2024 May 7

Hello hello! It’s almost time for the insect bioblitz in the Garry Oak Meadows at Uplands Park & Cattle Point.

I have some details to share with you.

1. FOOD & DRINKS! We will have refreshments for participants on Saturday between 12-2 at the picnic area in the grassy field on Beach Drive, across from the Uplands entrance. So look for insects before or after & join us for a break and social time.
2. Parking. Park at Cattle Point in the upper or lower lot, or along Beach Drive on either side of the road. DO NOT put one wheel on the curb to try to save space in the road. You may think you are being considerate of drivers, but you may get a ticket.
3. Tread Lightly. It is the height of the bloom of camas and other wildflowers; others may be just starting to emerge from the ground. Uplands Park is home to endangered species. Please be careful where you step and try to keep to the trails and/or walk on the rocks as much as possible.
4. Night access. We have permission from Oak Bay Parks to be at the park at night. So feel free to set up black lights.
5. YOU’RE INVITED! As part of World Migratory Bird Day’s theme: Protect Insects, Protect Birds, we welcome you to join us on a free guided bird walk led by Geoffrey and David Newell on Sunday at 4 pm, with a focus on insectivores. Meet at the park entrance at Dorset Rd and Lincoln St. Parking available there and along Dorset.
6. PRIZES. We will have prizes for the most insect species observed in iNaturalist, the most insects identified in iNat, and a Judge’s choice award for best photo and/or coolest observation.
7. SHARE! Bring a friend, tell a friend, make a friend. Feel free to use this Journal to make plans and let others know when you will be heading to the park. We hope this will be a place where we can come together as a community to share and learn from one another.
8. Questions? Feel free to be in touch with me (Stephanie) through iNaturalist or by email: srweinstein2@gmail.com

Posted on May 07, 2024 11:21 PM by srweinstein | 0 comments | Leave a comment

4 day countdown to insect bioblitz

Hello iNatters, Entomophiles & Garry Oak ecosystems-Kwetlal food system afficionados,

Friends of Uplands Park is happy to host another insect bioblitz at Uplands Park & Cattle Point. The Garry oak meadows are in their wildflower glory, beaconing all the pollinators and other insect visitors. And if that weren’t enough of a reason – it is also World Migratory Bird Day with this year’s theme being “Protect Insects, Protect Birds”: https://www.migratorybirdday.org/conservation-theme/ highlighting the critical importance of insects to birds. (And to everything and everyone, really.) So come celebrate flowers & birds as well as the amazing insect diversity with this insect bioblitz that will help us to understand insect diversity through the seasons in the Garry Oak ecosystems. We will have prizes! And a community hub/food table reception & more! Details to follow soon.

Hope to see you soon!

Stephanie
srweinstein2@gmail.com

Note from Jeremy Tatum.  All who are interested in insects are invited to take part in this Insect Bioblitz.   Remember, however, that identifications are expected to be research level reliability, so please don’t submit long lists of unidentified insects or identifications you are not sure of.  If you have a good photograph (high resolution, showing fine details) of insects you are unsure of, I can try to identify it or find someone who can, though I may not have time to deal with large numbers of such photographs.

Jeremy Tatum sends a photograph of a young (third instar?) caterpillar of a snout moth, Hypena californica, from nettle near Blenkinsop Lake.

Hypena  californica  (Lep.: Erebidae – Hypeninae)  Jeremy Tatum

      Following are a varied collection of invertebrates photographed by Ian Cooper in the last couple of nights.

Male Earwig  Forficula auricularia (Derm.: Forficulidae)   Ian Cooper

The female earwig has straight cerci.

The next insect is obviously an earwig, and presumably a young F. auricularia.  But, writes Jeremy Tatum, I am not sufficiently familiar with earwigs to be certain that it is not some other species.

Earwig (Derm.: Forficulidae)   Ian Cooper

Probably female  Dung Fly Scathophaga stercoraria  (Dip.: Scathophagidae)  Ian Cooper

Dr Philip Bragg identified the harvestmen below for us.

Protolophus sp. (Opiliones:  Protolophidae)   Ian Cooper

Left:   Oniscus asellus (Isopoda: Oniscidae)
Centre:  Lauria cylindracea– (Pul.: Lauriidae)
Right:  probably Protolophus niger (Opiliones:  Protolophidae)
Behind the camera:  Ian Cooper

Limax maximus   (Pul.: Limacidae)  Ian Cooper

Of the slug below,  Robert Forsyth writes:  It’s Prophysaon.  I think it is a pale form of P. foliolatum.

Prophysaon (probably foliolatum) (Pul.: Arionidae)  Ian Cooper

Armidillidium vulgare  (Isopoda: Armadillidiidae)  Ian Cooper

Black Vine Weevil Otiorhynchus sulcatus (Col.: Curculionidae)  Ian Cooper

Non-biting midge (Dip.: Chironomidae)  Ian Cooper

2024 May 6

Ian Cooper sends a photograph of a crane fly at Colquitz River Park.  Ian writes:  I came across this fascinating scene of a crane fly with its mouth parts directly on a leaf’s damp surface, apparently seeking to draw moisture from it.

