2024 July 2 morning

Jeremy Tatum shows two moths from his Saanich apartment building today:

Malacosoma californica (Lep.: Lasiocampidae)  Jeremy Tatum

Identification uncertain, probably Eudonia echo (Lep.: Crambidae)
Jeremy Tatum

2024 July 1 evening
On June 30, Marie O’Shaughnessy saw, at Swan Lake:

4  Cardinal Meadowhawks
2 Common Green Darners
2 Blue-eyed Darners
1 Western Pondhawk
12 Blue Dashers mostly male
6  Lorquin’s Admirals
2 Western Tiger Swallowtails
1 Cabbage White
1 European Paper Wasp

And on Mount Tolmie

3 Red Admirals all seen together at one point
2  Western  Tiger Swallowtails
No Painted (or West Coast) Ladies

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Lorquin’s Admiral Limenitis lorquini  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Lorquin’s Admiral Limenitis lorquini  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Cardinal Meadowhawk Sympetrum illotum (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Blue Dasher Pachydiplax longipennis  (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Jeremy Tatum writes:  I tried to persuade Dr Rob Cannings not to spend a lot of his time in the difficult task of tying to identify a dragonfly exuvia, but he gave us a good chunk of his time anyway.  Dr Cannings writes of the exuvia below:  It looks like Libellulidae, but the exuviae of some Corduliidae can be very similar. The structure of the labium is important and can’t be seen well here, except to separate these families from others. The shape of the head in exact dorsal view is useful as are the size/presence/absence of lateral and dorsal spines – especially in identifying genera and species. But you have to have awfully good views of these characters, and photographs usually are not clear enough.

Dragonfly exuvia (Odonata)   Marie O’Shaughnessy

And, by the way, Latin scholars, we do know that the word “exuviae”  is not used in the singular in classical Latin, but we badly need a word to describe cast skins such as the ones above, so entomologists have agreed to call such a skin an exuvia, which we hope will not cause undue damage or inconvenience to anyone.  “Exuviae” means “spoils” (e.g. of war); the English word, like the Latin, is not generally used in the singular, either.

European Paper Wasp  Polistes dominula (Hym.: Vespidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

2024 July 1 Canada Day morning

   Ian Cooper writes:  Here are some photos taken by the E&N trail in the early Sunday evening, June 30, while it was still quite light out.

Bombus vosnesenskii (Hym.: Apidae)  Ian Cooper

Bombus vosnesenskii (Hym.: Apidae)  Ian Cooper

Honey Bee Apis mellifera (Hym.: Apidae)  Ian Cooper

Western Blood-red Lady Beetle – Cycloneda polita (Col.: Coccinellidae)  Ian Cooper

Seven-spotted Lady Beetle – Coccinella septempunctata (Col.: Coccinellidae)
Ian Cooper

Larva of an Asian Ladybeetle – Harmonia axyridis (Col.: Coccinellidae)  Ian Cooper
Although there is a Seven-spotted Lady Beetle in the background at the bottom
of the photograph,  the larva on the flower is that of Harmonia axyridis

The photograph below shows two crane flies apparently in copula, but there seems to have been an accident and one of them died (a long time ago) and remains attached.

Crane flies (Dip.: Tipulidae)  Ian Cooper

2024 June 30 afternoon

Colias alert!  Ron Flower writes:  Today, Sunday June 30, we spent half an hour chasing a sulphur butterfly around McIntyre Pond and fields.  Probably an Orange Sulphur but could not get a pic. It’s the earliest I have seen one.

Milbert alert!  Aziza Cooper writes:  Today, June 30, there was one Milbert’s Tortoiseshell at Swan Lake along the path near Saanich Road.  Photographs were obtained, which we hope can be shown in the next posting.  There were also five  Essex Skippers and one Western Tiger Swallowtail.

Jochen Möhr sends a photograph from Metchosin of a White Satin Moth, unfortunately out of the reach of the tripod mounted camera.

Male Leucoma salicis   (Lep.: Erebidae – Lymantriinae)   Jochen Möhr

Scott Gilmore sends a photograph of a net-winged beetle Dictyoptera simplicipes from Paradise Meadows in Strathcona Provincial Park yesterday June 29.

Dictyoptera simplicipes  (Col.: Lycidae)  Scott Gilmore

Ian Cooper writes:   Here’s another selection of pics from my June 28 pre-dawn / early morning photo shoot at *Colquitz River Park in Saanich & the #Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal.

Enoplognatha ovata (Ara.: Theridiidae)   Ian Cooper

Protolophus niger (Opiliones:  Protolophidae)  Ian Cooper

Common Rough Woodlouse – Porcellio scaber (Isopoda: Porcellionidae)   Ian Cooper

Common Striped Woodlouse – Philoscia muscorum (Isopoda: Oniscidae)   Ian Cooper

2024 June 30 morning

   Ian Cooper photographed these two ants along the Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal on June 28:

Western Black Carpenter Ant  Camponotus modoc (Hym.: Formicidae)   Ian Cooper

Red Carpenter Ant – Camponotus vicinus (Hym.: Formicidae)   Ian Cooper

Gordon Hart photographed this fly in the Highlands on June 27 at 1/3200 of a second.   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I suppose I might have been able to identify this fly by a careful and minute examination of its iridescent green eyes and the details of its wing venation – but none of that was necessary.  At the moment that I set eyes on the creature I felt the immediate and intense emotion of FEAR, and I knew immediately that this was a fly in the Family Tabanidae.  I have had this reaction of fear of tabanids all my life; it is unmistakable.  Tabanids include such flies as horse flies, deer flies, stouts, clegs.  They eat humans – alive.   Dr Rob Cannings identifies this one as Hybomitra sp.   H. distinguenda looks rather similar to this one, but Hybomitra is a large genus including several rather similar-looking flies, so we’ll leave it as Hybomitra sp.

Hybomitra  sp. (Dip.: Tabanidae)  Gordon Hart