2016 June 7

  Guidelines for Submissions.  (Jeremy Tatum) Running this website is great fun and very enjoyable, and I am impressed by the huge variety of insects and other invertebrates reported, and the quality of the photographs.  But it does take a bit of time!  Generally on average it takes about ten minutes to process each photograph – provided there are no problems – and there usually are!  Thus if one day a posting includes, say, 12 photographs, you may assume that it took about two hours to put it together.  Contributors can be an enormous help of they will conform to the following guidelines.

Please send photographs as attachments, not embedded in the main message.

For each photograph submitted, please give:

Name of photographer

Where it was taken (not “in my backyard”  – I do not know where your backyard is)

The date on which it was taken (not “yesterday”, but the date.)

If you know for certain what the species is, please state what the species is – please do not assume that I immediately must know what it is.  If you do not know, I, or one of a handful of experts that I consult, may be able to identify it, and will enjoy doing so, but please don’t put us through the effort of identification if you already know what it is!

If contributors can comply with these, it will be a huge help and greatly cut down on the time that it takes to process your observations.

Gordon Hart writes:  On June 6 while on my way to search for the Chestnut-sided Warbler, I saw several Essex Skippers along the path parallel to Saanich Road. I counted six, but I am sure there were many more in the meadows there. I did see the warbler, too.

Essex Skipper Thymelicus lineola (Lep.: Hesperiidae)   Gordon Hart

   Jeff Gaskin writes:  Today, June 07, the Tuesday Birding Group went to Swan Lake and while I was there I counted the number of butterflies I was seeing.  I had 6-8 Cabbage Whites, 1 Pale Tiger Swallowtail, 14 Western Tiger Swallowtails, 26 Lorquin’s Admirals, and 1 Essex Skipper.  (But apparently Jeff missed the Chestnut-sided Warbler!)

   Mik Yip writes:  Checked out the dogbane along Nanaimo River Road on May 6.  Maybe a week too early for the Dun Skippers and Sylvan Hairstreaks, but certainly worthwhile for other butterflies. Best sightings were a slow flyby Great Arctic, several cruising Western Meadow Fritillaries, and a couple of possible Boisduval’s Blues (rare low elevation sighting?) . Others included 6 well-faded Cedar Hairstreaks, 9 fresh Clodius Parnassians, 2 Grey Hairstreaks, 7 Pale Tiger Swallowtails, 3 Western Tiger Swallowtails, and many Lorquin’s Admirals.

Clodius Parnassian Parnassius clodius (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Mike Yip

Clodius Parnassians Parnassius clodius (Lep.: Papilionidae)  Mike Yip

Western Meadow Fritillary Boloria epithore (Lep.:  Nymphalidae)  Mike Yip

Boisduval’s Blue Icaricia icarioides (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Mike Yip

Cedar Hairstreak Mitoura rosneri (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Mike Yip

Lorquin’s Admiral Limenitis lorquini (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Mike Yip

Gordon Hart writes:  Today, Tuesday June 7, on the way back from birding the Chemainus Estuary, Rick Schortinghuis and I went to Currie Creek Road off the Lake Cowichan Highway and found the usual selection of butterflies, plus one tattered Mylitta Crescent, the first I have seen in a while. The complete list was:
Pale Tiger Swallowtail 6; Western Spring Azure 9; Lorquin’s Admiral 8, Western Tiger Swallowtail 3, and the one Mylitta Crescent. I have attached a record shot of the Crescent, and a daisy with a collection of tiny insects and one yellow beetle of unknown species.  [Jeremy Tatum writes:  I’ll see if we can get an ID on the beetle, and post it if we can!]

Mylitta Crescent Phyciodes mylitta (Lep.: Nymphalidae)   Gordon Hart

2016 June 5 morning

Monthly Butterfly Walk.  Quick last-minute reminder.  All welcome.  Meet at the top of Mount Tolmie at 1:00 p.m. today, Sunday June 5.  Destination to be decided then.

   Elizabeth Garrett sends a photograph of a Sheep Moth caterpillar.  Beware, if you see any of these – they can give you a rash if you handle them!

Sheep Moth Hemileuca eglanterina (Lep.: Saturniidae)  Wylie Thomas

Here’s the upperside of the moth photographed by Devon Parker on May 31 (June 1 posting) near Jordan River.  This enables us to identify it with certainty as Drasteria divergens.