Crane fly  (Dip.: Tipulidae)  Ian Cooper

Earthworms are apparently preyed upon not only by Robins.  Yesterday we showed one of Ian’s pictures of an earthworm apparently being dragged out of its burrow by a beetle.  Today we show Ian’s pictures of one apparently being eaten alive at one end by a harvestman.   Dr Philip Bragg writes:  The harvestmen are Protolophus species. Only P. niger has been named in BC. This does not look like P. niger, which is a very dark-looking harvestman. The genus Protolophus is in need of revision. Harvestmen are known to attack earthworms. The digestive enzymes from the harvestman are really beginning to digest the worm. I do not know how the harvestman subdued the worm since they do not possess poison glands.  Please congratulate Ian for these excellent clear, detailed photos.

Harvestman Protolophus sp. (Opiliones: Protolophidae)  with earthworm.   Ian Cooper

Harvestman Protolophus sp. (Opiliones: Protolophidae)  Ian Cooper

2024 May 5

  Gordon Hart sends photographs of a Painted Lady butterfly and a Bumble Bee from Mount Tolmie, May 4.  We thank Steven Roias for identifying the bumble bee as a queen Bombus fervidus californicus.

 Painted Lady Vanessa cardui  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Gordon Hart

Queen Bombus fervidus californicus  (Hym.: Apidae)  Gordon Hart

Ian Cooper sends a photograph of a chironomid midge carrying two water mite larvae.  Dr Heather Proctor writes:  Indeed, a chironomid, sporting a couple of parasitic water mite larvae (Prostigmata: Hydrachnidiae). I can’t identify them any more finely than that, as members of a few water mite superfamilies have chironomids as hosts.

Non-biting midge (Dip.: Chironomidae) with
parasitic water mite larvae (Prostigmata: Hydrachnidiae)
Ian Cooper

Ian also sends photographs of two beetles and a springtail.  We thank Scott Gilmore for confirming Ian’s correct tentative identification of the beetles.   Like the midge above, one of the beetles carries two mites.  Dr Proctor says Order Mesostigmata.  The beetle is a snail-eating beetle, although on this occasion it is having earthworm for supper.

Scaphinotus angusticollis (Col.: Carabidae)  Ian Cooper

Left: Hairy Spider Weevil Barypeithes pellucidus (Col.: Curculionidae)
Right:  Globose springtail, probably Ptenothrix sp. (Coll.: Dicyrtomidae)
Ian Cooper

Two more from Ian – a spider and a slug.  First,  a folding-door spider at its burrow entrance – Antrodiaetus pacificus (Mygalomorphae)

Antrodiaetus pacificus (Ara. – Myg:   Antrodiaetidae)

Arion subfuscus (Pul.: Arionidae)   Ian Cooper

2024 May 3 evening

Ian Cooper writes:  Here are six invertebrate pictures taken very early this morning, May 03 2024, starting before dawn at Colquitz River Park and the Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal. The bee picture was taken by the Selkirk Trestle on my way back, when the sun was up.

Bombus melanopygus (Hym.: Apidae)  Ian Cooper

Probably Dicyphus discrepans (Hem.: Miridae)   Ian Cooper

Euceratia sp.  (Lep.: Ypsolophidae)  Ian Cooper
E. castella  is the most abundant species here.  E. securella is another possibility.

Limax maximus  (Pul.: Limacidae) Ian Cooper

Tetragnatha versicolor (Ara.: Tetragnathidae)  Ian Cooper

Aziza Cooper writes:  On Mount Douglas west slope today, May 3, I found 6 Western Spring Azures, 3 Propertius Duskywings and two Sara Orangetips. At Gore Park, there were at least 6 Western Spring Azures.  [This is the first report that Invert Alert has had of a Propertius Duskywing this year.]

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

Sara Orangetip Anthocharis sara (Lep.: Pieridae)  Aziza Cooper

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

2024 May 3 morning

   Note to photographers.  If you work from a PC, and if it is convenient for you, please send photographs to Invert Alert as an attachment and as a .jpg or .jpeg extension.   If you send it in some other form, I can sometimes figure out how to handle it, but I am not a computer expert, and it may take me quite a long while to do so.  I think there are just two contributors working from a Mac at the moment.  Please continue to do what you at present do.

  Marie O’Shaughnessy writes, May 2:A visit to Maber Flats revealed early afternoon at 1.15pm,
1 Mourning Cloak
6 Cabbage Whites
1 Western Spring Azure

At Gore Park, there were at 1.10pm
5 Western Spring Azures
1 Cabbage White 

At Mount Tolmie at 5.30pm,
1 California Tortoiseshell, a brief put down on the reservoir and then disappeared
A Painted Lady that settled briefly on my sleeve and was then  gone.
1 Western Spring Azure.

There was one dragonfly, hanging  off a cone high up in a fir tree near the Jeffrey Pine at the summit of Mt. Tolmie. It was basking in the late afternoon sun.

Aziza Cooper writes:

May 2, there was a dragonfly and a California Tortoiseshell at the reservoir on Mount Tolmie at about 6 pm.

Jeremy Tatum writes:  Although there have been a few reports of Pacific Forktail damselflies this year, this is the first report we have received of a true dragonfly (Suborder Anisoptera).   It looks as if Marie and Aziza have found the same individual!

California Darner Rhionaeschna californica (Odo.: Aeshnidae)  Aziza Cooper

California Darner Rhionaeschna californica (Odo.: Aeshnidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

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

Cabbage White Pieris rapae (Lep.: Pieridae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy