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.

March 21

2015 March 21

 

   Jeremy Tatum sends a photo of another pug, from his Saanich apartment this morning.  He writes:  I consulted Jeremy Gatten on this one, and we both think that it might be Eupithecia annulata, though I don’t think either of us would want to wager his life-savings on it.

 

Probably Eupithecia annulata (Lep.: Geometridae)   Jeremy Tatum

 

  

 

   Bill Katz writes:  Herald of Spring.  This Scoliopteryx libatrix made an appearance at Mattick’s Farm on the first day of Spring.

Herald Moth Scoliopteryx libatrix (Lep.: Erebidae – Scoliopteryginae)

Bill Katz

 

March 20

2015 March 20

 

   Jeremy Gatten writes:  Here’s a boldly marked Eupithecia gilvipennata from my place (Saanichton) yesterday morning.  It’s pretty easy when the tan markings are this strong.

 

Eupithecia gilvipennata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jeremy Gatten

March 19

2015 March 19

 

   Bill Katz sends photos of two interesting geometrids from Goldstream Park this morning.  The first is Thallophaga taylorata, whose caterpillar is reputed to feed on Sword Fern – a foodplant not chosen by many caterpillars.  The second is Anticlea vasiliata.  Both moths are new to this site.

 

  Jeremy Tatum reports his first Alucita montanae from his Saanich apartment this year.

Thallophaga taylorata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Bill Katz

Anticlea vasiliata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Bill Katz

March 18

2015 March 18

 

   Barbara Begg reports a very early Cabbage White from Kersey Road, Central Saanich, February 17.  And a Western Spring Azure (the first we have heard of this year) from Wain Road, Central Saanich, March 14.

 

 

  Jeremy Tatum writes:

 

   I am often given a verbal description of a moth and asked to identify it from the verbal description.  With more than 12,000 moths in North America, this can be quite a challenge.  They are nearly all brown and grey with spots and streaks and blotches.  It helps to know the words to use when giving a description, and how to describe the various markings and where these markings are on the wings.  Thus do you know where to look for a tornal spot, or an antemedial transverse line, or what the costa is, or the claviform stigma?

 

  I have prepared a three-page tract on how to describe the pattern on a moth’s wings, with diagrams showing where these things are, and the apex and the base, and a very few more, with a few diagrams, and a photo of a local noctuid moth nicely showing the reniform, orbicular and claviform stigmata.

 

 Unfortunately my computer skills aren’t up to posting it on this web site (I tried!), and I’m not sure how appropriate it would be anyway.  But if any viewer thinks it might be useful or helpful, let me know (jtatum at uvic.ca) and I’m pretty sure I can email it to you!

March 17

2015 March 17

 

            Jeremy Tatum writes:  I remarked to Scott Gilmore that some of the beetles in his photographs in yesterday’s posting were probably quite small beetles.  Scott replies, confirming this, and sending an even smaller one!  –  “You are right – some of those beetles were very small. 3-4 mm in length for many of them. They do get smaller. I have attached a picture of a member of the Melanophthalma genus (from the Family Latridiidae – Minute Brown Scavenger Beetles). My son and I found that on a Douglas Fir branch on March 13th and it was only 1.7mm long. I know beetles get even smaller but I am yet to find any of those.”

 


Melanophthalma sp. (Col.: Latridiidae) Scott Gilmore