Category: Invertebrate Alert

Jeremy Tatum writes:  Viewers may wonder if Invert Alert is still running, since there hasn’t been a posting since January.  There was a technical hitch during this time which prevented new items from being posted.   Because of this, in April I opened a new site, called Invertebrate Sightings, and continued Invertebrate postings there.  You can find it by typing, at the top of your screen:  invertsight.com

The Invert Alert problem is repaired now, and new items can, in principle, be posted there.  However, I am faced with a choice:  Go back to Invert Alert, or continue with Invert Sightings.  It is a difficult choice:  each has its own advantages, disadvantages and difficulties.   I have decided, at least for the moment, to use the new site, Invert Sightings.  You will, I think, still be able to access Invert Alert, but new postings will be on Invert Sightings.

Nevertheless, I am writing this on May 3, and since Gordon Hart is organizing May’s Butterfly Walk for tomorrow, and you are looking at this page, it is a good opportunity to paste here Gordon’s Notice:

Monthly Butterfly Walk – Message from Gordon Hart:

The first Butterfly Walk of the year will take place this Sunday, May 4. We will meet at the summit of Mount Tolmie by the reservoir at 1 p.m. After a look around for butterflies, we will decide on a destination from there. Car-pooling is encouraged, and we will try to return by 4 p.m. For any changes or updates, check this site, or the VNHS calendar at  https://www.vicnhs.bc.ca/?page_id=1518

2025 January 25

No Invertebrate Alerts were posted on January 22, 23, 24.

   Ian Cooper writes:  I biked over to Clover Point to have “Coffee with the seagulls” this afternoon and, to my complete surprise, I noticed a lady beetle on the wing as I arrived at the shore. I watched it land on a nearby driftwood log, so I grabbed my camera and managed to take some photos and video of it.

Seven-spotted Lady Beetle  Coccinella septempunctata  (Col.: Coccinellidae)   Ian Cooper

Seven-spotted Lady Beetle  Coccinella septempunctata  (Col.: Coccinellidae)   Ian Cooper

2025 January 21

   Barb McGrenere sends a splendid photograph of a cauliflower – with a Large Yellow Underwing caterpillar, which had been feeding on it.

Large Yellow Underwing Noctua pronuba  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Barb McGrenere

Jeremy Tatum sends a photograph of a firebrat from his Saanich apartment.

Firebrat Thermobia domestica  (Thy.:  Lepismatidae)  Jeremy Tatum

2025 January 20

No Invertebrate Alerts were posted on January 18, 19.

Here are some recent invertebrate photographs by Ian Cooper.  All except the first were taken before dawn on January 19, 2025, at *Colquitz River Park and by the #Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal.  The first (Cross Orb-weaver) was taken on January 13.

Cross Orb-weaver Araneus diadematus (Ara.: Araneidae)  Ian Cooper

* A very tiny, almost invisibly small spider, Rugathodes sexpunctatus (Ara.: Theridiidae)
Ian Cooper

# Female Neriene digna (Ara.: Linyphiidae)   Ian Cooper

# Male Neriene digna (Ara.: Linyphiidae)   Ian Cooper

#Unidentified first or second instar noctuid caterpillar (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Ian Cooper

Unidentified nematoceran fly.  Possibly a winter gnat (Dip.: Trichoceridae)
Ian Cooper

* Springtail – Orchesella cincta (Coll.: Orchesellidae)   Ian Cooper

2024 January 17

Here are some pictures from Ian Cooper’s January 17 predawn photo shoot in View Royal.

 Fungus Gnat (Dip.: Mycetophilidae)  Ian Cooper

   Those brown things on the underside of the fern leaf are known technically, I believe (writes Jeremy Tatum) as sori.  Just as we can identify the fly from the patterns of the venation on the wings of the fly, and the tarsal spines, so, in like mien, any botanists watching this will doubtless be able to identify the fern  from the sori.

 Female Pimoa altioculata (Ara.: Pimoidae)   Ian Cooper

Unidentified linyphiid spider (Ara.: Linyphiidae)   Ian Cooper

Snout mite (Acari:  Bdellidae)   Ian Cooper

Pseudoscorpion  (Pseudoscorpiones)   Ian Cooper