{"id":11041,"date":"2020-06-08T15:37:45","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T22:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=11041"},"modified":"2020-06-09T08:47:36","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T15:47:36","slug":"june-8-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=11041","title":{"rendered":"June 8"},"content":{"rendered":"
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2020 June 8<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Jochen M\u00f6hr writes from Metchosin:\u00a0\u00a0 In the corner of the room\u00a0behind\u00a0my computer resides a spider.\u00a0 I presume it is\u00a0Pholcus phalangioides<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 I have watched it for days.\u00a0 At one time it caught a Venusia obsoleta\/pearsalli<\/em>.\u00a0 It took it some 30 minutes to subdue it.\u00a0 Then it consumed it and since\u00a0the next morning, the moth’s remains are in the corner of my desk.<\/p>\n

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Then yesterday, I saw another slightly larger but similar spider with a less rounded abdomen approach across the wall.\u00a0 I presume the newcomer was a male and the well fed resident a female.\u00a0[But see Dr Bennett’s comments below.] The newcomer went directly towards the resident and they started to touch each other with their long front legs.\u00a0 I assumed it was beginning courtship and I was reminded of Mozart’s “Reich mir die Hand, mein Leben!”\u00a0\u00a0 [L\u00e0 ci darem la mano!]<\/p>\n

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But then the resident one turned around and rather speedily went off.\u00a0 It is now under the ceiling some 1 1\/2 meters above the newcomer, who has taken up residence where the other\u00a0used to be.<\/p>\n

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Libby Avis asks: On a less romantic note, is this one of the species where the male has to be careful not to be eaten by the female?\u00a0 Jeremy Tatum replies:\u00a0 Not sure, but recall that on May 11 Jochen had a photograph of one eating the formidable spider Eratigena.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Dr Robb Bennett writes:\u00a0 The one on the right is definitely a mature female. Not so sure about the beast on the left \u2013 could<\/span> be a male but I can’t tell for sure and I think it may “just” be an immature specimen. Males usually look much more spindly.\u00a0 Perhaps Jochen can obtain a close-up of that spider’s head region that would enable us to tell if it’s a mature male.<\/p>\n

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Pholcus phalangioides <\/em>(Ara.: Pholcidae)\u00a0 Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0 But after looking at Jochen’s great movie (link below,\u00a0 set to Mozart’s L\u00e0 ci darem la mano, very rough free translation:\u00a0 “Let us hold hands”,\u00a0 Zerlina on the right, the Don on\u00a0 the left) Robb writes:\u00a0 Well, it certainly looks like courtship behaviour.<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-r4F7CFijxs&t=15s<\/a><\/p>\n

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Mr E sends a picture of a Maritime Earwig <\/strong>having rather a lot of trouble with spider webbing on driftwood at Devonian Park, June 7.<\/p>\n

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Maritime Earwig Anisolabis maritima <\/em>(Derm.: Anisolabididae)\u00a0 Mr E<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 This young grasshopper was photographed by Mr E at Portage Inlet Park.\u00a0\u00a0 Since it’s a youngster, we have to be content with identification at genus level \u2013 thanks to Claudia Copley.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Young grasshopper Melanoplus <\/em>sp. (Orth.: Acrididae) Mr E<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0 This beetle, too, was at Portage Inlet.\u00a0 Scott Gilmore writes:\u00a0 This is a tough angle but I\u2019m pretty sure this is from the genus Agrilus.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Agrilus <\/em>sp. (Col.: Buprestidae)\u00a0 Mr E<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 Jeremy Tatum writes:\u00a0 Chris Jochen sent me the following link to a short spectacular movie showing hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, bats sucking nectar and pollinating plants.\u00a0 Not strictly within the purview of Invert Alert, but I dare say viewers will enjoy it anyway.<\/p>\n

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http:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/xHkq1edcbk4?rel=0<\/a><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2020 June 8 \u00a0 Jochen M\u00f6hr writes from Metchosin:\u00a0\u00a0 In the corner of the room\u00a0behind\u00a0my computer resides a spider.\u00a0 I presume it is\u00a0Pholcus phalangioides.\u00a0 I have watched it for days.\u00a0 At one time it caught a Venusia obsoleta\/pearsalli.\u00a0 It took it some 30 minutes to subdue it.\u00a0 Then it consumed it and since\u00a0the next morning, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-invertebrate-alert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11041"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11047,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11041\/revisions\/11047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}