{"id":13050,"date":"2020-12-30T16:34:09","date_gmt":"2020-12-31T00:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=13050"},"modified":"2020-12-31T09:57:35","modified_gmt":"2020-12-31T17:57:35","slug":"december-30-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=13050","title":{"rendered":"December 30"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><strong>2020 December 30<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Some frustratingly difficult <strong><em>Operophtera <\/em> <\/strong>(Winter Moth) puzzles from Jochen M\u00f6hr in Metchosin today.\u00a0\u00a0 Are they the native <em>O. occidentalis<\/em>, or the introduced European <em>O. brumata<\/em>?\u00a0\u00a0 Jeremy Tatum writes:\u00a0\u00a0 If the moth is rather uniformly grey or brown and unpatterned, I believe it to be <em>O. brumata<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 <em>O. occidentalis<\/em> is usually heavily patterned \u2013 but <em>O. brumata <\/em>can be heavily patterned, too, so that makes things difficult.\u00a0 However, some well-patterned <em>Operophtera <\/em>have the middle terminal cell darker than the adjacent cells, and this middle terminal cell is often &#8220;grasped&#8221; by a dark <strong>H<\/strong> in the middle of the forewing.\u00a0 This creates an impression of a dark streak from the middle of the forewing to the middle of the outer margin, particularly obvious when viewed from a distance.\u00a0 I believe (though it may need DNA work to be certain) that these are <em>O. occidentalis<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 I have labelled them below as best I can, but cannot guarantee!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" style=\"width: 462px; margin: 5px;\" src=\"file:\/\/\/C:\/Users\/jtatum\/AppData\/Local\/Temp\/msohtmlclip1\/01\/clip_image002.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"pastedImage.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/pastedImage-100.png\" name=\"null\" \/><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Operophtera brumata <\/em>(Lep.: Geometridae)\u00a0 Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" style=\"width: 450px; margin: 5px;\" src=\"file:\/\/\/C:\/Users\/jtatum\/AppData\/Local\/Temp\/msohtmlclip1\/01\/clip_image004.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"pastedImage.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/pastedImage-101.png\" name=\"null\" \/><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Operophtera brumata <\/em>(Lep.: Geometridae)\u00a0 Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" style=\"width: 483px; margin: 5px;\" src=\"file:\/\/\/C:\/Users\/jtatum\/AppData\/Local\/Temp\/msohtmlclip1\/01\/clip_image006.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"pastedImage.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/pastedImage-102.png\" name=\"null\" \/><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Operophtera brumata <\/em>(Lep.: Geometridae)\u00a0 Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" style=\"width: 531px; margin: 5px;\" src=\"file:\/\/\/C:\/Users\/jtatum\/AppData\/Local\/Temp\/msohtmlclip1\/01\/clip_image008.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"pastedImage.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/pastedImage-103.png\" name=\"null\" \/><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Operophtera <\/em>sp.\u00a0 (not sure!)\u00a0 (Lep.: Geometridae)\u00a0 Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" style=\"width: 491px; margin: 5px;\" src=\"file:\/\/\/C:\/Users\/jtatum\/AppData\/Local\/Temp\/msohtmlclip1\/01\/clip_image010.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"pastedImage.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/pastedImage-104.png\" name=\"null\" \/><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Operophtera occidentalis <\/em>(Lep.: Geometridae)\u00a0 Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" style=\"width: 504px; margin: 5px;\" src=\"file:\/\/\/C:\/Users\/jtatum\/AppData\/Local\/Temp\/msohtmlclip1\/01\/clip_image012.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"pastedImage.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/pastedImage-105.png\" name=\"null\" \/><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Operophtera occidentalis <\/em>(Lep.: Geometridae)\u00a0 Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0 And if these aren&#8217;t difficult enough, how about the next one!\u00a0\u00a0 Because it is holding its wings in a more rooflike manner than geometrids usually do, it looked a slightly different shape than a typical winter moth (apparently narrower and more pointy wings), and deceived me into thinking that it was something totally different!\u00a0 Thanks to Jochen M\u00f6hr and Libby Avis for convincing me that it is\u00a0 <em>Operophtera brumata <\/em>again.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" style=\"width: 377px; margin: 5px;\" src=\"file:\/\/\/C:\/Users\/jtatum\/AppData\/Local\/Temp\/msohtmlclip1\/01\/clip_image014.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"pastedImage.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/pastedImage-106.png\" name=\"null\" \/><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Operophtera brumata <\/em>(Lep.: Geometridae)\u00a0 Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p>More puzzles in line for tomorrow!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2020 December 30 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some frustratingly difficult Operophtera (Winter Moth) puzzles from Jochen M\u00f6hr in Metchosin today.\u00a0\u00a0 Are they the native O. occidentalis, or the introduced European O. brumata?\u00a0\u00a0 Jeremy Tatum writes:\u00a0\u00a0 If the moth is rather uniformly grey or brown and unpatterned, I believe it to be O. brumata.\u00a0\u00a0 O. occidentalis is usually [&hellip;]<\/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-13050","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\/13050","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=13050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13058,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13050\/revisions\/13058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}