2024 August 7

   Val George writes:  This Palthis angulalis moth was on the wall of my Oak Bay house yesterday morning, August 6.

Palthis angulalis  (Lep.: Erebidae – Herminiinae)  Ian Cooper

On August 4, Ian Cooper took a series of photographs, along the Galloping Goose trail, of a dome spider Neriene sp. working on her web, occasionally being pestered with intent by a male.

Female dome spider – Neriene sp. (Ara.: Linyphiidae )   Ian Cooper
She was fiddling with a fir needle in her web for some unknown reason.

Same individual, seen in its habitual spot in its dome web

Enlargement of previous picture

I spotted this spider nearby and initially thought it was a random ‘other spider’ in the vicinity. Then realized it was stealthily approaching the dome web and it occurred to me that it may be a male dome spider making his approach to the female dome spider.

Another view of the male, getting closer

This one clearly shows the spider’s prominent male pedipalps, confirming it is indeed a male spider

2024 August 5 evening

   Here’s another photograph from yesterday’s (August 4) VNHS Butterfly Walk:

Soldier beetles Rhagonycha fulva  (Col.: Cantharidae)  Aziza Cooper

Val George writes:  This moth, Plemyria georgii, was on the wall of the Nature House at Goldstream Park this morning, August 5.

Plemyria georgii  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Val George

The following were photographed by Ian Cooper last night, August 4, by the Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal near the 9 km marker.

Telphusa sedulitella  (Lep.: Gelechiidae)   Ian Cooper

Arion rufus (Pul.: Arionidae)   Ian Cooper

Drumming Katydid  Meconema thalassinum (Orth.: Tettigoniidae)   Ian Cooper

Camel Cricket  Pristoceuthophilus celatus (Orth.: Rhaphidophoridae)  Ian Cooper

Male Eratigena duellica  (Ara: Agelenidae)   Ian Cooper

2024 August 5 morning

Here are some photographs from yesterday’s Butterfly Walk.

Western Pondhawk  Erythemis collocata  (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Axiza Cooper

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

California Ringlet Coenonympha californica  (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Satyrinae) Aziza Cooper

Complicated Essay on a Complicated Butterfly    (Jeremy Tatum)
   The butterfly above, photographed by Aziza at Island View Beach, is part of an enormous assemblage of similar butterflies stretching across North America and Europe, sometimes referred to as the “tullia complex”.   We have usually referred to it as a “ringlet” with or without some preceding adjective.  The huge Holarctic complex has many different variations, some clinal, some disjunct, most with a few to many “ringlet” markings on the wings, although the ones we get here in the Victoria area seem not to have even a trace of any ringlet mark.  (Let us know if you find any with a trace of a ringlet.)

From this year, 2024, I am trying to follow the 2023 Annotated Taxonomic Checklist  (ATC) edited by Pohl and Nanz.  The ATC treats most North American populations as a single species Coenonympha california, of which it lists 18 named subspecies.  Whether all of these are genuine subspecies or whether some of them are “forms” I don’t know.  I think our subspecies is Coenonympha california insulana.  The ATC does not deal with English names, but I propose on this site to call our butterfly the California Ringlet (in spite of its absence of ringlet marks).

If we follow the ATC, then, C. california is specifically distinct from C. tullia, which is known today in the U.K. as the Large Heath (but at one time called there the Small Ringlet).  There are apparently a few populations of genuine C. tullia in North America, but not here.  The ATC also lists a third species, C. haydenii.  North American records of the Small Heath, C. pamphilus are apparently erroneous, this being strictly an Old World species.  As one further slight complication, the butterfly known in the UK as The Ringlet is a quite different species, in a different genus altogether, Aphantopus.

2024 August 4

Ian Cooper sends some invertebrate photographs. Most were taken along the Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal near the 9 km marker on Aug 2nd. The banded snail was spotted on July 31st 2024.

Unidentified crane flies in copula (Dip.: Tipulidae)    Ian Cooper

Unidentified male crane fly  (Dip.: Tipulidae)  Ian Cooper
If anyone can identify these crane flies for us, please do so.  Write to tatumjb352 at gmail dot com

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

Western Black Carpenter Ant  Camponotus modoc (Hym.: Formicidae)
hauling the carcass of a small hymenopterous insect
Ian Cooper

Banded Garden Snail – Cepaea nemoralis (Pul.: Helicidae)  Ian Cooper

Slug, Limax maximus (Pul.: Limacidae)  Ian Cooper

Five people attended the August Butterfly Walk today, August 4. We saw five species of butterflies:

Cabbage White – 13
Woodland Skipper – 13
Lorquin’s Admiral – 3
Painted Lady – 1
California Ringlet – 1

These were distributed as follows:

Mount Tolmie: 
Cabbage White – 1

McIntyre Reservoir:
Cabbage White – 9
Painted Lady – 1
Lorquin’s Admiral – 1
Woodland Skipper – 12

Island View Beach:
Cabbage White – 3
Lorquin’s Admiral – 2
Woodland Skipper – 8
California Ringlet – 1
Swallowtail sp. – 1  (Possibly an Anise Swallowtail)

Some photographs obtained during the Walk will be shown tomorrow (August 5).