2017 July 24

   Return to back-to-business provides an opportunity for a brief reminder of the optimum way of submitting observations to Invertebrate Alert.  Send observations to jtatum at uvic dot ca   We welcome, of course, reports just of sightings and they don’t have to be accompanied with photographs.  If you send a photograph or photographs, please send them in .jpg format as an attachment. It takes me much longer to process if you send them some other way. Remember to say where you saw the animal (not “my backyard” – I don’t know where that is) and when (date with month written in letters!).  Unless I have a query, I don’t generally respond – your “reward” and thank you are when the item gets posted!  There may sometimes be a delay, while we are trying to identify an obscure insect, though if the delay is over a week you might check with me in case I have overlooked the record (which occasionally happens).  If you know the identification of the insect, please say so – so that I don’t have to spend time figuring it out myself!  If you don’t know, we’ll do our best – that may take a few days.   Jeremy Tatum

  Bryan Gates sends a photograph of a European Paper Wasp. He writes that for the past four years the species has been nesting in a hollow aluminium railing at his house in Black Creek.

European Paper Wasp Polistes dominula (Hym.: Vespidae)  Bryan Gates

   Val George sends photographs of two moths from his Oak Bay house, July 21.  He also sends a photograph of a Great Arctic butterfly from Mount Washington, seen on the VNHS Botany trip to Mount Washington, July 23, thus again dashing my (Jeremy) theory that this species occurs only in even-numbered years!

Choristoneura rosaceana (Lep.: Tortricidae)  Val George

Clemensia albata (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae – Lithosiini)  Val George

Great Arctic Oeneis nevadensis (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Satyrinae)  Val George

   Jochen Moehr sends a picture of a crane fly from his house in Metchosin, July 9.  Alas –  in spite of the efforts of the best brains in Victoria, the exact species identity of this well-marked insect still eludes us.

Crane fly (Dip.: Tipulidae)  Jochen Moehr

   New VNHS member Michael Croteau photographed a syrphid fly on Mount Work on June 3.  We are grateful to Jeff Skevington and Andrew Young for the identification as a male Melanostoma sp.  Dr Skevington advises us that Melanostoma  is probably a complex of species, but at present they are all lumped as M. mellinum.

Melanostoma mellinum (Dip.: Syrphidae)  Michael Croteau

2017 July 23

  Jeremy Tatum writes:  Back from holidays, so Invertebrate Alert is back in business – slowly as I recover from jet lag.   I saw lots of butterflies on the Sussex South Downs, largely thanks to Sussex butterfly enthusiast David Harris.  One of the most memorable was a Chalkhill Blue nectaring on a Round-headed Rampion – both species iconic symbols of the Sussex South Downs.  Also, not one, but two sightings of the absolutely enormous syrphid fly Volucella zonaria.

   Anyway, some unfinished business first. The moth/caddisfly with the very long antennae photographed by Ken Vaughan (see July 5 posting) has been identified by Claudia Copley and Libby Avis as a caddisfly (as originally suggested by Ken) of the family Leptoceridae, possibly, suggested by Libby, of the genus Oecetis.

  More unfinished business.  Nick Doe found several of these small moths on Gabriola Island in June 27.  He has since identified them as Protodeltote albidula

Protodeltote albidula (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Nick Doe

   Val George sends a photograph of Coryphista meadii from his Oak Bay garden, July 16. The caterpillar feeds on Mahonia and Berberis.

Coryphista meadii (Lep.: Geometridae)  Val George.

   Jeff Gaskin writes:  I have been doing quite a bit of looking for butterflies since it is butterfly count week and here are a few of my findings.

July 15, was the date of my first Pine White which was from the highway or Sooke Road near the View Royal Casino

July 19,  a Pale Tiger Swallowtail in Finnerty Gardens at UVic.

July 18,  6 Pine Whites near the View Royal Casino as seen from the highway or Sooke Road,  and a Painted Lady at Tower Point.

July 17, a Large Heath or “Ringlet”  in Layritz Park south of Markham Road and a Woodland Skipper on nearby Broadcast Hill.

July 17, on Mount Tolmie at 5 p.m. 1 West Coast Lady, 2 Red Admirals, and 5 Painted Ladies all near the concrete reservoir.

