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.

June 30

2016 June 30

 

   Annie Pang sends a photograph of another bee from Gorge Park – kindly identified by Linc Best as Dianthidium sp.

 

Dianthidium sp. (Hym.:  Megachilidae)  Annie Pang

   Annie also sends photographs of a fly from Gorge Park.  She writes:  This is easily the largest syrphid I have ever seen!  To give perspective, it is on a huge Shasta Daisy.  I have never seen a syrphid this large.  Dr Jeff Skevington writes:  Cool! It is Myathropa florea, a species recently introduced to California from Europe. It is known from British Columbia but it only arrived recently.

 

Myathropa florea (Dip.: Syrphidae)   Annie Pang

Myathropa florea (Dip.: Syrphidae)   Annie Pang

   Annie sends another bee photograph from Gorge Park, June 30. Identified by Linc Best as Mellissodes microsticta.

 

 

  Melissodes microsticta (Hym.: Apidae)   Annie Pang

 

Jeff Gaskin writes:  On Tuesday June 28, there was a single Red Admiral in Outerbridge Park along Royal Oak Avenue near Lochside School.  Down Lochside Drive off Royal Oak Avenue  I as well as the Tuesday Group that I was with saw a Pale Tiger Swallowtail.

 

Jeremy Tatum writes:  I saw a Red Admiral at UVic yesterday (June 29), and, today, a Red Admiral ecloded (emerged) from the chrysalis shown on June 19.  I didn’t manage to photograph it, but I released it at the top of Mount Tolmie, so, if you see an absolutely pristine fresh one there this evening, that will probably be it!

 

 

 

June 29

2016 June 29

 

   Annie Pang sends a photograph of a bombyliid fly, probably Anthrax georgicus, and a bee from Gorge Park, Victoria, June 28.  Thanks to L.R.Best for identification of the bee.

 

Probably Anthrax georgicus (Dip.: Bombyliidae)  Annie Pang

 Melissodes (probably microsticta) (Hym.: Apidae)  Annie Pang

 

 

June 28

2016 June 28

 

   Val George writes:  Yesterday, June 27, there were two Milbert’s Tortoiseshells at the summit of Mt Douglas.  Attached is a photo of one of them.

 

Milbert’s Tortoiseshell Aglais milberti (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Val George

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Here are two Idaea dimidiata that were resting on window panes at UVic today.

 

Idaea dimidiata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

Idaea dimidiata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

 

June 27

2016 June 27

 

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  There have been almost no moths at my apartment porch light for a long time, so I am reduced to photographing a harvestman.  Some people call them “daddy-long-legs” – although this name is used in different parts of the world for other sorts of arachnid or insect, so it is best to call them harvestmen.

 

Harvestman Phalangium opilio (Opiliones:  Phalangiidae)   Jeremy Tatum

 Harvestman Phalangium opilio (Opiliones:  Phalangiidae)   Jeremy Tatum

   Jeremy continues:  Although there was nothing else near our porch light, I found this assassin bug on the window of my living room in Saanich today.  If you see one of these bugs, you would be well advised not to handle it.  They have a reputation for being able to give a painful bite.

 

Assassin bug   Zelus tetracanthus (Hem.: Reduviidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   Val George writes:  Attached is a photo of a Variegated Meadowhawk Sympetrum corruptum I took at the Victoria Golf Course, June 26.

 

Variegated Meadowhawk Sympetrum corruptum (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Val George

   Aziza Cooper writes:   On Sunday, June 26, Moralea Milne and I went to several places looking for butterflies and a moth.

 

Nanaimo River Road, between 9:30 and 10:30am:

Dun Skipper – 1

Pale Tiger Swallowtail – 1

Sylvan Hairstreak – 1

Grey Hairstreak – 2

Fritillary – possibly Hydaspe – 1

Lorquin’s Admiral – 1

 

Notch Hill, off Powder Point Rd. in Nanoose

– search for a Grammia moth was unsuccessful

 

Mount Cokely: Cameron Main to Pass Main to old ski area:

Dun Skipper 1 on lower part of Cameron Main near the Connector

Pale Tiger Swallowtail – 10

Anise Swallowtail – 1

Western Tiger Swallowtail – 5

Comma species – 1 flyby

Fritillary species – 5 flybys

Lorquin’s Admiral – 2

Clodius Parnassian – 7

Silvery Blue

Anna’s Blue

Western Tailed Blue

Sara Orangetip – 6

Persius Duskywing – 1

Arctic Skipper (Carterocephalus palaemon) – 3

Margined White – 3 near the last bridge/trailhead on Pass Main

 

Total species for the day (including Cabbage White along the highway) – 18

 

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

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

 

Sylvan Hairstreak Satyrium sylvinum (Lep.: Lycaenidae) Aziza Cooper

Lepturobosca chrysocoma (Col.: Cerambycidae)  Aziza Cooper

 

June 25

2016 June 25

 

Annie Pang sends a photograph of a young female Blue-eyed Darner from Gorge Park, June 16.  Thanks to Rob Cannings for the identification.

 

Blue-eyed Darner Rhionaeschna multicolor (Odo.: Aeshnidae)  Annie Pang

 

  Jeremy Tatum sends a photograph of a caterpillar of Nycteola cinereana  from near Blenkinsop Lake.  It and its congeners are recognized by the sparse very fine hairs. Usually found on poplar, but this one was on willow.

 

Nycteola cinereana (Lep.: Nolidae)   Jeremy Tatum

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Two Red Admirals at the top of Mount Tolmie at 6:30 pm, June 25.  He continues:  On June 14 and 16 we showed pictures of two species of mite, and I had a clumsy attempt at trying to identify them.  They have now been properly identified by acarologist Heather Proctor, to whom I am most grateful.  To see the correct identifications, scroll to June 14 and 16.