2016 March 31 morning

   NOTICE:  Some viewers have been having trouble either viewing this site, or in submitting contributions.  We are trying to sort things out, but at present I think the best way to view the site is to go to the VNHS site https://www.vicnhs.bc.ca/ , look for POPULAR ITEMS, and click on Invertebrate Alert. To submit items (recent photos or sightings), send them to jtatum@uvic.ca

   Nathan Fisk writes:  What a day (March 30)!  Western Spring Azure, Sara Orangetips and Cabbage Whites all moving about. Found this flyer as well. All in the Garry Oak learning meadow at Fort Rodd Hill.

Jeremy Tatum responds:  I think we’d need to see a little bit more of the moth to be quite certain what it is.  It is a geometrid.  At a wild guess I’d say possibly Hydriomena manzanita.

Possibly Hydriomena manzanita (Lep.: Geometridae)  Nathan Fisk

Gordon Hart writes:   Today in our Highland District yard we had a comma sp. fly-by, and one Sara Orangetip.  At Francis/King Park, I saw a Mourning Cloak (photo attached) and a Cabbage White. Mesoleuca gratulata has been everywhere this week.

Back on March 16, I saw a similar small orange and black moth at the Pike Lake substation (photo also attached).

Mourning Cloak  Nymphalis antiopa  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)  Gordon Hart

 Epirrhoe plebeculata (Lep.: Geometridae)  Gordon Hart

Aziza Cooper writes:  Today (March 30) one Western Spring Azure was in the southeast woods at Beacon Hill Park. At Mount Tolmie this afternoon there were 2 California Tortoiseshells, 2 Spring Azures, 3 Cabbage Whites and one Sara Orangetip.  The Western Spring Azure photo is the one from Beacon Hill Park. Photo is by Jody Wells.

Western Spring Azure  Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Jody Wells

California Tortoiseshell Nymphalis californica (Lep.: Nymphalidae)   Aziza Cooper

Val George writes:  The sun today, March 30, brought out some butterflies.  At Observatory Hill I saw a Satyr Comma and a Cabbage White.  At Mount Tolmie there were two California Tortoiseshells and two Cabbage Whites.  One fresh-looking tortoiseshell was on the reservoir at the summit;  the other, a rather beat-up one, was on a fir tree (photos attached).

California Tortoiseshell Nymphalis californica (Lep.: Nymphalidae)   Val George

California Tortoiseshell Nymphalis californica (Lep.: Nymphalidae)   Val George

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Here’s a problem for viewers – how many California Tortoiseshells on Mount Tolmie on Tuesday?  Are the above three photos of three different individuals?  Or just two?  I think three, but I’m not sure!

2016 March 30

   Aziza Cooper writes:  The monthly butterfly walk is this Sunday, April 3 at 1pm. We will meet at the top of Mount Tolmie and decide on our destination. Since butterflies need sunshine and warm temperatures to fly, this walk will be cancelled if the weather is cold or cloudy.

   For info, email Aziza at tanageraz@yahoo.com or call her cell phone: 250-516-7703.

   Annie Pang writes:  I was so pleased to get a pose of this rather tattered but still beautiful (to me) Mourning Cloak. Taken in Victoria BC, March 29th 2016 at Gorge Pk.  I have also seen a Mesoleuca gratulata but it would not land.  Same for a Western Spring Azure –  frustrating!

Mourning Cloak Nymphalis antiopa (Lep.: Nymphalidae)   Annie Pang

   Rosemary Jorna sends a nice picture of an apparently well-marked moth from Peden Bluff, March 24, but so far it has escaped all efforts at identification.  If anyone has any clues, please let us know!

 Unidentified moth (Lep.: Pyralidae)   Rosemary Jorna

 Jeremy Tatum reports a Western Spring Azure,  a Sara Orangetip, and a California Tortoiseshell  from Mount Tolmie, at about 1:00 p.m. this afternoon, March 30.  The tortoiseshell was sunning itself on the reservoir, as is the custom of nymphalids on Mount Tolmie.  It looked as though it was waiting for someone to take a photograph if it.

2016 March 29

   Gerry and Wendy Ansell write:

   This afternoon (March 29) at 12:30 a.m. there was a Grey Hairstreak at the top of Mount Tolmie.  We saw one Cabbage White on our way there.  Yesterday (March 28) we found our first Mourning Cloak of the year at Swan Lake.

