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.

July 19 part 2

 

2016 July 19 part 2

 

Rosemary Jorna sends a photograph of a beetle just at the tide line at Bear Beach on the Juan de Fuca Trail, July 18.  Thanks to Scott Gilmore for identifying it to Tribe level. [Tribe (-ini)] is a category below Subfamily (-inae).]

 

 Click beetle (Col.: Elateridae – Dendrometrinae – Prosternini)  Rosemary Jorna

   Annie Pang sends a picture of a cerambycid beetle.  Thanks to Rowan French for identifying it as Anoplodera pubera.

 

 Anoplodera pubera (Col.: Cerambycidae)  Annie Pang

 

Jeremy Tatum sends photographs of two moths.  Thanks to Libby Avis for identifying the first as Peridroma saucia.  Jeremy reports that he saw a pristine fresh male Satyr Comma at Rithet’s Bog, July 18.  This is the only wild (i.e. not reared from caterpillar) Satyr Comma that he has seen so far this year.

 

 Pearly Underwing Peridroma saucia (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Nycteola cinereana (Lep.: Nolidae) Jeremy Tatum

 

 

Aziza Cooper writes:  On Sunday, July 17, Moralea Milne and I went out to the logging roads beyond Jordan River and checked a bog where Moralea had seen a couple of Mariposa Coppers two years ago. We found at least 25 Mariposa Coppers in the bog on both sides of the road. Some of the males had the purplish sheen when seen well and every individual we saw was in pristine condition.

 

We saw two other species: two Dun Skippers and one Western Tiger Swallowtail.

 

An interesting dragonfly (Crimson-ringed Whiteface) was along a spur road.

 

Female Mariposa Copper Lycaena mariposa (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

Male Mariposa Copper Lycaena mariposa (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

 

Crimson-ringed Whiteface Leucorrhinia glacialis (Odo.: Libellulidae) Aziza Cooper

Aziza continues:  Two Dun Skippers were also along North Main, on July 17. In the photo, the butterfly is perching on Labrador Tea.

 

Dun Skipper Euphyes vestris (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Aziza Cooper

 

 

Annie Pang sends a photograph of a Spider-hunting wasp.

 

Spider-hunting wasp (Hym.: Pompilidae)  Annie Pang

 

 

 

 

July 19 part 1

2016 July 19 part 1

 

   Liam Singh sent a photograph of a grasshopper on July 7, and sends photographs of dragonflies and a beetle from Beaver Lake Ponds on July 18.  Thanks to Claudia Copley for the grasshopper identification, and Scott Gilmore for the beetle.  Liam saw 12 species of dragon/damselflies at the Ponds:

 

Paddle-tailed Darner

Blue-eyed Darner

Darner sp.

Western Pondhawk

Eight-spotted Skimmer

Four-spotted Skimmer

Blue Dasher

Common Whitetail

Cardinal Meadowhawk

Striped Meadowhawk

Western Red Damselfly

Tule Bluet

Pacific Forktail

 

 Two-striped Grasshopper Melanoplus bivittatus (Orth.: Acrididae)  Liam Singh

 

Striped Meadowhawk  Sympetrum pallipes (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Liam Singh

 

Tule Bluet Enallagma carunculatum (Odo.: Coenagrionidae)

Liam Singh

Pacific Forktail Ischnura cervula (Odo.: Coenagrionidae)  Liam Singh

 Four-spotted Skimmer Libellula quadrimaculata (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Liam Singh

 

Aquatic leaf beetle (Col.: Chrysomelidae – Donaciinae)  Liam Singh

 

 

 

July 17 evening

2016 July 17 evening

 

   Annie Pang sends another bee photograph from Gorge Park.

 

Halictus rubicundus (Hym.: Halictidae)   Annie Pang

 

  Bryan Gates writes:  This moth was in my daughter’s house in south Oak Bay.

 Small Magpie Moth Eurrhypara hortulata (Lep.: Crambidae)  Bryan Gates

July 16 morning

2016 July 17, morning

 

   Annie Pang sends some pictures from Gorge Park.  Thanks to Linc Best for Hymenoptera identifications.

 

Sceliphron caementarium (Hym.:  Sphecidae)  Annie Pang


 Woodland Skipper Ochlodes sylvanoides (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Annie Pang

Woodland Skipper Ochlodes sylvanoides (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Annie Pang

 Lasioglossum sp. (Hym.:  Halictidae)   Annie Pang

 

 

 Lasioglossum sp. (Hym.:  Halictidae)   Annie Pang

 

 

   Mike Yip writes:  Late spring up Mount Washington. We walked up the ski run on July 15 and saw 8 Western Meadow Fritillaries, 4 parnassian sp., 2  Hoary (“Zephyr”) Commas, and a fly-by possible Silvery Blue. At the top there were several Great Arctics. There are still patches of snow at the top.

 

Western Meadow Fritillary Boloria epithore (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Mike Yip

 Hoary (“Zephyr”) Comma Polygonia gracilis zephyrus (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Mike Yip

 

Great Arctic Oeneis nevadensis (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Satyrinae)  Mike Yip

 

 

   Bill Savale and Jeremy Tatum walked along the railway line at Cowichan Station on July 16.  Cloudy, so not many butterflies, but we saw 1 Western Tiger Swallowtail, 1 Lorquin’s Admiral and 3 Margined Whites, as well as a Pacific Spiketail dragonfly.

July 15

2106 July 15

 

   Annie Pang sends some pictures from Gorge Park.

 

Osmia lignaria (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Annie Pang

 

Hover fly (Dip.: Syrphidae)    Annie Pang

 

Autographa californica (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Annie Pang

 

Halictus rubicundus (Hym.:  Halictidae)   Annie Pang

 

 

   Rosemary Jorna sends photographs from the Kemp Lake area.  Thanks to Scott Gilmore for identifying the beetle as Leptura obliterata.  The bug is Philaenus spumaria, a spittle bug. The nymph of this bug makes the little masses of frothy spittle that we see on low-down vegetation.

 

Leptura obliterata (Col.: Cerambycidae)  Rosemary Jorna

 

Philaenus spumarius (Hem.: Cercopidae)  Rosemary Jorna

 

 

Aziza Cooper writes:  In Uplands Park near the corner of Dorset and Midland Roads on Wednesday, July 13, I saw my first Woodland Skipper of the year.

 

And Jeremy Tatum saw his first Pine White of the year at UVic, July 15.

 

Woodland Skipper Ochlodes sylvanoides  (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Aziza Cooper