2017 July 30

   Heather Proctor gives a probable identification of the mites on Ren Ferguson’s July 27 photograph of a long water scorpion. Scroll down to July 27 to see.

   Today’s (July 30) issue of the Times-Colonist page D2 carries an item about a nature photographic contest organized by the SPCA.  Proceeds from the competition go towards WildARC.  Insects are included in the eligible subjects. (It doesn’t mention other invertebrates!)  The quality of photographs submitted to our Invert Alert site is exceedingly high.  I would encourage contributors to have a go at the SPCA competition.

   Jeremy Tatum writes that he found a caterpillar of a Red Admiral at Witty Beach Road, Metchosin, today.

   Bill Katz sends a photograph of a Panthea sp. from Goldstream Park.  It closely resembles the moth that I (Jeremy Tatum) posted on June 24 and which I labelled P. virginarius.  However, I am now wondering of both of them might in fact be P. acronyctoides.  Am looking into it, and will post if we make any progress!

Panthea sp. (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Bill Katz

   Bill also photographed a caddisfly at Goldstream:

Caddisfly (Trichoptera)  Bill Katz

   Ren Ferguson photographed a spectacular Sphinx perelegans on her railing on Salt Spring Island, July 29.

Sphinx perelegans (Lep.: Sphingidae)  Ren Ferguson

   Ken Vaughan was busy at Fork Lake in the Highlands on July 29.

Misumena vatia (Ara.: Thomisidae)  Ken Vaughan

Campaea perlata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

Hydriomena nevadae (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

   Of the next one, Ken comments that “it is the neatest geometrid I have seen in a while.”

The caterpillar of this moth is even more remarkable.  We’ll have to look out and see if we can find and photograph one.  I think the colour pattern of the moth is what is called “disruptive coloration”.  It divides the moth into two sharply demarcated areas, neither of which has the shape of any sort of insect or edible morsel.

Nematocampa resistaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

Neoalcis californiaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

Perizoma curvilinea (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

Caripeta aequaliarea (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

   There are still a few photographs in the queue – some of them awaiting identification.

2017 July 28

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  I visited Mount Tolmie just after 6:00 pm today.  There were one or two Painted Ladies and Red Admirals on the reservoir or flying around the Jeffery Pine, and at least one West Coast Lady on the reservoir.  Also, just outside the entrance to the reservoir, flying around or perching on the Mahonia or the Laburnum, a pristine fresh Anise Swallowtail.  I wonder if it had bred on the hill, perhaps on one of the numerous Fennels there.  Also below, a very young caterpillar of a Western Tiger Swallowtail found on willow at Panama Flats. Botanists might be interested to see the huge expanse of Alisma plantago-aquatica there at present.

Western Tiger Swallowtail Papilio rutulus (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Jeremy Tatum

2017 July 27

   Ren Ferguson sends some photographs taken on Pender Island on July 4 in brackish marsh habitat.  We get very few aquatic animals on this site (challenge for photographers – please note!) so we welcome Ren’s photograph of a long waterscorpion Ranatra sp.  I don’t know if we’ll be able to go below genus level.   Dr Heather Proctor writes, of the red dots:

 

Long waterscorpion Ranatra sp.: (Hem.: Nepidae) Ren Ferguson

Red-veined Meadowhawk Sympetrum madidum (Odo.: Libellulidae) Ren Ferguson

Larva of giant sawfly Trichiosoma triangulum (Hym.: Cimbicidae) Ren Ferguson

Thomas Barbin sends a varied collection of insect close-ups.  The first one from Pender Island, June 10:

Greater Night-stalking Tiger Beetle Omus dejeani (Col.:  Carabidae – Cicindelinae)

Thomas Barbin

   We have seen before on this site photographs of crab spiders overcoming much larger bees and wasps.  This one is another spectacular example.  Photographed in the Highlands District, June 21.  The bee is Bombus sp. (mixtus, flavifrons and ternarius all look like reasonable fits) and the spider is Mecaphesa sp.

Bumblebee Bombus sp. (Hym.: Apidae)

Crab spider Mecaphesa sp.(Ara.: Thomisidae)

Thomas Barbin

A spider found in the Highlands District, June 21:

Phrurotimpus borealis (Ara.: Phrurolithidae) Thomas Barbin

An unusual beetle from Goldstream Campground, July 1:

Phellopsis porcata (Col.: Zopheridae)  Thomas Barbin

   A bug from Goldstream Park, July 5:

Two-spotted Grass Bug Stenotus binotatus (Hem.: Miridae)  Thomas Barbin

   A sharp-tailed leafcutter bee from Island View Beach, July 7:

Coelioxys sp. (Hym.: Megachilidae)  Thomas Barbin

   A thread-tailed wasp, also from Island View Beach, July 7:

Prionyx parkeri (Hym.: Sphecidae)  Thomas Barbin

   A cuckoo wasp, Island View Beach – evidently a good place for interesting bees and wasps – July 13:

Probably Chrysis sp. (Hym.: Chrysididae)  Thomas Barbin

  A sand wasp from – you  guessed it – Island View Beach, July 13:

Sand wasp Bembix sp. (Hym.: Crabronidae)  Thomas Barbin

   A strikingly-coloured jumping spider, Island View Beach, July 13:

Habronattus americanus (Ara.: Salticidae)  Thomas Barbin

   Lastly, two photographs of a longhorn beetle from Goldstream Campground, July 26.  Thanks to Scott Gilmore for the identification.

