2023 August 1 morning

  The caterpillar found in Barb McGrenere’s salad and shown in the posting of July 10 morning produced this moth last night:

 Peridroma saucia (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum

2023 July 31

   There was no Invert Alert on July 30.  Today, however, is another day.

Bruce Whittington sends photographs, from Ladysmith on July 28, of a Lorquin’s Admiral apparently “nectaring” on sapsucker drillings, and a Yellow-faced Bumble Bee.

Also, we missed two photographs from Bruce in early June in Ladysmith, and we post them belatedly now.  The first is an adult Sculptured Pine-borer Beetle.  The second is a beetle larva which may be the same species, but we are not certain of this.  Also, in that photograph the sharp-eyed will see another insect larva.

  Chalcophora angulicollis (Col.: Buprestidae)
Bruce Whittington

Beetle larva (possibly Chalcophora angulicollis)
Bruce Whittington

Marie O’Shaughnessy saw some Black Saddlebags at Blenkinsop Lake in the last couple of days.  These striking dragonflies are being seen at many locations just now.  Marie tried her hand (pretty successfully, we’d say!) at photographing them in flight.

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

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

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

Gordon Hart found a Herald Moth in the Highlands on July 30.  This moth likes the juices from friuts such as plums, and is reputed to be able to pierce the skins of fruits with its proboscis.    It spends the winter in the adult stage, and is one of the first moths to herald in the season of Spring.  The caterpillar feeds on willows.

Herald Moth Scoliopteryx libatrix  (Erebidae – Scoliopteryginae)  Gordon Hart

   Jereny Tatum writes:   I visited Mount Tolmie today, and at 5:00 pm there were no butterflies on or near the reservoir of any sort – nymphalids, swallowtails, whites, skippers.  There were two Painted Ladies, a little past their prime but still flying strongly, near the Jeffery Pine.

2023 July 29

   A selection of goodies from Aziza Cooper on Olympic Drive off Goldstream Heights, July 28.   Thanks to Scott Gilmore for identification of the beetles.

Grey Hairstreak  Strymon  melinus  (Lep.: Lycaenidae)
Aziza Cooper

Jeremy Tatum comments: Many different larval foodplants have been recorded for this butterfly, although I have three times found caterpillars on Pearly Everlasting.  But perhaps this butterfly was just nectaring.

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

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

Bee fly – perhaps Hemipenthes sp. (Dip.: Bombyliidae)
Aziza Cooper

Polistes aurifer (Hym.: Vespidae)  Aziza Cooper

Mordella sp.  (Col.: Mordellidae) Aziza Cooper

Xestoleptura crassipes (Col.: Cerambycidae) Aziza Cooper

Marie O’Shaughnessy visited McIntyre Reservoir yesterday, July 28.  Although butterflies were limited to seven Cabbage Whites, dragonflies are unaffected by the absence of flowering Teasels, and Marie did rather better with them.  She recorded a pair of Blue-eyed Darners (in cop.), seven Eight-spotted Skimmers and three Black Saddlebags.

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

Eight-spotted Skimmer Libellula forensis (Odo.: Libellulidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Black Saddlebags Tramea lacerata  Marie O’Shaughnessy

2023 July 28

There was no Invert Alert on July 27.

Teasel at McIntyre Reservoir.  Jeremy Tatum writes:  When I visited the reservoir on July 2 (with the VNHS Butterfly Walk), there was a huge amount of Teasel, but most of it was not yet in flower.  Yesterday, July 27, I went there again hoping that by now it was in flower.  Instead, I discovered that (apart from a few individual plants) the flowering was already well past, with most of the plants having gone to seed.  I wonder if the short flowering season was connected somehow with the long, hot, dry spell that we have been experiencing.  In any case, it looks as though we can’t expect great numbers of butterflies there in the coming weeks.

Cheryl Hoyle photographed this spider at View Royal on July 25.  Her suggestion that it is Enoplognatha ovata proved correct.  Dr Robb Bennett writes: I’m pretty sure that it is one of the morphs of Enoplognatha ovata. The most common morphs usually have some amount of red coloration on the dorsal abdomen. I think this linear spotted form is less common. The spiders themselves are abundant.

Enoplognatha ovata (Ara.: Theridiidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

Enoplognatha ovata (Ara.: Theridiidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

Val George photographed these two moths at his Oak Bay home today:

Scallopshell  Rheumaptera undulata (Lep.: Geometridae)
Val George

Vitula serratilineella (Lep.: Pyralidae)  Val George

2023 July 26

   Jochen Möhr photographed this moth in Metchosin on July 25:

Campaea perlata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Cheryl Hoyle photographed these orthopterans in View Royal today, July 26:

Drumming Katydid Meconema thalassinum
(Orth.: Tettigoniidae)
Cheryl Hoyle

Although Melanoplus is a large genus of similar-looking grasshoppers that are not easy to identify, and we can’t clearly see the sanguini pes of the one below, it is very probably the Migratory Grasshopper Melanoplus sanguinipes.

Melanoplus sanguinipes  (Orth.: Acrididae) Cheryl Hoyle