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.

June 7, evening

2017 June 7, evening

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Amazing!   This morning I received a photograph, posted on this morning’s Alert, of Sphinx perelegans from Salt Spring Island, and just three hours after I posted it now we have another one – sent by Kurtis Herperger, from the base of Mill Hill in Langford.  Although I have (a very few times) seen the look-alike Sphinx vashti and its caterpillar, I have never actually seen the slightly larger perelegans. Both are spectacular insects!

 


Sphinx perelegans (Lep.: Sphingidae)  Kurtis Herperger

 

 

   Gordon Hart writes:  On Tuesday June 6, several of us went up to the Goldstream Heights area to find Grey Jays. No luck with that, but we did see two Two-banded Grizzled Skippers, a Cedar Hairstreak, and a few dragonflies.  Today in Uplands Park, there were at least two Western Tiger Swallowtails, a Cabbage White and a Painted Lady.

 

Two-banded Grizzled Skipper Pyrgus ruralis (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Gordon Hart

 

 

   Jeff Gaskin writes:  Today, June 07, there were at least 8 Field Crescents amongst the grass and daisies right by Eddy’s Storage on Stelly’s Cross  Road, which is about 300 – 400 metres west of West Saanich Road.

 

  Aziza Cooper writes:  Yesterday, June 6, I was at the Victoria Golf Course at 7:15am, and a Red Admiral was perching on a pine trunk.

 

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Aziza Cooper

 

 

 

June 7 , morning

2017 June 7 morning

 

   Ron Flower sends a photograph of two Field Crescents from Eddy’s storage facility on Stelly’s Cross Road, June 5.

 Field Crescents Phyciodes pratensis (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Melitaeinae)  Ron Flower

 

 

   Jeremy Tatum sends a photograph of Hyphantria cunea from UVic, June 6.  The caterpillar of this moth is the “Fall Webworm”.

 

Hyphantria cunea (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

 

Michael Aronoff sends a picture of Sphinx perelegans  from Salt Spring Island – an uncommon, powerful and spectacular moth.

 Sphinx perelegans (Lep.: Sphingidae)  Michael Aronoff

 

 

   Cheryl Hoyle sends two pictures of the caterpillar of a noctuid moth.  There are too many look-alikes for us to be certain of the exact species.

 

Unknown caterpillar (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

 

Unknown caterpillar (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

 

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Yesterday (June 6) at about 4:00 pm I went to the Mount Tolmie reservoir, and there were eight or more tiger swallowtails (both species) flying around and chasing each other and obviously thoroughly enjoying themselves.  It was quite spectacular to watch them.  There were just a couple of Painted Ladies on the reservoir – the nymphalids tend to come a bit later, say half past five or so.

June 6 morning

2017 June 6 morning

 

Rare butterfly alert!  Ron Flower writes:  Today June 5 at Eddy’s storage on Stelly’s Cross Road there were numerous Field Crescents, with many mating on the daisies.

 

Jody Wells sends a photograph of a Large Yellow Underwing from West Saanich Road near Brentwood Bay yesterday.

 


Large Yellow Underwing Noctua coma (Lep.: Noctuidae)

Jody Wells

 

June 5

2107 June 5

 

   Here are some photographs from yesterday’s VNHS Butterfly Walk to Mount Tolmie and Layritz Park.

 

Painted Lady Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Nymphalinae)  Aziza Cooper

 

Painted Lady Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Nymphalinae)  Gordon Hart

 

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Nymphalinae) Aziza Cooper

 

Large Heath (“Ringlet”) Coenonympha tullia (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Satyrinae)

Aziza Cooper

 

Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

 

Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)

Honey Bee Apis mellifera (Hym.: Apidae)

Gordon Hart

 

 

Large Heaths (“Ringlets”) Coenonympha tullia (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Satyrinae)

Gordon Hart

 

Large Heaths (“Ringlets”) Coenonympha tullia (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Satyrinae)

Gordon Hart

 

 

   And more photographs from elsewhere yesterday.  Ken Vaughan was at Beaver Lake Retriever Ponds and he photographed a dragonfly and a butterfly:

 

Cardinal Meadowhawk Sympetrum illotum (Odo.: Libellulidae) Ken Vaughan

 

Cedar Hairstreak Mitoura rosneri (Lep.: Lycaenidae) Ken Vaughan

 

   On June 2, Dar Churcher photographed a Green Pug in Colwood.

