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.

August 5 evening

2017 August 5 evening

 

 From Gordon Hart:

 

Just a reminder for the VNHS monthly Butterfly Walk this Sunday, August 6.  We will meet at Mt Tolmie at 1 p.m. You can park at the main parking lot north of the summit, or in the lot by the reservoir where we will have an initial look for butterflies and then decide where to go from there.
Hope to see you Sunday!

 

 

   Debbie Mayzes writes from Lantzville that the moth below stayed at her house for a long time in June.     It is a Ceanothus Silk Moth Hyalophora euryalus.

 


Hyalophora euryalus (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Debbie Mayzes

August 5

August 5, morning

 

  From Gordon Hart:

 

Just a reminder for the VNHS monthly Butterfly Walk this Sunday, August 6.  We will meet at Mt Tolmie at 1 p.m. You can park at the main parking lot north of the summit, or in the lot by the reservoir where we will have an initial look for butterflies and then decide where to go from there.
Hope to see you Sunday!

 

Gordon also sends a photograph of a Pine White from the Highlands District, August 1.

 

Male Pine White Neophasia menapia (Lep.: Pieridae)  Gordon Hart

 

August 4

2017 August 4, 2017

 

Colias alert!

   Val George writes:  At the Tuesday VNHS birding walk Jeff Gaskin reminded me that it was about this time of year that Western Branded Skippers, Hesperia colorado, had been recorded at Saanichton Spit.  So this afternoon, Aug 3, I went out there to check it out and, sure enough, I found one amongst the other skippers.  It was nectaring on Gumweed  about 100 m along the path from the parking lot.  A bonus on the way out there was a sulphur butterfly about 150 m south of Michell’s Farm on Lochside Drive.  I was pretty sure it was an Orange Sulphur, Colias eurytheme, but it wouldn’t settle long enough for me to be 100 percent sure of the species.

 

Western Branded Skipper Hesperia colorado (Lep.: Hesperiidae) Val George

 

   Aziza Cooper writes: On Wednesday, Aug. 2 at Centennial Park, this Pine White was on the lawn near the picnic tables.

 

Male Pine White Neophasia menapia (Lep.: Pieridae)  Aziza Cooper

 

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Today (August 4) I walked from Island View Beach to Cordova (Saanichton) Spit to see if I could find the Western Branded Skippers that Val reported.  On the way from IVB to the Spit I saw a Purplish Copper, a Large Heath (“Ringlet”), several Woodland Skippers and even a rather late Essex (“European”) Skipper.  And then, when I reached the exact spot described by Val above, I came across two Western Branded Skippers obviously very much in love and  performing a prolonged nuptial display.

 

   Aziza Cooper writes:  Today, Friday, August 4, this bee was on a Chicory flower at Maber Flats.

 


Bombus melanopygus (Hym.: Apidae)  Aziza Cooper

 

 

 

 

 

August 3

2017 August 3

 

   Aziza Cooper photographed a spider at East Sooke Park on July 29, and we are indebted to Robb Bennett for identifying it for us:

 

Male Evarcha proszynski (Ara.: Salticidae) Aziza Cooper

 

 

   Scott Gilmore photographed a robber fly at Upper Lantzville on August 2, and we are indebted to Rob Cannings for identifying it for us.  Rob writes: This is a common Cordilleran asilid of mid and late summer.  It ranges across southern BC and south to California and Arizona.  Nice shot!

 

Robber fly Neomochtherus willistoni (Dip.: Asilidae)  Scott Gilmore

 

 

   Jeremy Tatum found the caterpillar below on crab apple on Lochside Drive north of Blenkinsop Lake on August 3.  It is a male Vapourer Moth, also known as the Rusty Tussock. There were several adult male Vapourer Moths flying in the same area.

 

Vapourer Moth Orgyia antiqua (Lep.: Erebidae – Lymantriinae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

 

   Also in that area were several Red Admiral caterpillars (but no Satyr Commas) on the stinging nettles.  The nettles were all very heavily covered in dust, and I am not sure whether the caterpillars will survive.  If anyone knows of a really nice nettle patch, where the nettles are in really good condition and not covered in dust, one could conduct a rescue operation and transfer the caterpillars to better surroundings.  Let me know.

 

  Jeremy writes: on August 1 I saw an adult Red Admiral at Witty Beach.  At 6:00 pm on August 2 there were still a few Painted Ladies and a West Coast Lady on the Mount Tolmie reservoir.  They were so worn as to be almost unrecognizable – but were still able to fly strongly and chase each other around.  Today, August 3, I saw my first Pine White of the year, on Lohbrunner Road.

August 2

2017 August 02

 

   Ken Vaughan photographed the beetle below at Fork Lake, Highlands, on July 29.  Thanks to Scott Gilmore for identifying it as an earth-boring dung beetle Odonteus obesus, the first member of its Family to appear on the site.

 

Earth-boring dung beetle Odonteus obesus (Col.: Geotrupidae) Ken Vaughan

   Barbara McLintock photographed the beetle below on July 21, and we are again indebted to Scott Gilmore for its identification, as probably Trichocnemis spiculatus. Scott writes that he would like a clearer photo of the pronotum to know for sure. [There is a similar species, S. pauper, and it would need a close look with a magnifying glass to be sure which it is.  Jeremy]  This is a very large beetle, about 2½ inches in length.  One of its common names is Ponderous Borer.  It also seems sometimes to be called a Pine Sawyer – a name also given to Jochen Moehr’s July 31 beetle!  I have therefore removed any English name from the caption to both beetles and have left them with just a scientific name.  The one below has a long ovipositor!

 

Trichocnemis spiculatus (Col.: Cerambycidae)  BarbaraMcLintock

 

 

Liam Singh sends a photograph of a clearwing moth from Pedder Bay today.  Although it is much yellower than the one on Kathleen Burton’s photograph (see July 26 posting), it is the same species, Synanthedon bibionipennis.  Liam’s is a female; Kathleen’s was a male.  Here are the three indications that Liam’s is a female:

She is fatter (carrying eggs!).  She is much yellower.  The hairs on her labial palpi are all yellow not tipped with brown.  It is remarkable to receive photos of sesiids within a few days of each other.  Strawberry has been recorded as the larval foodplant of S. bibionipennis.  The person who named it bibionipennis (Jean Baptiste Boisduval – of Blue fame) must have thought that the male was a mimic of a St Mark’s Fly (Bibionidae).

 

Synanthedon bibionipennis (Lep.: Sesiidae)  Liam Singh

Synanthedon bibionipennis (Lep.: Sesiidae)  Liam Singh