{"id":4020,"date":"2017-04-28T16:47:05","date_gmt":"2017-04-28T23:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=4020"},"modified":"2017-04-28T16:54:15","modified_gmt":"2017-04-28T23:54:15","slug":"april-28-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=4020","title":{"rendered":"April 28"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><strong>2017 April 28<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/strong>Thomas Barbin took the photographs below of a <strong>robber fly  <\/strong>in the Highlands District on April 24.&nbsp; We are grateful to Rob Cannings for identifying it as a female  <strong><em>Nicocles canadensis<\/em><\/strong><strong>.<\/strong><strong>&nbsp; <\/strong>  Rob notes that Saanich is the type locality.&nbsp; That is, the individual specimen from which the species was originally formally described was taken in Saanich.&nbsp; If in doubt as to the identity of a robber fly that looks like this one, that Saanich type specimen   is the original definitive specimen with which other specimens must ultimately be compared.&nbsp; Those of us who live in Saanich can now take pride in our famous municipality.&nbsp; Perhaps this fly should replace the introduced and all-but-disappeared pheasant on   the Saanich coat-of-arms, and the Saanich Latin motto <em>Populo serviendo <\/em>  could be replaced with <em>Nicocles canadensis<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" originalheight=\"1280\" originalwidth=\"1920\" name=\"\" title=\"Asilidae 2.jpg\" height=\"396.26666666666665\" width=\"594.4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Asilidae-2.jpg\">  <\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 5px;\" class=\"\" alt=\"\" src=\"file:\/\/\/F:\/DOCUME%7E1\/tatum\/LOCALS%7E1\/Temp\/msohtml1\/01\/clip_image002.jpg\">Robber fly  <em>Nicocles canadensis <\/em>(Dip.: Asilidae)&nbsp; Thomas Barbin<\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" originalheight=\"1280\" originalwidth=\"1920\" name=\"\" title=\"Asilidae.jpg\" height=\"396.26666666666665\" width=\"594.4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Asilidae.jpg\">  <\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;Robber fly <em>Nicocles canadensis <\/em>(Dip.: Asilidae)&nbsp; Thomas Barbin<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; Annie Pang sends a picture of a <strong>Two-spotted Ladybird<\/strong> from Gorge Park, April 24.<\/p>\n<p>  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" originalheight=\"733\" originalwidth=\"949\" name=\"\" title=\"Adalia.jpg\" height=\"459.10979978925184\" width=\"594.4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Adalia.jpg\">  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;Two-spotted Ladybird <em>Adalia bipunctata <\/em>(Col.: Coccinellidae)&nbsp; Annie Pang<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; Jeremy Tatum writes: I have just spent two hours in the Pike Lake Substation area of Munn Road, determined to spot  <em>Epirrhoe plebeculata <\/em>ovipositing &#8211; but I didn&#8217;t see a single moth.&nbsp; And as for butterflies, in&nbsp; two hours I saw one  <strong>Sara Orangetip<\/strong> and one <strong>Western Spring Azure<\/strong>.&nbsp; This continuing lack of butterflies is astonishing.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp; On a more positive note, a message has just come in from Mike Yip of Nanoose Bay, who writes:&nbsp;  <strong>Western Pine Elfins<\/strong> are finally flying on Cross Road, and they aren&#8217;t wasting any time. (Neither are the  <strong>bee flies<\/strong>.)&nbsp;Also seen was one <strong>Western Brown Elfin<\/strong> and several fly-by probable  <strong>Western Spring Azures.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" originalheight=\"600\" originalwidth=\"900\" name=\"\" title=\"pine elf.jpg\" height=\"396.26666666666665\" width=\"594.4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/pine-elf.jpg\">  <\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 5px;\" class=\"\" alt=\"\" src=\"file:\/\/\/F:\/DOCUME%7E1\/tatum\/LOCALS%7E1\/Temp\/msohtml1\/01\/clip_image008.jpg\">Western Pine Elfins  <em>Incisalia eryphon <\/em>(Lep.: Lycaenidae)&nbsp; Mike Yip<\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" originalheight=\"600\" originalwidth=\"900\" name=\"\" title=\"bee flies.jpg\" height=\"396.26666666666665\" width=\"594.4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/bee-flies.jpg\">  <\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;Bee flies <em>Bombylius major <\/em>(Dip.: Bombyliidae)&nbsp; Mike Yip<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; And in case any of you are wondering what <strong><em>Epirrhoe plebeculata<\/em><\/strong> is &#8211; the one I keep saying I am wanting to see ovipositing &#8211; Mike conveniently sends a photograph:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" originalheight=\"600\" originalwidth=\"900\" name=\"\" title=\"plebec.jpg\" height=\"396.26666666666665\" width=\"594.4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/plebec.jpg\">  <\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 5px;\" class=\"\" alt=\"\" src=\"file:\/\/\/F:\/DOCUME%7E1\/tatum\/LOCALS%7E1\/Temp\/msohtml1\/01\/clip_image012.jpg\"><em>Epirrhoe plebeculata  <\/em>(Lep.: Geometridae)&nbsp; Mike Yip<\/div>\n<p>  <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2017 April 28 &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Thomas Barbin took the photographs below of a robber fly in the Highlands District on April 24.&nbsp; We are grateful to Rob Cannings for identifying it as a female Nicocles canadensis.&nbsp; Rob notes that Saanich is the type locality.&nbsp; That is, the individual specimen from which the species was originally [&hellip;]<\/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-4020","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\/4020","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=4020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}