2021 April 9

   It is still a wee bit cold for many moths and other insects, but Jochen Möhr got a few at his new house in Metchosin last night.  First, a nematoceran fly.  The choice is most probably between Tipulidae and Trichoceridae.   For gnats like these, it is sometimes helpful for a very close-up of the top of the head and the top of the thorax. 

Nematoceran gnat, probably Trichoceridae or Tipulidae

Jochen Möhr

Emmelina monodactyla (Lep.: Pterophoridae)  Jochen Möhr

Emmelina monodactyla (Lep.: Pterophoridae)  Jochen Möhr

Eupithecia ravocostaliata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Eupithecia ravocostaliata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Pleromelloida conserta (Lep.: Noctuidae)   Jochen Möhr

2021 April 6

   Mr E sends a photograph of an ant of the genus Formica.  These are known as wood ants or thatcher ants.  They are the ants that make nests of huge piles of fir needles, small twigs,  etc.

Formica sp.  (Hym.: Formicidae)  Mr E

2021 April 5 evening

   Val George writes:  It looks as though the butterfly season has really started.  Today, April 5, I saw a Sara Orangetip and two Cabbage Whites, and one of the two birders with me today saw a Mourning Cloak yesterday.  The Sara Orangetip was at Fort Rodd Hill and the Mourning Cloak was at Macaulay Point.

   Kirsten Mills writes:  Jeff Gaskin and I went today, April 5th, to Mount Tolmie. On the summit, at around 4:15pm, we had a California Tortoiseshell. Here is a picture. My first photograph of a butterfly with my new camera. 

California Tortoiseshell Nymphalis californica (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Kirsten Mills

2021 April 5 morning

    Yesterday we had a question about the viability of some moth eggs.  Here, today, is the answer to that question.

Sheep Moth Hemileuca eglanterina (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Jeremy Tatum

   And here are more creatures from the Galloping Goose Trail and Colquitz River Park:

Possibly a crane fly (Dip.: Tipulidae)  Ian Cooper

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

Dark-bodied Glass Snail Oxychilus draparnaudi (Pul.: Daubebariidae ) Ian Cooper

Female spider, Neriene sp. (Ara.: Linyphiidae) Ian Cooper

Springtail, Orchesella villosa (Coll.: Orchesellidae) Ian Cooper

2021 April 4

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I saw a Mourning Cloak (my first ” non-Cabbage” of the year) this afternoon on Mount Tolmie – not on the reservoir, but in a little glade halfway down.  Also there was a small moth settled on a tree-trunk.  Just as I was wondering what it was, Gordon and Anne-Marie Hart appeared, and Gordon got a nice picture, which revealed that the moth was a pristine fresh Venusia.  I had originally erroneously identified it as V. cambrica.  I am very grateful to Libby Avis for pointing out my mistake.  In cambrica the little dashes along the outer margin are triangular in shape; in Gordon’s moth, they are all straight hyphens. Besides, it is too early in the season for cambrica.  See also April 15, where I made the same mistake with another individual.  Gordon’s moth is either V. pearsalli or P. obsoleta.  Neither Libby nor I have ever been able to distinguish reliably between these two species.  Perhaps they are really a single species.

Also on Mount Tolmie was a batch of Sheep Moth eggs around a twig of Snowberry.  Some have holes in them, probably as a result of a parasitoid, and some are collapsed.   We’ll have to wait and see if any caterpillars hatch from the remainder.  This moth has a long life-history.  The eggs will have been laid last year, and they spent the winter in this form.  The caterpillars will pupate late in the summer, and a second winter will be spent, this time as pupae, so the adult moths won’t emerge until nearly two years after the eggs were laid.

Venusia pearsalli/obsoleta (Lep.: Geometridae)  Gordon Hart

Sheep Moth Hemileuca eglanterina (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Jeremy Tatum