INVERTEBRATE ALERT
This blog provides an informal forum for terrestrial invertebrate watchers to post recent sightings of interesting observations in the southern Vancouver Island region. Please send your sightings by email to Jeremy Tatum (tatumjb352@gmail.com). Be sure to include your name, phone number, the species name (common or scientific) of the invertebrate you saw, location, date, and number of individuals. If you have a photograph you are willing to share, please send it along. Click on the title above for an index of past sightings.The index is updated most days.

2022 April 12

2022 April 12

    Rosemary Jorna writes on April 11:  I am happy to report  2 Mourning Cloaks  and 4 commas on the first part of the trail to Grass Lake between the trestle and the dam on Charters Creek.

2022 April 11

2022 April 11

    Jeff Gaskin writes:  Today, April 11, I saw my first of the year Sara Orangetip on Hector Road in Saanich.   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I have yet to see mine.  I tried Munn Road today, but no luck.

2022 April 9

2022 April 9

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  I saw a female Western Spring Azure along the hedge just inland from Island View Beach today, April 9.   This is the first report of the species reported to Invertebrate Alert this year.

2022 April 7

2022 April 7

    Jochen Möhr writes from Metchosin:  For three days now, I had at least one Alucita montana in my house – without being able to take a picture.  Also this morning an Egira curialis.

Egira curialis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jochen Möhr

2022 April 6

2022 April 6

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  Although, as an astronomer, I insist that Spring begins at the moment when the Sun crosses the equator, there are those who believe that Spring is marked by the first appearance of the Orangetip butterfly.  In that case, Spring has arrived, for two were seen and reported yesterday from Mount Douglas Park:

Marie O’Shaughnessy writes:  Despite the wind today, April 5th 2022, this was my first sighting of a Sara Orangetip.   It was seen at the top parking lot of Mount Douglas, attempting to nectar from dandelion.    And Val George writes:  This afternoon, April 5, I saw my first Sara Orangetip (a male) of the season near the playground at Mount Douglas Park. At the same location, there was a Satyr Comma.

 

Sara Orangetip Anthocharis sara (Lep.: Pieridae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Satyr Anglewing Polygonia satyrus (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Val George