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.

June 2

    Monthly Butterfly Walk.   Sunday June 5.  Meet at the top of Mount Tolmie at 1:00 p.m.  All welcome!   We decide on a destination by mutual consent when we meet at Mount Tolmie.  One possibility that has been mentioned is Boas Road, near Spectacle Lake for Boisduval’s Blue.

   Aziza Cooper sends pictures of a bombyliid fly from the field east of Lochside Trail, south of Lohbrunner Road, June 1;  and a damselfly along the railroad tracks at Goldstream, May 30.  Jeremy Tatum writes:  I’ll have a stab at identifying them, though I’d be glad of confirmation from anyone who knows these insects.  The fly is Anthrax sp.

As for the exact species, I can’t be sure, but I’d guess either A. georgicus  or A. analis.  These may be synonyms for the same species. The larvae are said to be parasitoidal on tiger beetles.  I think the damselfly is the Western Red Damsel.

Anthrax sp. (analis?  georgicus?) (Dip.: Bombyliidae)  Aziza Cooper

 Western Red Damsel Amphiagrion abbreviatum (Odo.: Coenagrionidae)  Aziza Cooper