 

Green Pug Pasiphila rectangulata (Lep.: Geometridae) Dar Churcher

 

 

  And a big thank you to Corry Sheffield for identifying these tiny bees photographed by Ann Tiplady on Mount Tolmie during the June 4 butterfly walk.

 

   They are all Ceratina (Zadontomerus) that cannot be identified to species with certainty. Ann remarks that not all of them were the same size, so possibly more than one species was involved.  For those unfamiliar with the way these things are named, the “Zadontomerus” in italics, with a capital Z, following the genus name in parentheses, means Subgenus Zadontomerus.  That is, Cory was able to identify it below genus level as far as subgenus – but not as far as species.

 

Ceratina (Zadontomerus) sp. (Hym.:  Apidae)   Ann Tiplady



Ceratina (Zadontomerus) sp. (Hym.:  Apidae)   Ann Tiplady

 

Ceratina (Zadontomerus) sp. (Hym.:  Apidae)   Ann Tiplady

 

 

 

 

 

June 4

2017 June 4

 

   We start with three caterpillars.  The first, on Ocean Spray from Mount Tolmie, is Synaxis jubararia  (Also known as Tetracis jubararia). 

 

Synaxis jubararia (Lep.: Geometridae)   Jeremy Tatum

   The second, also on Ocean Spray from Mount Tolmie, is a noctuid.  Beyond that we cannot go at present, although I am wondering if it might be Eurois occulta.

 

Unknown (Lep.: Noctuidae)   Jeremy Tatum

   Gordon Hart found the next one on Snowberry in the Highlands.  We are not sure whether it is a noctuid or an erebid.  One possibility we thought of might be a species of Zale, an erebid – but that is only a guess.

 

Unknown (Lep.: Erebidae or Noctuidae)  Gordon Hart

 

Here is a spider from UVic, identified for us by Sean McCann.

 

 

Araniella displicata (Ara.:  Araneidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   And a fly from an Oak Bay garden, identified by Jeff Skevington.

 

Eristalis sp. (Dip.: Syrphidae)   Ann Tiplady

 

This small bee, also from the Oak Bay garden, is kindly identified for us by Cory Sheffield as Lasioglossum sp.

 

Lasioglossum sp. (Hym.: Halictidae)   Ann Tiplady

   Last fall, Gordon and Anne-Marie Hart found two huge caterpillars within a few feet-minute in space-time in their Highlands garden.  The moth from one of them – a Cerisy’s Eyed Hawk Moth – was shown on this site on May 2.  The second moth emerged today – a female Polyphemus Moth. I hadn’t seen one for some time and I had forgotten how truly huge and spectacular they are.  I released this one at Munn Road, near the hydro station.

 

Polyphemus Moth Anthaea polyphemus (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

From the large to the small  –  Aziza Cooper photographed Adela septentrionella at Camas Hill on June 3.

 

Adela septentrionella (Lep.: Incurvariidae)  Aziza Cooper

Aziza Cooper writes:  Today, Sunday, June 4, the VNHS monthly butterfly walk went to Layritz Park. We found a total of 9 species of butterflies there and at our starting point of Mount Tolmie:

 

Painted Lady – 1

Red Admiral – 1

Pale Tiger Swallowtail – 3

Western Tiger Swallowtail- 6

Anise Swallowtail – 1

Common (Vancouver Island) Ringlet – 40 or more  (Coenonympha tullia)

Cabbage White – 6

Propertius Duskywing – 3

Western Spring Azure – 6

 

Some photographs of butterflies seen on the walk will appear in tomorrow’s Invert Alert.