2024 July 29 morning

Marie O’Shaughnessy writes:
Dragonflies at Beaver Lake July 25- 27th 2024.
There were a few species at one of the small ponds Saturday.
Several female Blue Dashers were looking very worn. Blue Dashers seem to be the predominant dragonflies at most ponds and lakes that I have visited over the past week.

There were several Blue-eyed Darners hanging on twigs away from the pond yesterday, when the sun was hidden by cloud.

I have seen over the past 3 days,
  1 Black Saddlebags
4 Blue-eyed Darners
1 Cardinal Meadowhawk
1 Dot- tailed Whiteface
1  Western Pondhawk
14 Blue Dashers
3  Eight-spotted Skimmers
2 Paddletail Darners
1 Striped Meadowhawk

There were only two Cabbage White butterflies.

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

Striped Meadowhawk  Sympetrum pallipes  (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Female Western Pondhawk  Erythemis collocata  (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Male Blue Dasher  Pachydiplax longipennis  (Odo.: Libllulidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Female Blue Dasher Pachydiplax longipennis  (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Dot-tailed Whiteface Leucorrhinia  intacta (Odo.: Libellulidae) Marie O’Shaughnessy

   We thank Val George for the identification of the bug in Ian Cooper’s photograph in yesterday’s positng.  Val writes:  That one just happens to be one of the several species of stink bugs I get in my Oak Bay garden. It’s a nymph of the Conchuela Bug Chlorochroa ligata.  eFauna has a couple of images of that stage of development of the species and comments that it’s the 4^th or 5^th instar. I’ve attached a photo I took in my garden of a whole herd of them.

Conchuela Bug  Chlorochroa ligata  (Hem.: Pentatomidae)  Val George

2024 July 28

   Here are some invertebrate photographs taken by Ian Cooper along the E&N trail on the morning of July 27.

Bombus vosnesenskii (Hym.: Apidae)   Ian Cooper

Bombus occidentalis (Hym.: Apidae)   Ian Cooper
Thanks to Steven Roias for the identification of this bee.

Male Goldenrod Crab Spider – Misumena vatia (Ara.: Thomisidae)   Ian Cooper

Spittle Bug  Philaenus spumarius (Hem.: Cercopidae)   Ian Cooper

Nymph of a Conchuela Bug  Chlorochroa ligata   (Hem.: Pentatomidae)  Ian Cooper
Thanks to Val George for the identification of this bug.

Flower Fly – Myathropa florea (Dip.: Syrphidae)   Ian Cooper
Thanks to Dr Jeff Skevington for confirmation of the identification of this fly.

   Gordon Hart photographed these two butterflies in his Highlands garden, July 27.

Woodland Skipper  Ochlodes sylvanoides  Gordon Hart

Male Pine White  Neophasia menapia  (Lep.: Pieridae)  Gordon Hart

Val George writes:  This Emmelina monodactyla moth was in my Oak Bay garden this morning, July 28.  Jeremy Tatum writes:  The caterpillar is to be found in the flowers of Calystegia  (a.k.a. Convolvulus).

Emmelina monodactyla  (Lep.: Pterophoridae)  Val George

2024 July 27

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  The moth below came out of the folds of the same towel as the one shown on July 7, although not under such startling circumstances.  The moth is quite worn, and probably didn’t have much of a distinctive pattern even when fresh.  Consequently, it is a bit difficult to identify, but both Libby Avis and Jeremy Tatum think that it may be Apamea devastator. 

 Probably Apamea devastator  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

2024 July 26

[There was no Invert posting for July 25.]

Ian Cooper writes:  Here are some of the photos taken last night (July 25) on the Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal near the 9 km marker.

Arion rufus (Pul.: Arionidae)  Ian Cooper

Large Yellow Underwing  Noctua pronuba  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Ian Cooper

Lesser Yellow Underwing  Noctua comes  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Ian Cooper

Dr Heather Proctor identifies the mites on the harvestman below as larval Erythraeidae, probably Leptus sp.

Harvestman (Opiliones) with mites (Erythraeidae)   Ian Cooper

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

Female Eratigena duellica (Ara: Agelenidae)   Ian Cooper

   Ian found the two spiders below at home, and gallantly took them outside to the country.  It is not recorded whether the spiders thanked Ian for his thoughtful action.  Identified for us by Dr Robb Bennett.

Steatoda sp.  (Ara.: Theridiidae)  Ian Cooper

Steatoda sp.  (Ara.: Theridiidae)  Ian Cooper

Probably Scotophaeus blackwalli  (Ara.: Gnaphosidae)  Ian Cooper

In an hour’s visit to Government house on July 25, Marie O’Shaughnessy saw 4 Western Tiger Swallowtails, 1 Lorquin’s Admiral, 1 Cabbage White , 1 Western Spring Azure.

Jeremy Tatum writes.  It is good to know that here are still a few butterflies around.  At Swan Lake on July 25, I saw three Lorquin’s Admirals¸ and found two caterpillars of Red Admiral on the nettles.  And this evening (July 26) I saw a Painted Lady and a Western Tiger Swallowtail at the top of Mount Douglas.

I have very occasionally seen Western Spring Azures in late July.  Perhaps the species is partially bivoltine (double-brooded), although Marie’s butterfly looks slightly worn and may be a surviving spring butterfly.

Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo  (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Western Tiger Swallowtail  Pterourus rutulus  (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Jeff Gaskin writes:  Today, July 26, Kirsten Mills and I saw one Woodland Skipper and one Pine White at the top of Observatory Hill.  Later, we checked out McIntyre Road reservoir and found the usual number of species of dragonflies although numbers of individual dragonflies were down.  We did see one Black Saddlebags, 3 Common Green Darners, and one Cardinal Meadowhawk.  Other dragonflies included Blue-eyed Darner, Blue Dasher, Western Pondhawk, and Eight-spotted Skimmer.

2024 July 24

Jeff Gaskin writes:   Yesterday, July 23, Kirsten Mills and I saw eight species of dragonflies at the south end of Beaver Lake and at the retriever ponds.  Included among that number were firsts of the year for me.   1 Striped Meadowhawk, which Kirsten photographed, and 6 or so Paddle-tailed Darners.  Also, seen were a Four-spotted Skimmer, a Common Green Darner, 2 or 3 Black Saddlebags, and several Blue-eyed Darners, Blue Dashers, and Western Pondhawks.

Earlier in the day I saw my first of the year Pine White at Viaduct Flats.

Jeremy Tatum writes:  The Beaver Lake ponds are an excellent locality for dragonflies.  So far this year no one has yet reported a Dot-tailed Whiteface.  Jeff’s Pine White is the first reported this year.  So far, still no Purplish Copper.  Also, amazingly, only one Woodland Skipper – at Cowichan Station; none near Victoria.  And only one Grey Hairstreak this year.

Here is Kirsten’s photograph referred to by Jeff:

Striped Meadowhawk Sympetrum pallipes  (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Kirsten Mills

Jeremy Tatum writes:  This moth was at my Saanich apartment building this morning, July 24:

Neoalcis californiaria  (Lep.:  Geometridae)  Jeremy Tatum

The following five photographs were taken by Ian Cooper on July 16 and 17.  All were feeding on a lush stand of Fennel flowers growing at the corner of Esquimalt Road and Mary Street in Vic West, adjacent to the E&N Trail.  The first three show some of the great variety of forms of the Asian Lady Beetle – but don’t get them confused with the Seven-spotted Lady Beetle in the fourth photograph!

Asian Lady Beetle – Harmonia axyridis (Col.: Coccinellidae)   Ian Cooper

Asian Lady Beetle – Harmonia axyridis (Col.: Coccinellidae)   Ian Cooper

Asian Lady Beetle – Harmonia axyridis (Col.: Coccinellidae)   Ian Cooper

Seven-spotted Lady Beetle – Coccinella septempunctata (Col.: Coccinellidae)   Ian Cooper

Honey Bee  Apis mellifera  (Hym.: Apidae)  Ian Cooper