{"id":1968,"date":"2016-03-25T14:52:35","date_gmt":"2016-03-25T22:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=1968"},"modified":"2016-10-12T15:54:47","modified_gmt":"2016-10-12T22:54:47","slug":"march-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=1968","title":{"rendered":"March 25"},"content":{"rendered":"
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2016 March 25<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Libby Avis sends photographs of a moth and two beetles from Alberni.\u00a0\u00a0 The moth is Semioscopis <\/em><\/strong>sp.<\/strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>Libby says there are three possible species, and that they require dissection to be sure of the species.\u00a0 Jeremy Tatum notes that taxonomy of all organisms seems to change at a bewildering rate, and that this and similar moths, including the familiar Depressaria pastinacella <\/em>and Agonopterix alstroemeriana<\/em>, were formerly included in the Family Oecophoridae, but the group has now been given a new Family name, Depressariidae.<\/p>\n

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\"\"Semioscopus <\/em>sp. (Lep.:\u00a0 Depressariidae)\u00a0\u00a0 Libby Avis<\/div>\n

Libby writes that the next image is Rathvon\u2019s Ladybeetle<\/em><\/strong>, found on March 20 at the McLean Hill.\u00a0 She writes: It\u2019s pretty big for a ladybird – this one was 12 mm. [Jeremy comments:\u00a0 Have a look at a ruler – you\u2019ll agree that that\u2019s large!]\u00a0 Libby continues: It\u2019s been reported from elsewhere on the island, but it\u2019s the first time we\u2019ve seen it in the Alberni valley.<\/p>\n

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\"\"Anatis rathvoni <\/em>(Col.:\u00a0 Coccinellidae)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Libby Avis<\/div>\n

Libby\u2019s third photograph is\u00a0 T<\/em><\/strong>hanatophilus lapponicus<\/em><\/strong>, the Northern Carrion Beetle<\/strong>, found at Rathtrevor Provincial Park on March 18th<\/sup>. She was able to identify this one thanks to Scott Gilmore\u2019s photo on Bug Guide.<\/p>\n

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T<\/em>hanatophilus lapponicus<\/em>\u00a0 <\/em> (Col.: \u00a0Silphidae)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Libby Avis<\/div>\n

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There have been few reports of butterflies, though Virginia Miller reported to Aziza Cooper that she had seen an anglewing (comma)<\/strong> in Goward Park, Cadboro Bay on March 16.\u00a0\u00a0 Annie Pang saw two Cabbage Whites<\/strong> in Gorge Park Community Gardens on March 23. She closely watched and photographed the interesting behaviour of one of them, a female, which perched with raised abdomen.\u00a0 She writes:\u00a0 I am assuming that she has already laid her eggs and is trying to discourage further mating or is about to lay eggs.\u00a0 In this correct?\u00a0 Cris Guppy responds:\u00a0 The female was indeed trying to discourage males from mating with her. She raised her abdomen to release pheromones that ‘turn off’ the male’s interest in mating. I once had a laboratory colony of Cabbage Whites, and found that I if I had many females in a cage with males there would be a very low rate of mating. The first couple of females that mated would turn off all the rest of the males in the cage, and the rest of the females would not get mated with. All the Pieris<\/em> and Pontia <\/em>species do this (probably orangetips and marbles as well, but I am not sure).<\/p>\n

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\"\"Cabbage White Pieris rapae <\/em>(Lep.: Pieridae)\u00a0\u00a0 Annie Pang<\/p>\n

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Cabbage White Pieris rapae <\/em>(Lep.: Pieridae)\u00a0\u00a0 Annie Pang<\/div>\n

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Jeremy Tatum writes that he has either been confined to the classroom (with some excellent students) or to bed (with a miserable cold), and hasn\u2019t seen many invertebrates recently, though a bunch of organic Brussels sprouts from the grocery store produced a nice crop of Diamondback Moths<\/strong>.\u00a0 The first photograph is of one with unusual markings and colour, which had me guessing at first, but Eric LaGasa and I agree that it is probably a Diamondback Moth.\u00a0 The other two photographs show dorsal and lateral views of more typical individuals.\u00a0 The little blob of liquid near the third one is meconium from a newly-ecloded individual.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 Plutella xylostella <\/em>(Lep.: Plutellidae)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jeremy Tatum<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Plutella xylostella <\/em>(Lep.: Plutellidae)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jeremy Tatum<\/p>\n

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Plutella xylostella <\/em>(Lep.: Plutellidae)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jeremy Tatum<\/div>\n

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2016 March 25 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Libby Avis sends photographs of a moth and two beetles from Alberni.\u00a0\u00a0 The moth is Semioscopis sp.\u00a0 Libby says there are three possible species, and that they require dissection to be sure of the species.\u00a0 Jeremy Tatum notes that taxonomy of all organisms seems to change at a bewildering rate, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1968","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\/1968","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=1968"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3360,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions\/3360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}