Strophiona laeta (Col.: Cerambycidae)  Thomas Barbin

Strophiona laeta (Col.: Cerambycidae)  Thomas Barbin

   Aziza Cooper sends a photograph of a teneral damselfly from Martindale Road, July 23.  Aziza writes that there were 45 Cabbage Whites over the cabbage field there.  Rob Cannings writes:  Yes, this is a teneral… (an individual, soon after moulting/emergence, whose cuticle is almost colourless and still unhardened). This is a male Tule Bluet Enallagma carunculatum. In this species, the superior appendages (cerci) are distinctive and are visible in this photo The middle abdominal appendages have much black dorsally, more than the other common local species have.

Tule Bluet Enallagma carunculatum (Odo.: Coenagrionidae)  Aziza Cooper

2017 July 26 morning

   Gordon Hart writes:

The July count tallied 12 species, one fewer than 2016. This year, there were no Satyr Commas or Mourning Cloaks, but we added one Ringlet (Large Heath). Total numbers were up by about one third, from 667 to 1046 individuals. Cabbage Whites were the most numerous with 570 (2016: 431), and Western Tiger Swallowtails were next with 140 (2016: 47). Woodland Skippers started to appear near the end of the count period and only nine were counted (2016: 45). More Pine Whites were seen this year than last (2017:72, 2016:52), mainly due to large numbers seen in Colwood by Jeff Gaskin.

Thanks to everyone who submitted counts.

-Gordon Hart

Peter Boon writes:

Here’s a Chalk-fronted Corporal that I photographed at Spider Lake yesterday.  There were several of these about alongside Eight-spotted skimmers, Blue-eyed Darners and Northern Bluets.  Spider Lake is near Horne Lake north of Qualicum Beach close to Highway 19.

Chalk-fronted Corporal Ladona julia (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Peter Boon

Ken Vaughan sends a nice selection of photographs from the last couple of weeks.

First, two moths from the Highlands District.

 Neoalcis californiaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

Dysstroma citrata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

   Next, two dragonflies and a butterfly from the Beaver Lake Ponds.

American Emerald Cordulia shurtleffii (Odo.: Corduliidae) Ken Vaughan

Eight-spotted Skimmer Libellula forensis (Odo.: Libellulidae) Ken Vaughan

Painted Lady Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Ken Vaughan

   And three moths from Ken’s Oak Bay apartment.

Apamea amputatrix (Lep.: Noctuidae) Ken Vaughan

Noctua pronuba (Lep.: Noctuidae) Ken Vaughan

Idaea dimidiata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Ken Vaughan

   Francie Morgan writes that she and Kathleen Burton found this interesting Clearwing moth Synanthedon bibionipennis on the windowsill at Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary.

 Synanthedon bibionipennis (Lep.: Sesiidae)  Kathleen Burton

2017 July 24

   Return to back-to-business provides an opportunity for a brief reminder of the optimum way of submitting observations to Invertebrate Alert.  Send observations to jtatum at uvic dot ca   We welcome, of course, reports just of sightings and they don’t have to be accompanied with photographs.  If you send a photograph or photographs, please send them in .jpg format as an attachment. It takes me much longer to process if you send them some other way. Remember to say where you saw the animal (not “my backyard” – I don’t know where that is) and when (date with month written in letters!).  Unless I have a query, I don’t generally respond – your “reward” and thank you are when the item gets posted!  There may sometimes be a delay, while we are trying to identify an obscure insect, though if the delay is over a week you might check with me in case I have overlooked the record (which occasionally happens).  If you know the identification of the insect, please say so – so that I don’t have to spend time figuring it out myself!  If you don’t know, we’ll do our best – that may take a few days.   Jeremy Tatum

  Bryan Gates sends a photograph of a European Paper Wasp. He writes that for the past four years the species has been nesting in a hollow aluminium railing at his house in Black Creek.

European Paper Wasp Polistes dominula (Hym.: Vespidae)  Bryan Gates

   Val George sends photographs of two moths from his Oak Bay house, July 21.  He also sends a photograph of a Great Arctic butterfly from Mount Washington, seen on the VNHS Botany trip to Mount Washington, July 23, thus again dashing my (Jeremy) theory that this species occurs only in even-numbered years!

Choristoneura rosaceana (Lep.: Tortricidae)  Val George

Clemensia albata (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae – Lithosiini)  Val George

Great Arctic Oeneis nevadensis (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Satyrinae)  Val George

   Jochen Moehr sends a picture of a crane fly from his house in Metchosin, July 9.  Alas –  in spite of the efforts of the best brains in Victoria, the exact species identity of this well-marked insect still eludes us.

Crane fly (Dip.: Tipulidae)  Jochen Moehr

   New VNHS member Michael Croteau photographed a syrphid fly on Mount Work on June 3.  We are grateful to Jeff Skevington and Andrew Young for the identification as a male Melanostoma sp.  Dr Skevington advises us that Melanostoma  is probably a complex of species, but at present they are all lumped as M. mellinum.

Melanostoma mellinum (Dip.: Syrphidae)  Michael Croteau