{"id":2067,"date":"2016-04-12T18:44:13","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T02:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=2067"},"modified":"2016-11-18T10:46:01","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T18:46:01","slug":"april-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=2067","title":{"rendered":"April 12"},"content":{"rendered":"
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2016 April 12<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Rebecca Reader-Lee sends photographs of four moths from North Highlands, April 11.\u00a0 All are members of notoriously tricky pairs, and Jeremy Tatum is grateful to Jeremy Gatten for help with the identifications.\u00a0 It turned out that we agreed on the identification of the first three – Feralia comstocki, Orthosia transparens<\/em><\/strong>, <\/em>and Hypena californica<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em>\u00a0 The fourth is a not-quite-pristine-fresh example of one or other of the very tricky pair Triphosa haesitata \/ Coryphista meadii<\/em><\/strong>, and it turned out that Jeremy opted for one of them and Jeremy opted for the other!\u00a0 So – if anyone else would like to throw his or her hat into the fray and say (with reasons!) which of the two you think it probably is – do please let us know!<\/p>\n

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Feralia comstocki <\/em>(Lep.: Noctuidae)\u00a0 Rebecca Reader-Lee<\/div>\n

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\"\"Orthosia transparens <\/em>(Lep.: Noctuidae)\u00a0 Rebecca Reader-Lee<\/div>\n

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\u00a0Hypena californica <\/em>(Lep.: Erebidae – Hypeninae)\u00a0 Rebecca Reader-Lee<\/p>\n

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Is it Coryphista meadii <\/em>(Lep.: Geometridae)?<\/p>\n

Or is it Triphosa haesitata <\/em>(Lep.: Geometridae)?<\/p>\n

Rebecca Reader-Lee<\/p>\n

We haesitate to say.<\/p>\n

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The next moth, found on April 10 by John Costello in Grant Park, where the path crosses Amblewood Drive, near the top of the Cordova Ridge, and photographed by Chantal Jacques, is a bit easier to identify!\u00a0 It is a female Ceanothus Silk Moth <\/strong>Hyalophora euryalus<\/em><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"\"Ceanothus Silk Moth Hyalophora euryalus <\/em>(Lep.: Saturniidae)\u00a0 Chantal Jacques<\/div>\n

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Jeremy Tatum writes:\u00a0 Here are a moth and a beetle (weevil) from my Saanich apartment, April 12.<\/p>\n

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\"\"Eupithecia ravocostaliata <\/em>(Lep.: Geometridae) Jeremy Tatum<\/p>\n

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Raspberry Weevil Otiorhynchus singularis <\/em> (Col.: Curculionidae)\u00a0 Jeremy Tatum<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0 Jody Wells sends us a bit of a challenge.\u00a0 What is this on the eye of a swan?<\/p>\n

Jeremy Tatum writes:\u00a0 At first glance it looked to me a bit like a collembolan, but in view of its habitat (!), it is almost certainly a biting louse,<\/strong> also known as chewing louse, also known as bird louse (Class Insecta,\u00a0 Order Phthiraptera, probable Family Philopteridae). \u00a0And, for interest, this is not the first time we have had a phthirapteran on this site!\u00a0 We had one on a Northern Saw-whet Owl on December 4, 2011.<\/p>\n

In addition to the challenge of identifying the louse, there is also the challenge of identifying the swan!\u00a0 The picture was taken at Esquimalt Lagoon, where a Trumpeter Swan and a Tundra Swan have been together in close company for some months.\u00a0 There is no doubt that the louse is on the head of the Tundra Swan, and the swan in the background is the Trumpeter Swan.<\/p>\n

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\"\"Biting louse (Phthiraptera) on Tundra Swan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jody Wells<\/div>\n

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Biting louse (Phthiraptera)<\/div>\n

on Tundra Swan<\/p>\n

Jody Wells<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>And, in case any of you were wondering what a \u201ccollembolan\u201d is (see previous paragraph) here is an absolutely remarkable photograph of a collembolan photographed by Thomas Barbin in the Highlands District On April 7, and this is the first collembolan to feature on this site.\u00a0 Collembolans, or springtails<\/span>, are tiny, tiny animals, many of which are found in the soil or in the forest duff.\u00a0 This one is a globular springtail <\/strong>Ptenothrix maculosa<\/em><\/strong>.<\/strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>You\u2019ll notice that I wrote \u201canimal\u201d rather than \u201cinsect\u201d.\u00a0 Springtails were at one time classified as insects, but, as we all know, taxonomy forever changes!\u00a0 It is my understanding that the Phylum Arthropoda now includes a Subphylum Hexapoda, and the Hexapoda contains two Classes, Insecta and Entognatha.\u00a0 So, springtails are no longer insects – they are entognaths!\u00a0 And globular springtails belong to the Order Symphypleona, and the one illustrated below is in the Family Dicyrtomidae. \u00a0At least I think I\u2019ve got that right!\u00a0\u00a0 More pictures from Thomas Barbin tomorrow.\u00a0 Jeremy Tatum.<\/p>\n

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\"\"Ptenothrix maculosa <\/em>(Symphypleona: Dicyrtomidae)\u00a0 Thomas Barbin<\/div>\n

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2016 April 12 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Rebecca Reader-Lee sends photographs of four moths from North Highlands, April 11.\u00a0 All are members of notoriously tricky pairs, and Jeremy Tatum is grateful to Jeremy Gatten for help with the identifications.\u00a0 It turned out that we agreed on the identification of the first three – Feralia comstocki, Orthosia transparens, […]<\/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-2067","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\/2067","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=2067"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3478,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067\/revisions\/3478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}