   Annie Pang sends a photograph of a Western Tiger Swallowtail from Gorge Park, July 16.

Western Tiger Swallowtail Papilio rutulus (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Annie Pang

   We have a few photos in the queue awaiting identification.

2017 July 13​

FROM Gordon Hart

Hello Butterfly Counters,

2017 July 5

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  This will be the last Invert Alert before I start on holiday tomorrow.  If by any chance I should find myself near a computer and can figure out how it works (both of which are very unlikely) I may try and make one or two postings. Otherwise Invert Alert won’t be back in business before July 22.  By all means save up a very few of your most interesting photographs, but please don’t flood me with huge numbers of photographs of our most frequently-photographed insects when I get back!

We start off today with an insect photographed by Ken Vaughan in the Highlands. This has been identified by Claudia Copley and Libby Avis as a caddisfly of the family Leptoceridae, possibly, suggests Libby, of the genus Oecetis

Caddisfly (Tri.: Leptoceridae)  possibly Oecetis sp.

  Ken Vaughan

   Ken also photographed a soldier beetle in the Highlands.  Charlene Wood writes that they are tricky to identify to species, but that this one does look a lot like Podabrus cavicollis.

Soldier beetle, possibly Podabrus cavicollis (Col.: Cantharidae)  Ken Vaughan

Re the VNHS Monthly Butterfly Walk on Sunday July 2, Jeff Gaskin writes:  At Mount Tolmie we had  :  12 Lorquin’s Admirals, 5 Western and 1 Pale Tiger Swallowtails, and the usual Cabbage Whites. On Stelly’s Cross Road Eddy’s Storage we had :   2 Field Crescents, 25 Essex Skippers, and 1 Cabbage White.  At Island View Beach we had  :  9 Lorquin’s Admirals, 1 Purplish Copper, 14 Large Heaths (Ringlets), 1 Painted Lady, and 19 Essex Skippers.  When we returned to Mount Tolmie at 4:30 pm. on the Mount Tolmie reservoir were  :  1 West Coast Lady and 4 Painted Ladies.

Ann Tiplady writes:  Here is a photo from July 2, in my garden.  A crab spider with a dead honey bee, and particularly interesting was the cloud of very small insects buzzing around the dead honey bee.  I was reminded of jackals around lions at a kill, or arctic foxes around a polar bear at a kill.

Goldenrod Crab Spider Misumena vatia (Ara.: Thomisidae)  Ann Tiplady

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  This is the second time recently that we have seen a crab spider overcome a bee (see June 14 evening).  We can see two of the tiny insects.  They are hymenopterans, probably of the Superfamily Chalcidoidea.

Jeremy Tatum sends a photograph of a Common Emerald Moth from his Saanich apartment garden this morning.

 Common Emerald Hemithea aestivaria (Lep.: Geometridae) Jeremy Tatum

Jody Wells sends a bunch of photographs of invertebrates – one of them found on the beach and not strictly terrestrial – but we’ll allow it this time!

Blue Dasher Pachydiplax longipennis (Odo.: Libellulidae) Jody Wells

Blue Dasher Pachydiplax longipennis (Odo.: Libellulidae) Jody Wells

Polyphylla crinita (Col.: Scarabaeidae)  Jody Wells

Polyphylla crinita (Col.: Scarabaeidae)  Jody Wells

Nereis vexillosa (Phyllodocida: Nereididae)  Jody Wells

2017 July 4

   Ken Vaughan  sends a nice collection from Beaver Lake Ponds, July 2.

Bee-like robber fly Laphria asturina/fernaldi (Dip.: Asilidae) Ken Vaughan

Blue-eyed Darner Rhionaeschna multicolor (Odo.: Aeshnidae) Ken Vaughan

Left:  Dot-tailed Whiteface Leucorrhinia intacta (Odo.: Libellulidae)

Right: Western Pondhawk Erythemis collocata (Odo.: Libellulidae)

Ken Vaughan

   And another nice collection from the Highlands:

 Left:  Pasiphila rectangulata (Lep.: Geometridae)

Right:  Tentatively Protitame matilda (Lep.: Geometridae)

Ken Vaughan

 Pasiphila rectangulata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

Enypia packardata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan