2024 August 15 morning

After a two-day drought, we have a good collection today.

      Gordon Hart photographed this splendid caterpillar in Beckwith Park yesterday (August 14):

Smerinthus  ophthalmica (Lep.: Sphingidae)   Gordon Hart

Val George writes:  These two moths were on the wall of my Oak Bay house yesterday.

Pug moth  Eupithecia sp. (Lep.: Geometridae)  Val George

Idaea dimidiata  (Lep.: Geometridae)   Val George

   Aziza Cooper writes:  Yesterday, August 14, at Cowichan Station, I saw two Margined Whites.  At Nanaimo River Road, east of Elk Trails Way, there was one Common Woodnymph. At km 12.1 at a gate for a Mosaic Forests property there were 15 or more Woodland Skippers, one Mylitta Crescent and one Sylvan Hairstreak.

Common Woodnymph  Cercyonis pegala (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Satyrinae)  Aziza Cooper

Mylitta Crescent  Phyciodes mylitta  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Aziza Cooper

Sylvan Hairstreak  Satyrium sylvinus
The ATC spells the specific name –us.

Margined White Pieris marginalis  (Lep.: Pieridae)  Aziza Cooper

2024 August 14

   There have been no submissions to Invert Alert today or yesterday.

2024 August 12 evening

Val George photographed this pretty little moth on the wall of his Oak Bay house, on August 10. Thanks to Libby Avis for identifying it as the Filbertworm Moth Cydia latiferreana.

Cydia latiferreana  (Lep.: Tortricidae)  Val George

    The caterpillar below was found on Gumweed at Island View Beach during the VNHS Butterfly Walk on August 4.

Heliothis phloxiphaga  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

2024 August 12 morning

We start this morning with two difficult kinds of Hymenoptera which we can’t identify.  If any viewer can help with these, please do get in touch.

Gordon Hart writes:  Mary Morris sent me the enclosed picture of some of the thousands of dead insects scattered across the boats and the water in Brentwood Bay on August 9. Mary asked if they were tiny wasps, but I have always thought they were flying ants that hatch in August and September each year.

Jeremy Tatum writes:  Since there were thousands of them, I suppose they must be ants, though I don’t know which species.  If I had seen just one of them, I might have thought that it was a tiny wasp of the Family Pteromalidae – but I don’t think they swarm in thousands, so ants I think they must be.

Ants? (Hym.: Formicidae)  Mary Morris

Ants? (Hym.: Formicidae)  Mary Morris

The other difficult hymenopteran received today is the following insect photographed by Aziza Cooper at her home on Salsbury Way on August 11.  I am not sure, but it might be a horntail of the Family Siricidae.

Horntail?  (Hym.: Siricidae)  Aziza Cooper

Aziza Cooper writes: Today, August 11, there was one Woodland Skipper and one Cabbage White at McIntyre Reservoir. At the fields north of Martindale Road on the east side of the valley, there were about 20 Cabbage Whites.

Loxostege cereralis  (Lep.: Crambidae)  Aziza Cooper

Female Cabbage White Pieris rapae (Lep.: Pieridae)  Aziza Cooper

Woodland Skipper Ochlodes sylvanoides  (Lep.: Hesperiidae)  Aziza Cooper

Marie O’Shaughnessy sends the following from McIntyre Reservoir, August 10:

Butterflies seen were…

5 Woodland Skippers
2 Cabbage Whites
1 Painted Lady

Dragonflies were…

5 Black Saddlebags
4 Blue-eyed Darners
2 Paddle-tailed Darners
4 Western Pondhawks
2 Eight-spotted Skimmers
16 Blue Dashers

Black Saddlebags  Tramea lacerata  (Odo.: Libellulidae) Marie O’Shaughnessy

Black Saddlebags  Tramea lacerata  (Odo.: Libellulidae) Marie O’Shaughnessy

Blue-eyed Darner  Rhionaeschna multicolor (Lep.: Aeshnidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Painted Lady  Vanessa cardui  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

2024 August 11

Yesterday (August 10) morning we showed a photograph of a Great Arctic obtained by Aziza Cooper on Mount Washington, but we also wrote that we haven’t yet had any reports of the Great Arctic this year from within the Southern Vancouver Island Birdwatching Area. However, Thomas Barbin tells us that he saw and photographed one near the peak of Lone Tree Hill, which is within the Area, on July 9.   You can see Thomas’s photograph at https://inaturalist.ca/observations/228515269

We are still lacking a Purplish Cooper in this area this year. And, so far, only one Grey Hairstreak.

Jeff Gaskin writes that there was a Lorquin’s Admiral behind Tillicum Centre in Cuthbert Holmes Park today, August 11.  Although a few Lorquin’s Admirals sometimes extend into September, there are few about now, so we welcome all reports of them.

Ian Cooper took some photographs on August 9 at the 9 km marker in View Royal.  Here are some of them.

Identification unsure  Ian Cooper

Folding-door spider – Antrodiaetus pacificus (Ara. – Myg.:  Antrodiaetidae)  Ian Cooper

Western Black Carpenter Ant  Camponotus modoc (Hym.: Formicidae)  Ian Cooper

Raspberry Weevil – Otiorhynchus singularis (Col.: Curculionidae)   Ian Cooper

Dyslobus decoratus (Col.: Curculionidae)   Ian Cooper

Val George found this moth on the wall of his Oak Bay house yesterday, August 10.

Xanthorhoe defensaria (Lep.: Geometridae)   Val George