2018 March 21

   Bud Logan photographed a rather fierce-looking spider at about 500 metres elevation in Strathcona Park.  Thanks to Dr Bennett  for identifying it as a male orbweaver of the genus Araneus, probably A. saevus

Male Araneus (probably saevus) (Ara.: Araneidae)  Bud Logan

Male Araneus (probably saevus) (Ara.: Araneidae)  Bud Logan

2018 March 20

Spring Equinox

   Welcome to Spring!

    Jeremy Tatum writes: Gordon Hart sends a photograph of a bee admiring a daffodil.  Sean McCann, Claudia Copley and I have had a look at it, but none if us feels sufficiently confident to give a definite name to it, though Claudia’s suggestion of maybe Anthophora sp. looks at least plausible to me. 

Unidentified bee, possibly Anthophora sp. (Hym.: Apidae) Gordon Hart.

2018 March 19

   Butterflies are starting to appear.  Unidentified nymphalid butterflies were reported to this site on March 10 and 12 (see entries for March 11 and 13).  The first identified butterfly reported is a Mourning Cloak, by Libby Avis in Port Alberni on March 18.  The Mourning Cloak and the unidentified nymphalids overwinter in the adult stage. The first adult butterfly that overwinters in the pupal stage was a Cabbage White, reported on March 18 from Metchosin by Moralea Milne.

   Libby Avis reports the geometrid moths Epirrhoe  plebeculata and Enchoria lacteata from Port Alberni, March 18.  Gordon Hart, too, has found Enchoria lacteata, in the Highlands.

Enchoria lacteata (Lep.: Geometridae)   Gordon Hart

   More individuals of the unidentified moth shown on the March 18 posting have been found on Peden Bluff by Moralea Milne and Jeremy Gatten.

2018 March 18

   Two years ago, on March 21, Rosemary Jorna photographed a pyraloid moth (see 2016 March 30 Invert Alert), which we were unable to identify.  Now, on March 15   this year, Moralea Milne found and photographed the same species in Metchosin. “It appeared to fly out of a Manzanita bush. They seem to be only on the west facing slope, grass/moss hillside, above 200 m, from a quick reconnaissance. There were a number of them flying around.”

   We still don’t know what it is.  Here’s Moralea’s photograph:

Unidentified moth (Lep.: Pyraloidea)  Moralea Milne

2018 March 13

   Gordon Hart sends photographs of a moth and a fly from the Highlands area, March 11.  We thank Dr Jeff Skevington for kindly identifying the fly for us.   Gordon also remarks that he saw a butterfly on March 12 – probably a Green Comma.

Epirrhoe plebeculata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Gordon Hart

Sericomyia chalcopyga (Dip.: Syrphidae)   Gordon Hart