Drasteria divergens (Lep.: Erebidae – Erebinae)  Devon Parker

Here is a beetle from Devon’s May 31 Jordan River trip. Thanks to Charlene Wood for identifying it as Ditylus quadricollis.

False blister beetle Ditylus quadricollis (Col.: Oedemeridae)   Devon Parker

Annie Pang sends a photograph of a long-horned bee identified by Linc R. Best as Melissodes sp.

Melissodes sp.: (Hym.: Apidae)  Annie Pang

Aziza Cooper writes:  A visit with Moralea Milne to the Jordan Rover area on June 4 resulted in:

Clodius Parnassian – 1

Pale Tiger Swallowtail – 1

comma – 8 or more – possibly Green Comma

Western Brown Elfin – 6

Western Pine Elfin – 2

Two-banded Grizzled Skipper – 1

blues: 4 or more of at least two species.

Johnson’s Hairstreak – 1

Mylitta Crescent – 1

Johnson’s Hairstreak Loranthomitoura johnsoni (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

Maybe Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo

(Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

  In an earlier version of this posting, I asked viewers to suggest what the butterfly in the above photograph is.  Opinion seems to be gravitating towards Western Spring Azure.  I’ll go along with that – Jeremy Tatum

2016 June 4

   Jeremy Gatten writes:  I took some photos on the weekend before I left and I only have one of the shots with me – if you don’t mind a late entry to the Invertebrate Alert, you could post it.  It’s Eristalinus aeneus, which is a syrphid.  It is apparently a European species that is adventive in North America.  I photographed it on May 23rd.  The eyes are great!

Eristalinus aeneus (Dip.: Syrphidae)   Jeremy Gatten

   Devon Parker saw a Western Tiger Swallowtail and a Lorquin’s Admiral at the Prospect Lake boat launch on June 3.   On June 4, he went a bit further afield, to Mount Brenton, near Chemainus, and scored as follows:

7 Western Tiger Swallowtail

5 Pale Tiger Swallowtail

15 Cedar Hairstreak

3 Western Brown Elfin

7 Clodius Parnassian

2 Speyeria sp. (large fritillaries – flybys) 

4 Silvery Blue

1 Mourning Cloak

2 Western Pine Elfin

1 Boisduval’s Blue

1 Western Sulphur

3 Western Meadow Fritillary

1 Roadside Skipper

Jeremy Tatum comments:  That’s a spectacular haul by any standards!  Not sure which of them is the most exciting, but Western Sulphur must come near the top!

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  I went to the Kinsol Trestle today.  Almost too hot to stagger along, but I saw Western Tiger Swallowtail, Lorquin’s Admiral, Red Admiral, Clodius Parnassian, several Cedar Hairstreaks, and one rather late-in-the season, but closely seen and identified, Moss’s Elfin.

   Devon sends some photographs from the trip that he and his Dad made to Jordan River on May 31.

Comma Polygonia sp. (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Devon Parker

[Jeremy Tatum comments:  That’s a tough one.  Is the “comma” mark ear-shaped or V-shaped?  Something in between, I think!  I think I’ll just label it “sp.”

Johnson’s Hairstreak Loranthomitoura johnsoni (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Devon Parker

2015 June 15

   Annie Pang sends photographs of a number of insects.  I’ll have a stab at identifying them, though I’m not an expert! – Jeremy Tatum

The first one looks like a greenbottle.  There are several species, and I don’t think I can go further.

Greenbottle fly.  Probably Lucilia sp. (Dip.:  Calliphoridae)   Annie Pang

   I’m pretty sure that this one is Eristalis tenax

Drone Fly Eristalis tenax (Dip.: Syrphidae)   Annie Pang

Not sure what the next one is.  Stratiomyidae?   Syrphidae?

Unknown (Dip.:  Stratiomyidae?  Syrphidae?)   Annie Pang

The next one is probably a young nymph of a cicadellid leafhopper, and can correctly be called a bug.

Probable leafhopper nymph (Hem.: Cicadellidae)  Annie Pang

Val George writes:   This afternoon, June 3, there was a West Coast Lady nectaring on Gumweed near the Oak Bay Marina.