2022 May 2 afternoon

    Mr E sends photographs of a beetle and a spider, and also a miscellany of tiny creatures, some of which are a challenge to identify.

Scott Gilmore kindly identified the beetle as Syneta albida within seconds of my sending him the image.

Female Western Fruit Beetle Syneta albida (Col.: Chrysomelidae)  Mr E

   Scott writes:  It is occasionally this pale but is often a little darker. There are other species in the genus which look very similar but show more colour variation.

Dr Robb Bennett writes about the spider below:  It’s a female philodromid crab spider. Probably in the genus Philodromus (less likely Rhysodromus) and I’ll stick my neck out and guess that it is Philodromus dispar (in British Columbia, a common introduced species with distinctive, easily identified males and somewhat cryptic females.).

Philodromus (probably dispar)  (Ara.: Philodromidae)   Mr E

Jeremy Tatum writes:  I have labelled the following miscellany of tiny creatures with my best wild guesses of what they might be.  If any viewer can help with these, please let us know.

Possibly a thrips     Mr E

Probably a springtail   Mr E

Just possibly a larval case of a coleophorid moth    Mr E

2022 May 2 morning

    May 1 was a lovely spring-like day after a long period with few butterflies, and sandwiched between two wet days, so we were lucky with the VNHS May Butterfly Walk led by Gordon  Hart.   Seven participants came along, and, although there weren’t huge numbers of butterflies, there were far more than we have typically been seeing  earlier this year.  Aziza Cooper kept score, and we totalled 14 individuals of six species.   One of them – the Propertius Duskywing – was a “lifer” for one participant.

On Mount Tolmie:

Cabbage White – 2

Western Brown Elfin – 1

Comma sp. – 1

California Tortoiseshell – 1, very worn

On Christmas Hill:

Sara Orangetip: 8

Propertius Duskywing – 1

California Tortoiseshell Nymphalis californica (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Aziza Cooper

Propertius Duskywing Erynnis propertius (Lep.: Hesperiidae) Aziza Cooper

Western Brown Elfin Incisalia iroides (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Gordon Hart

   Among other insects seen were the wasp and the caterpillar below:

European Paper Wasp Polistes dominula (Hym.: Vespidae)  Aziza Cooper

Winter Moth Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Gordon Hart

Greater Victoria Bioblitz

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I failed in my efforts to include information on the bioblitz in this morning’s Invertebrate Alert.  Here I’ll try and copy some of the text:

    Coming soon is a fantastic opportunity to help inventory the local landscape and track biodiversity in a global bioblitz. From April 29 to May 2 the iNaturalist City Challenge is on and Greater Victoria is participating. For four days, the goal is to record every living thing, anywhere within the Greater Victoria area on land and in the Salish Sea (special call out to underwater photographers!), be it a moss, fish, bird, insect, you name it.  This includes from Port Renfrew up to and including the Gulf Islands (see map). What better group to get on board with this than Victoria Natural History Society members and their friends and families?

Here are a few links:
This is the Greater Victoria Project page where the map is and where you will go to check out our numbers as they grow over the weekend. If you click on and read the “About” portion there are links to information on how to start up in iNaturalist if you are new, plus other general information.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2022-greater-victoria
You don’t need to sign up, everything that you record during this period will be automatically added to the Victoria tally.
 
The overall City Challenge Page is here:
https://citynaturechallenge.org/
It has information about the challenge, other cities participating, past results and ways to start out and get involved. It is easy!  The iNaturalist City Challenge began in 2016 as a “friendly” rivalry between San Francisco and Los Angeles and has now grown to include over 400 cities around the world.  It is a great way for citizens to help collect data on the wild species living in and around our cities, which helps local governments and scientists to better protect local biodiversity.

Good luck!

2022 April 30 morning

 May Butterfly Walk – Notice from Gordon Hart:

 Hello Butterfly Watchers,

We will be having a Butterfly Walk on Sunday, May 1 as described in the VNHS calendar  (https://www.vicnhs.bc.ca/?page_id=1518) 

We will meet at the top of Mount Tolmie by the reservoir, at 1.00 p.m. You can park in the parking lot there, or in the large lot north of the summit. After a look around the summit, we will decide on a destination from there. The weather looks promising, so perhaps we will see you on Sunday.

Gordon Hart,

Butterfly Count Coordinator

Victoria Natural History Society

 Website for Vancouver Island Butterflies

 One problem with large butterfly books on the butterflies of North America, or of Canada, or even of just British Columbia, is that they give accounts of hundreds of species, only a tiny number of which can be seen on Vancouver Island.  Hence we welcome Val George’s website dealing with just the butterflies of Vancouver Island.  This should be of great help to newcomers and experienced butterfly watchers alike. A description of the site is to be found in Victoria Naturalist on page 10 of the 2022 May-June issue.  If my limited skills allow it (writes Jeremy Tatum) you may be able to reach the site by clicking on

https//vancouverislandbutterflies.com/

Greater Victoria Bioblitz

    I have received a notice about a Greater Victoria Bioblitz April 29 – May 2.  I don’t know if my computer skills are up to it, but I’ll try and forward the notice to the Invertebrate Alert site.  Users of this site should be able to contribute records of invertebrates to the Bioblitz.

   Aziza Cooper writes:   Here is a Western Spring Azure from April 29, on Mount Tolmie next to the reservoir.

Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo  (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

  Rosemary Jorna writes from Kemp Lake:  Here are three views to help identify the little jumping spider that helped me to garden, April 29.  Jeremy Tatum writes:  Within seconds of my emailing Thomas Barbin to ask if he could identify it, Thomas replied:  That is an Evarcha sp. jumping spider.  Both E. proszynskii and E. hoyi have been collected on the island.

   Rosemary added:  There was one Cabbage White drifting around the yard.

Evarcha sp.  (Ara.: Salticidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Evarcha sp.  (Ara.: Salticidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Evarcha sp.  (Ara.: Salticidae)  Rosemary Jorna

2022 April 26

    John McClarnon sends photographs of two bumble bees trying to warm up  in the morning on the house wall , April 25 at Hazlitt Creek , Highlands (elevation 220 m) .  Thanks to Gordon Hart for identifying B.vancouverensis.

Bombus vosnesenskii (Hym.: Apidae)  John McClarnon

Bombus vancouverensis (Hym.: Apidae)  John McClarnon

Rosemary Jorna sends photographs of a Western Spring Azure and a Banana Slug from Cube Hill in the Sooke Hills, April 25.

Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Banana Slug  Ariolimax columbianus (Pul.: Arionidae) Rosemary Jorna

Gordon Hart writes from the Highlands: We had a Mourning Cloak again April 25, but nothing different yet.   Cheryl Mackie saw two Propertius Duskywings, nine Sara Orangetips and seven Cabbage Whites on her count from Nicholson Street up and around Christmas Hill April 24.

Barbara McGrenere writes:  This morning (April 25), Mike and I saw a tattered Mourning Cloak on the Blenkinsop Bridge.  We also saw one Cabbage White in our backyard today.