy Tatum sends a photograph of a Common Emerald Moth from his Saanich apartment garden this morning.

 Common Emerald Hemithea aestivaria (Lep.: Geometridae) Jeremy Tatum

Jody Wells sends a bunch of photographs of invertebrates – one of them found on the beach and not strictly terrestrial – but we’ll allow it this time!

Blue Dasher Pachydiplax longipennis (Odo.: Libellulidae) Jody Wells

Blue Dasher Pachydiplax longipennis (Odo.: Libellulidae) Jody Wells

Polyphylla crinita (Col.: Scarabaeidae)  Jody Wells

Polyphylla crinita (Col.: Scarabaeidae)  Jody Wells

Nereis vexillosa (Phyllodocida: Nereididae)  Jody Wells

2017 July 4

   Ken Vaughan  sends a nice collection from Beaver Lake Ponds, July 2.

Bee-like robber fly Laphria asturina/fernaldi (Dip.: Asilidae) Ken Vaughan

Blue-eyed Darner Rhionaeschna multicolor (Odo.: Aeshnidae) Ken Vaughan

Left:  Dot-tailed Whiteface Leucorrhinia intacta (Odo.: Libellulidae)

Right: Western Pondhawk Erythemis collocata (Odo.: Libellulidae)

Ken Vaughan

   And another nice collection from the Highlands:

 Left:  Pasiphila rectangulata (Lep.: Geometridae)

Right:  Tentatively Protitame matilda (Lep.: Geometridae)

Ken Vaughan

 Pasiphila rectangulata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

Enypia packardata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

2017 July 3

   Reminder:  Invert Alert closed July 6 -22.  See recent postings.

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  There have been very few moths at my Saanich apartment building this year, so it was nice this morning to see a Cerisy’s Eyed Hawk Moth there.  Unfortunately, she flew away strongly about half a second before I pressed the shutter button.  I’m sure many of you have had the same experience!

   Gordon Hart writes:  We had a good June count after a slow start this spring. We were down four species this year, from 15 species in June, 2016, to 11 in 2017. Because we use the Christmas Count circle, we could not count the Island View Beach Purplish Coppers reported by Val George. This is one of those formerly more common species, like Mylitta Crescent, that used to be seen in several areas of Greater Victoria. Some numbers were down, but eight species had higher numbers than last year. The most counted of any species was Western Tiger Swallowtail, with 262 seen, 105 more than last year! Surprisingly, Cabbage Butterfly was down by 305, from 532 in 2016, to 227 this year. European (Essex) Skippers were down from 180 in 2016, to 55 this year, but this was probably due to the later season this year. We had 13 observers and 34 reports covering about 43 locations. Thanks to all who submitted count reports. I also included a few sightings from the Invert Alert if they matched the date range and were in the count circle.

    Annie Pang sends a picture of a Small Magpie Moth, July 2.  Jeremy Tatum writes:  I can’t get used to the new scientific name!  It must have been Eurrhypara hortulata for well over 100 years.  I hope the taxonomists have good reasons for the name change.  They changed its Family not so long ago.  (It was Pyralidae.)   Beautiful moth anyway.

Small Magpie Moth Anania hortulata (Lep.:  Crambidae)  Annie Pang

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I inadvertently missed a bunch of photographs from Gordon Hart a week or so ago.  Thanks, Gordon, for re-sending them, and here they are.

Acronicta dactylina (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Gordon Hart

Nomad bee (Hym.: Nomadidae)  Gordon Hart

Red-veined Meadowhawk Sympetrum madidum (Odo.: Libellulidae) Gordon Hart

   Samantha Hatfield sends photographs of a Western Tiger Swallowtail and a Cabbage White.

Western Tiger Swallowtail Papilio rutulus (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Samantha Hatfield

Cabbage White Pieris rapae (Lep.: Pieridae)  Samantha Hatfield.

