{"id":12231,"date":"2020-09-15T10:03:04","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T17:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=12231"},"modified":"2020-09-28T14:26:51","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T21:26:51","slug":"september-15-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=12231","title":{"rendered":"September 15 morning"},"content":{"rendered":"
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2020 September 15 morning<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jeremy Tatum writes:<\/p>\n

The name Hemlock Looper <\/strong>has been in the news recently, so I thought I’d try to figure out what is what.\u00a0 In natural history circles we generally don’t give English names to caterpillars (“woolly bears” being a notable exception); we prefer to name a moth after its adult form.\u00a0 Also, we generally don’t give special names to subspecies \u2013 or, if we do, we put the English subspecific names in “quotes”.\u00a0\u00a0 In forestry circles it is perhaps understandably more usual to name species after their caterpillars \u2013 hence the various “hemlock loopers”.\u00a0 Following are the forestry English names and the scientific names of the various “hemlock loopers”:<\/p>\n

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Hemlock Looper\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lambdina fiscellaria fiscellaria<\/em><\/p>\n

Western Hemlock Looper\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Lambdina fiscellaria lugubrosa<\/em><\/p>\n

Western Oak Looper\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lambdina fiscellaria somniaria<\/em><\/p>\n

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False Hemlock Looper\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Nepytia canosaria<\/em><\/p>\n

Western False Hemlock Looper\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nepytia freemani<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Phantom Hemlock Looper\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Nepytia phantasmaria<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Note the slight inconsistency in that in Lambdina <\/em>\u00a0the word “Western” is used for a subspecies, whereas is Nepytia<\/em> it is used for a full species.\u00a0 It might be better to write Lambdina fiscellaria lugubrosa <\/em>as the “Western” Hemlock Looper, to indicate that it is just a subspecies.<\/p>\n

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I don’t think we get Lambdina fiscellaria fiscellaria<\/em> or Nepytia canosaria<\/em> on Vancouver Island;\u00a0 I am not sure about Nepytia freemani<\/em>.\u00a0 We certainly get Lambdina fiscellaria <\/em>(presumably lugubrosa<\/em>) and Nepytia phantasmaria<\/em> on Vancouver Island.<\/p>\n

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The moth that we have been seeing a lot of on Vancouver Island in the last week or so is Nepytia phantasmaria.<\/em>\u00a0 <\/em>The one that has been seen recently in large numbers on the Lower Mainland, and in today’s Times-Colonist<\/em>, is Lambdina fiscellaria<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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So far this year, Invertebrate Alert hasn’t received any reports of Lambdina fiscellaria<\/em>.\u00a0 This cannot last \u2013 I’m sure we’ll get some sightings soon.\u00a0 \u00a0I have never seen it in vast numbers near Victoria, but Ren Ferguson reported and photographed huge numbers of the caterpillars of this species on\u00a0 oaks (and therefore presumably L.f.\u00a0somniaria<\/em>) on Salt Spring Island on 2011 September 13.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>In the meantime, here are a few invertebrates from the Galloping Goose Trail between the Switch Bridge junction and Tillicum Road, photographed by Ian Cooper, September 1 -10.<\/p>\n

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Yellow Woolly Bear Spilosoma virginica <\/em>(Lep.: EDrebidae \u2013 Arctiinae)\u00a0 Ian Cooper<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Crane Fly Tipula paludosa <\/em>(Dip.: Tipulidae)\u00a0 Ian Cooper<\/p>\n

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Harvestman Phalangium opilio <\/em>(Opi.: Phalangiidae)\u00a0 Ian Cooper<\/p>\n


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Pennisetia marginata <\/em>(Lep.: Sesiidae) (Male on left)\u00a0 Ian Cooper<\/p>\n


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Eristalis arbustorum\/brousii <\/em>(Dip.: Syrphidae)\u00a0 Ian Cooper<\/p>\n

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

  2020 September 15 morning \u00a0 Jeremy Tatum writes: The name Hemlock Looper has been in the news recently, so I thought I’d try to figure out what is what.\u00a0 In natural history circles we generally don’t give English names to caterpillars (“woolly bears” being a notable exception); we prefer to name a moth after […]<\/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-12231","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\/12231","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=12231"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12367,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12231\/revisions\/12367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}