{"id":7370,"date":"2018-12-27T12:56:21","date_gmt":"2018-12-27T20:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=7370"},"modified":"2018-12-27T13:20:20","modified_gmt":"2018-12-27T21:20:20","slug":"december-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/?p=7370","title":{"rendered":"December 27"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

2018 December 27<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Jeremy Tatum writes:<\/p>\n

Winter Moths:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Wanted:<\/strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>Best quality photographs of good-condition winter moths<\/strong>, male or female.<\/p>\n

Winter\u00a0 moths (Operophtera <\/em>sp), like so many other insects, are in a state of taxonomic flux.\u00a0\u00a0 At present it seems that there are four named species in North America:<\/p>\n

O. brumata<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>European Winter Moth<\/p>\n

O. bruceata<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Bruce\u2019s Winter Moth<\/p>\n

O. occidentalis<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Western Winter Moth<\/p>\n

O. danbyi<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Danby\u2019s Winter Moth<\/p>\n

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

plus a possible new species in the Santa Catalina Mountains.<\/p>\n

There are additional species in Europe (e.g. O. fagata<\/em>) not (yet?) seen in North America.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 I believe that, in urban and suburban Victoria and the immediate vicinity, almost all of the winter moths are the European Winter Moth O. brumata<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 However, in the surrounding countryside, for example Metchosin and Goldstream Park, in addition to brumata<\/em>, there is another species, which I have hitherto called bruceata<\/em>.\u00a0 It seems, however, that the eastern and western populations of our common native winter moths are best treated as two separate species.\u00a0 True bruceata<\/em> is a species of eastern North America.\u00a0 The one we get here should be called O. occidentalis<\/em>.\u00a0 It may be a while (if at all!) before I can get round to relabellng all \u201cbruceata”<\/em> photographs on Invert Alert as occidentalis<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 We have two photographs in Invert Alert so far of O. danby<\/em>, a relatively uncommon species, which is distinct enough from the others that its identification may be relatively easy.\u00a0 The two danbyi <\/em>photographs were \u00a0both from Goldstream Park \u2013 one by myself (Invert Alert 2012 December 8) and one by Bill Katz (2018 January 17).<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 In the meantime, this morning I went to the Goldsream Park Nature House, where there were hundreds of winter moths around the lights.\u00a0 I believe both species were there.\u00a0\u00a0 Unfortunately, all were males \u2013 the females evidently can\u2019t reach the walls of the Nature House.\u00a0 I took four photographs of males, all of which I believe to be occidentalis<\/em>, before the camera battery ran out.\u00a0 (Isn\u2019t it difficult to get good photographs! So many things to go wrong!)<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 Then, when I got back to the office, I found that Jochen M\u00f6hr had sent two photographs from Metchosin \u2013 one of occidentalis<\/em> and one of brumata<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Western Winter Moth Operophtera occidentalis <\/em> (Lep.: Geometridae)\u00a0 Jeremy Tatum<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Western Winter Moth Operophtera occidentalis <\/em> (Lep.: Geometridae)\u00a0 Jeremy Tatum<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Western Winter Moth Operophtera occidentalis <\/em> (Lep.: Geometridae)\u00a0 Jeremy Tatum<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Western Winter Moth Operophtera occidentalis <\/em> (Lep.: Geometridae) Jeremy Tatum<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Western Winter Moth Operophtera occidentalis <\/em> (Lep.: Geometridae)\u00a0 Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

European Winter Moth Operophtera brumata <\/em> (Lep.: Geometridae)\u00a0 Jochen M\u00f6hr<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

2018 December 27 \u00a0 Jeremy Tatum writes: Winter Moths:\u00a0\u00a0 Wanted:\u00a0 Best quality photographs of good-condition winter moths, male or female. Winter\u00a0 moths (Operophtera sp), like so many other insects, are in a state of taxonomic flux.\u00a0\u00a0 At present it seems that there are four named species in North America: O. brumata\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0European Winter Moth O. […]<\/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-7370","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\/7370","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=7370"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7378,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7370\/revisions\/7378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicnhs.bc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}