2017 July 2

   Reminder:  From July 6 to July 22 (Jeremy Tatum writes) I shall be on holiday and very unlikely to be able to operate Invert Alert.  By all means save up a very few of your most interesting photographs for when I get back, especially of insects rarely photographed, but it would be nice if, upon my return, I did not have to process large numbers of photographs of our frequently-photographed insects.  Thank you all.

   Jeff Gaskin writes:  Yesterday, July 1, I was at Swan Lake and I found the following butterflies :  28 Lorquin’s Admirals, 11 Western Tiger Swallowtails, 10 Cabbage Whites, 2 Essex Skippers, and 1 Painted Lady.

  Gerry and Wendy Ansell write:  A visit to Cowichan Station on Saturday July 1, 2017, produced the following butterflies:

Margined Whites 6+

Red Admiral 2

Cabbage White 5

Western Tiger Swallowtail 4

Lorquin’s Admiral 2

Margined White Pieris marginalis (Lep.: Pieridae)  Wendy Ansell

Margined White Pieris marginalis (Lep.: Pieridae)  Wendy Ansell

Margined White Pieris marginalis (Lep.: Pieridae)  Wendy Ansell

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I am very interested in this butterfly, so I hope viewers will excuse a few paragraphs of text.  I have once found a caterpillar, and once a chrysalis, of this species north of Cowichan Station.  Both were on Dame’s Rocket Hesperis matronalis, and were successfully reared on this plant.  However, I suspect the main foodplant is Watercress Nasturtium officinale.  Both of these plants grow abundantly there.  The first two photographs show a butterfly nectaring on Watercress. The third photograph shows one nectaring at Herb Robert Geranium robertianum, which is not a larval foodplant, but the adults frequently take nectar from these flowers.  [Added in press, just before posting:  The identity of the plant I have been calling Watercress Nasturtium officinale needs confirmation.  If a botanist can help, let us know.  Keep an eye on this site for what we eventually conclude.]

  Many of our Margined White butterflies are totally immaculate – pure white with no markings. There are no particular markings on the margins of the wings – the English name is just copied from the scientific name marginalis, which is merely a label, and not descriptive.  However, in some (such as the one in the third photograph) the veins on the underside of the wings are accentuated with grey.  I have seen specimens with veins more accentuated than this.  Also occasionally I have seen a pair of gray spots in the middle of the upperside of the forewings.

   I suspect (but am not 100 percent certain) that there is a sex difference, the females being more heavily marked than the males. I also suspect that the species is bivoltine, and the spring generation is more heavily marked than the summer generation.   Thus if you see a heavily-veined butterfly on the underside, with two grey spots on the forewing upperside it is likely to be a spring generation female.  A summer-generation male, on the other hand, is pure unsullied white.

  Finally (for now anyway!) from what I have been able to see, the caterpillar and chrysalis are indistinguishable from those of the European Green-veined White Pieris napi.  I believe that, depending on one’s concept of “species”, a case could be made for saying that the two are conspecific, and that Pieris napi is a Holarctic species with a wide range, and with a corresponding wide range in the variation of its maculation.  I have seen Green-veined Whites in Scotland that are very heavily marked, and one could be forgiven for doubting that they are the same species as our immaculate Margined White – until one has seen the very similar caterpillars and chrysalides.

2017 July 1

Canada Day

   Reminder:  Monthly Butterfly Walk on Sunday July 2.  For details see June 30 morning entry.  All welcome.

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I went to Latoria Creek Park today. That is a good place for butterflies in the spring – however, there were no adult butterflies there at all today.  I did, however, find a Satyr Comma caterpillar on a nettle, so we haven’t lost this species entirely.  I also saw a Red Admiral caterpillar on nettle at Swan Lake. Near the front door of the Nature House there were two superficially similar all-white moths, though a closer look showed that one was Spilosoma virginica and the other was Leucoma salicis – a nice opportunity to see the differences.

  Wylie Thomas writes:  I spotted these in Uplands Park on Friday (June 30)!

Sheep Moths Hemileuca eglanterina (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Wylie Thomas