2016 March 28

   Jeff Gaskin reports his first Cabbage Whites of the year today, one at Jutland Road and one on Wascana Street, Victoria.  And Mike Yip reports his first butterfly of the year, a Mourning Cloak at Cross Road, Nanoose Bay.

Mourning Cloak  Nymphalis antiopa (Lep.: Nymphalidae)   Mike Yip

    Scott Gilmore wrote from Upper Lantzville, on March 26:  In trying to re-find the garlic snail so I could smell it I turned up a different species of land snail in my backyard, Cochilicopa lubrica.  At just under 5mm long it is not very big. 

Glossy Pillar  Cochilicopa lubrica (Pul.: Cionellidae)  Scott Gilmore

   Jeremy Gatten writes, on March 26:  I have sent in a photograph of this longhorn beetle before, but I got much better shots of one today.  It was found at Hans Helgesen Elementary School in Metchosin (same as the only other one I have seen).  The moth diversity is not too shabby right now, with probably over 20 species on the wing at present.  The latest for me are Egira crucialis (yesterday at my place in Saanichton), E. perlubens (today at Hans Helgesen) and Anticlea vasiliata at my place this evening.

   Scott Gilmore wrote from Upper Lantzville, on March 27:   Today I found a Jumping Spider that is new to me. I think it is Platycryptus californicus but I do not claim to know anything about spiders.  [Jeremy Tatum writes:  Thanks to Robb Bennett for confirming Scott’s identification.]

Platycryptus californicus (Ara.: Salticidae)    Scott Gilmore

2016 March 25

   Libby Avis sends photographs of a moth and two beetles from Alberni.   The moth is Semioscopis sp.  Libby says there are three possible species, and that they require dissection to be sure of the species.  Jeremy Tatum notes that taxonomy of all organisms seems to change at a bewildering rate, and that this and similar moths, including the familiar Depressaria pastinacella and Agonopterix alstroemeriana, were formerly included in the Family Oecophoridae, but the group has now been given a new Family name, Depressariidae.

Semioscopus sp. (Lep.:  Depressariidae)   Libby Avis

Libby writes that the next image is Rathvon’s Ladybeetle, found on March 20 at the McLean Hill.  She writes: It’s pretty big for a ladybird – this one was 12 mm. [Jeremy comments:  Have a look at a ruler – you’ll agree that that’s large!]  Libby continues: It’s been reported from elsewhere on the island, but it’s the first time we’ve seen it in the Alberni valley.

Anatis rathvoni (Col.:  Coccinellidae)     Libby Avis

Libby’s third photograph is  Thanatophilus lapponicus, the Northern Carrion Beetle, found at Rathtrevor Provincial Park on March 18^th. She was able to identify this one thanks to Scott Gilmore’s photo on Bug Guide.

There have been few reports of butterflies, though Virginia Miller reported to Aziza Cooper that she had seen an anglewing (comma) in Goward Park, Cadboro Bay on March 16.   Annie Pang saw two Cabbage Whites in Gorge Park Community Gardens on March 23. She closely watched and photographed the interesting behaviour of one of them, a female, which perched with raised abdomen.  She writes:  I am assuming that she has already laid her eggs and is trying to discourage further mating or is about to lay eggs.  In this correct?  Cris Guppy responds:  The female was indeed trying to discourage males from mating with her. She raised her abdomen to release pheromones that ‘turn off’ the male’s interest in mating. I once had a laboratory colony of Cabbage Whites, and found that I if I had many females in a cage with males there would be a very low rate of mating. The first couple of females that mated would turn off all the rest of the males in the cage, and the rest of the females would not get mated with. All the Pieris and Pontia species do this (probably orangetips and marbles as well, but I am not sure).

Jeremy Tatum writes that he has either been confined to the classroom (with some excellent students) or to bed (with a miserable cold), and hasn’t seen many invertebrates recently, though a bunch of organic Brussels sprouts from the grocery store produced a nice crop of Diamondback Moths.  The first photograph is of one with unusual markings and colour, which had me guessing at first, but Eric LaGasa and I agree that it is probably a Diamondback Moth.  The other two photographs show dorsal and lateral views of more typical individuals.  The little blob of liquid near the third one is meconium from a newly-ecloded individual.

  Plutella xylostella (Lep.: Plutellidae)     Jeremy Tatum

 Plutella xylostella (Lep.: Plutellidae)     Jeremy Tatum