2021 April 3 evening

No Butterfly Walk on Sunday.

Message from Gordon Hart:

Hi Everyone,

I just want to confirm that there is no April butterfly walk this weekend. It was cancelled on the VNHS online calendar but does appear in The Naturalist. We hope we will be able to meet in May. In the meantime, we will have an early butterfly count starting April 17, and I will send out a reminder for that later.

Butterflies are starting to appear. Check the Invertebrate Alert  for the latest sightings!

Gordon

   Jochen Möhr sends a photograph of a pug from his new Metchosin house.  This is one of the difficult pair Eupithecia ravocostaliata/nevadata.  Jochen, Libby and Jeremy are all leaning toward ravocostaliata – but not leaning quite far enough to dispense with the “probably” in the label below the photograph.

Eupithecia (probably ravocostaliata ) (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

   And just as we go to press, we have received a photograph by Jochen of another individual of the same species – and this time I think we can safely dispense with the “probably”:

Eupithecia ravocostaliata  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

  Here’s a spider photographed by Ian Cooper.   Dr Bennett writes:  I think I can put a genus name on this one based on the abdominal pattern and the fact that it is a small linyphiine linyphiid. I’ll call it a member of Linyphantes.  Interesting genus, with only poor taxonomic documentation, so hard to get to species. A juvenile male. Genus is endemic to western coastal North America.

Linyphantes (Ara.: Linyphiidae – Linyphiinae)  Ian Cooper

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

Probably Arion subfuscus  (Pul.: Arionidae) Ian Cooper

Arion hortensis agg. (Pul.: Arionidae) Ian Cooper

Deroceras reticulatum (Pul.: Agriolimacidae) Ian Cooper

Two Brown field slugs, Deroceras panormitanum (Pul.: Agriolimacidae) feeding on the remains of a much larger slug, whose identity was difficult to ascertain, but may have been a deceased Limax maximus (Pul.: Limacidae) Ian Cooper

2021 April 3 morning

No Butterfly Walk on Sunday.

Message from Gordon Hart:

Hi Everyone,

I just want to confirm that there is no April butterfly walk this weekend. It was cancelled on the VNHS online calendar but does appear in The Naturalist. We hope we will be able to meet in May. In the meantime, we will have an early butterfly count starting April 17, and I will send out a reminder for that later.

Butterflies are starting to appear. Check the Invertebrate Alert  for the latest sightings!

Gordon

   Rosemary Jorna sends a photograph of a small spider from near Kemp Lake, April 1.  Unfortunately it is not always possible to be sure of the identity of small invertebrates from even a good photograph.  Dr Robb Bennett’s best attempt is:

Perhaps Ethobuella tuonops

or perhaps  Dirksia cinctipes

or perhaps something totally different!

Possibly Ethobuella tuonops (Ara.: Cybaeidae)   Rosemary Jorna

   On the other hand, this moth, of which we get just a glimpse, is a relatively easy one.  Photographed by Rosemary on the Galloping Goose on April 2 between the Charters and Todd Creek trestles.

Archiearis infans (Lep.: Geometridae)   Rosemary Jorna

   Also photographed nearby by Rosemary was this Banana Slug:

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

   We don’t know what this fly is, photographed by Ian Cooper.  If any viewer can help, please let us know.

Unknown fly (Diptera)  Ian Cooper

2021 April 2

    More creatures photographed on the morning of April 1 by Ian Cooper along the Galloping Goose Trail or Colquitz River Park.

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

Brown field slugs Deroceras panormitanum (Pul.: Agriolimacidae) Ian Cooper

Arion distinctus (Pul.: Arionidae) feeding on the remains of a syrphid fly

Ian Cooper

Soldier beetle larva (Col.: Cantharidae)  Ian Cooper

Flat-backed Millepede Pseudopolydesmus serratus (Polydesmida:  Eurymerodesmidae)

Ian Cooper

2021 April 1

    Egira crucialis/simplex  is a difficult pair of moths to identify, and it keeps us moth-ers guessing every year.  Kirsten Mills  sent a photograph of one from near Hillside Mall, March 31.  It looks very close to the moth shown on March 28 and which is known to be  crucualis.  Libby Avis and Jeremy Tatum both believe that Kirsten’s moth most likely is indeed Egira crucialis.

Egira crucialis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Kirsten Mills

   The wasp below, photographed by Rosemary Jorna in the Kemp Lake area, March 31, also poses an identification problem, but Darren Copley and Sean McCann both suggest Vespula acadica.

Vespula acadica (Hym.: Vespidae)  Rosemary Jorna

Vespula acadica (Hym.: Vespidae)  Rosemary Jorna

   And here’s a bug from the same area:

Kleidocerys resedae (Hem.: Lygaeidae)  Rosemary Jorna

   Rosemary has been finding some very tiny creatures on the trunks of her maple trees.  I had no idea, writes Jeremy Tatum,  what the animal below is, so I was glad that Charlene Wood immediately spotted it as a springtail, of a rather different sort from the ones that have been appearing recently on this site.  A quick email followed, to springtail expert Frans Janssens in Antwerp, who zeroed in to genus:  Pogonognathellus sp.  The white area to the right in the first photograph below is a fingernail. Frans writes:  Tomocerinae are easily recognised by the distinctly long antennae, more especially the long third antennal segment.

Pogonognathellus sp.  (Coll.:  Entomobryomorpha – Tomoceridae – Tomocerinae) Rosemary Jorna

Pogonognathellus sp.  (Coll.:  Entomobryomorpha – Tomoceridae – Tomocerinae) Rosemary Jorna

   We don’t yet know what the tiny creature in the next two photographs is.   Also photographed by Rosemary near Kemp Lake. Possibly it might be a bark louse, Psocodea.

Possibly a bark louse (Psocodea)?  Rosemary Jorna

Possibly a bark louse (Psocodea)?  Rosemary Jorna

   Ian Cooper sends a photograph of a nematoceran fly, which we believe is probably of the Family Tipulidae, the Family that includes the familiar crane flies.

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

Probably “leatherjacket” larva of a crane fly Tipula paludosa (Dep.: Tipulidae)  Ian Cooper

Nonbiting midge (Dip.: Chironomidae)  Ian Cooper

Possibly Ambigolimax valentianus (Pul.: Limacidae) Ian Cooper

2021 March 31 evening

   Kirsten Mills reports that she saw a Sara Orangetip today, near McRea Avenue and Richmond Road, near Mount Tolmie.

   Ian Cooper sends another interesting batch, most of which will have to wait until tomorrow’s posting, but, writes Jeremy Tatum, I can’t wait to post this spectacular close-up of a springtail from Colquitz River Park last night:

Springtail  Orchesella villosa (Coll.: Orchesellidae)