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.

2021 November 28

2021 November 28

      On November 26 Val George took photographs of several  winter moths Operophtera sp. at Goldstream Park, where three species occur, in the hope of possibly finding O. occidentalis.  I agree with Val, writes Jeremy Tatum, that probably all of the ones photographed are O. brumata, although the first two might marginally just be O. occidentalis.   Just to be safe, I’ll label these two “sp.”

Operophtera sp. (Lep.:  Geometridae)  Val George

 

 

Operophtera sp. (Lep.:  Geometridae)  Val George

 

Operophtera brumata (Lep.:  Geometridae)  Val George

 

Operophtera brumata (Lep.:  Geometridae)  Val George

 

Operophtera brumata (Lep.:  Geometridae)  Val George

     Val also photographed there a noctuid moth, identified for us by Libby Avis as Sunira decipiens.

 Sunira decipiens (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Val George

2021 November 25

2021 November 25

     The butterfly season is well and truly over.  Our last butterfly sighting was on October 31 – we didn’t quite make it into November.   However, Rosemary Jorna sends photos of two arachnoids from near Kemp Lake, November 24.   We can identify the mite to Family level.   Thanks to Thomas Barbin for identifying the spider.

  

Snout mite  (Acari:  Bdellidae)  Rosemary Jorna

 

Jumping spider Phanias albeolus (Ara.: Salticidae)   Rosemary Jorna

2021 November 17

2021 November 17

    Jochen Möhr sends photographs of an upper- and an underside of a Winter Moth from a window of his house in Metchosin, November 16.

Winter Moth Operophtera brumata (Lep: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

 

Winter Moth Operophtera brumata (Lep: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

2021 November 14

2021 November 14

     Jochen Möhr writes, from Metchosin:  After another long hiatus – finally, a Winter Moth on November 12, and an Erannis on November 13:

Winter Moth Operophtera brumata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Erannis vancouverensis/defoliaria  (Lep.: Geomatridae)  Jochen Möhr

2021 November 4 evening

2021 November 4 evening

  As if to emphasize that winter is on its way, in addition to this morning’s European Winter Moth posted by Jeremy Tatum, here is an Erannis vancouverensis/defoliaria  photographed by Val George on the wall of his house in Oak Bay this morning:

 

Erannis vancouverensis/defoliaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Val George

 

Below are four pupae of Noctua pronuba reared from the eggs shown on September 19.

 

Large Yellow Underwing Noctua pronuba (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum