2016 August 4

Monthly Butterfly Walk

All Welcome!

Gordon Hart writes:

The monthly butterfly walk will be this Sunday, August 7.  We will meet at Mount Tolmie at 1 p.m. at the main parking lot below the summit on the north side and decide where to go from there.  The trip is weather-dependent, so if it is too cool and cloudy or rainy, we will probably have to look for birds instead!  I was thinking perhaps Island View Beach and Cordova Spit might be good.  There’s a chance of Purplish Copper, Anise Swallowtail, Large Heath (“Ringlet”) and the rare Western Branded Skipper.

Jeremy Tatum writes:  Not many moths recently, but, in several places I have seen the big silken nests of the Fall Webworm Hyphantria cunea (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae).  Also, if you see a smallish dark reddish-brown moth flying rapidly around in a corkscrew-like fashion, which you first think might be a skipper, though its flight doesn’t look quite right, you are probably seeing a male Vapourer Moth Orgyia antiqua (Lep.: Erebidae – Lymantriinae)

2016 August 3

   Jody Wells sends a photograph of Neoalcis californiaria from West Saanich Road near Keating Cross Road, July 31.  Jody writes:  I think it’s a beauty but some butterfliers weren’t impressed by this moth.  Jeremy Tatum writes:  Well, Jody, you and I both appreciate this fine moth, even if no one else does.  A true wonder of Nature.

Neoalcis californiaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jody Wells

   Julie Michaux sends a photograph of Hemithea aestivaria from Muir Creek, August 2.

Common Emerald Hemithea aestivaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Julie Michaux

  Annie Pang sends a photograph of an anthomyiid fly from Gorge Park, August 2.

Fly (Dip.: Anthomyiidae)  Annie Pang

   Jody Wells sends two pictures of a female Cardinal Meadowhawk from Martindale Flats.

Female Cardinal Meadowhawk  Sympetrum illotum (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Jody Wells

 Female Cardinal Meadowhawk  Sympetrum illotum (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Jody Wells

2016 August 2

   Annie Pang sends us two spiders and a moth. 

Cellar spider Pholcus phalangioides (Ara.:  Pholcidae)   Annie Pang

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  This is one of several unrelated creatures called, in different parts of the English-speaking world, “Daddy-long-legs”.  That’s a nice name, so it’s a pity it’s applied to different animals.  Perhaps it’s best to stick to the scientific name.

Male Scotophaeus blackwalli (Ara.: Gnaphosidae)   Annie Pang

The Mouse Amphipyra tragopoginis (Lep.: Noctuidae)   Annie Pang

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  The moth is known as The Mouse partly because of its colour and partly because of the mouse-like way by which it scuttles around on its legs.  The caterpillar feeds on many low-growing herbaceous plants, but is particularly fond of the pappus of Salsify, also known as Oyster Plant, also known as Goatsbeard, genus Tragopogon  (which means goat’s beard).  It is not known for certain whether the moth (which occurs in Europe) is native to North America or whether it was accidentally introduced.

   And now for the horror photograph from Saturna Island that we mentioned yesterday.  Thanks to Rob Cannings for the robber fly identification, and to Sean McCann for the wasp identification.

Robber fly Laphria sp. (Dip.: Asilidae)

Yellowjacket wasp Vespula alascensis (Hym.: Vespidae)

Nathan Fisk

2106 August 1

NOTICE

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I haven’t found anyone to take over from me while I am on holiday, Aug 9 – 26, so Invertebrate Alert will be closed during that period.  When I get back, you can send me your observations or a very few of your very best photographs of unusual invertebrates, but please don’t send me huge numbers of photographs of our most frequently photographed insects during that period.  Thanks!

   Annie Pang sends photographs of two flies, kindly identified by Matthias Buck.

Syritta pipiens (Dip: Syrphidae)  Annie Pang

Villa sp.  (Dip.:  Bombyliidae)  Annie Pang

   Jeremy Tatum saw a young caterpillar of Lorquin’s Admiral on willow at King’s Pond today, August 1.  And in the evening, at 6:30 pm. there was a Red Admiral on the Mount Tolmie Reservoir, near the paint blotch.   Jess Gaskin reports a Western Tiger Swallowtail , which looked to him to be in pretty bad shape, in the flower garden in Esquimalt Gorge Park.

   Nathan Fisk sends three photographs from Saturna Island today.  I am reproducing two of them here.  The third is of too horrific a nature (X-rated) to be shown without advance warning, and is unsuitable for children or those with a nervous disposition.   I’ll post it as soon as we have exact identities of the species involved.  Watch this site.

Buprestis aurulenta (Col.: Buprestidae)  Nathan Fisk

Lophocampa maculata (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)   Nathan Fisk

2016 July 31

   Annie Pang sends pictures of bees.  Thanks to Linc Best for identifications.

Ceratina sp. (Hym.: Apidae)  Annie Pang

Halictus rubicundus (Hym.: Halictidae)  Annie Pang

Honey Bee Apis mellifera (Hym.: Apidae)  Annie Pang

Jeremy Tatum writes:  Today (July 31) I went to Cordova Spit in search of the Western Branded Skipper. I searched in the southeast corner of the spit, in an area where there are a few crabapple trees.  I looked for skippers nectaring on the Gumweed.  There were lots of hesperiine skippers there, and it was not always easy to see the underside of the hindwings, so a lot of them went unidentified.  I identified those that I could as Woodland Skippers.  I wondered if perhaps I was overlooking the target species or misidentifying the ones I had called Woodlands.  And then at last I saw a genuine Western Branded Skipper nectaring on the Gumweed.  On seeing the underside of the hidwings, there was no mistaking it – and I then realized that the ones I had been calling Woodlands were indeed Woodlands, and the Branded is quite different.

On the way back I saw one male Purplish Copper at Island View Beach.