2024 June 14

  Submitting photographs to Invertebrate Alert.  It would be very helpful if PC-contributors would submit photographs as attachments with .jpg or .jpeg extension.  [I hate to put it another way, but it is quite time-consuming and a lot of work when photographs are submitted otherwise!]   This note applies to PC-users.  Only a few are using Macs – please carry on doing it the way you are doing at present.

Also, I must ask contributors to limit themselves to sixpixmax – i.e no more than six pictures from a single contributor per day.  Thank you all!

    Gordon Hart reports a Western Tiger Swallowtail from Uplands Park, June 13.  Geoffrey Newall saw two Sheep Moths there on the same day.

Val George reports the first Red Admiral this year from Mount Douglas, June 13.  Also, there were four Painted Ladies and two or three Pale Tiger Swallowtails.

Painted Lady Vanessa cardui  (Lep.: Nymphalidae)   Val George

Marie O’Shaughnessy writes from Swan Lake, June 12:  Three Cardinal Meadowhawks, two were in tandem and hiding out of the wind.  Two Common Green Darners that wouldn’t hover, just patrolled continuously.  One female Blue Dasher.  Also, there was a very worn Mourning Cloak and a brief visit from a Western Tiger Swallowtail.

 Cardinal Meadowhawk Sympetrum illotum  (Odo.: Libellulidae) Marie O’Shaughnessy

Female Blue Dasher  Pachydiplax longipennis  (Odo.  Libellulidae)  Marie O’Shaughnessy

Ian Cooper photographed this spider spotted on a tree trunk on June 13 in View Royal.  Dr Robb Bennett agrees that it is a species of Cybaeus, possibly C. signifer, but he can’t be certain of the species.

Cybaeus sp. (possibly signifer)   Ian Cooper

2024 June 13

Aziza Cooper photographed this damselfly at McIntyre reservoir, June 12.  Thanks to Dr Rob Cannings for the identification as a young male Tule Bluet that hasn’t yet developed its blue colour.

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

More overnight photographs from Ian Cooper.  All were taken at *Colquitz River Park in Saanich and the #Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal between 3:00 am and dawn this morning, June 13.

Ian says the first spider below hunts woodlice but (writes Jeremy Tatum) I think it’s a man-eater. Viewers are warned not to sit too close to their computer screens, in case the spider jumps out and seizes you.

*Woodlouse Hunter Spider – Dysdera crocata  (Ara.: Dysderidae)   Ian Cooper

*Enoplognatha ovata (Ara.: Theridiidae)  Ian Cooper

#Male Running crab spider – Philodromus dispar (Ara.: Philodromidae)  Ian Cooper

#European Sowbug – Oniscus asellus (Isopoda: Oniscidae)  Ian Cooper

Snail-eating Beetle Scaphinotus angusticollis (Col.: Carabidae)  Ian Cooper

#Unidentified Nematoceran fly (Diptera)  Ian Cooper

2024 June 12

  Jeff Gaskin writes:  Yesterday, June 11, there was a Mourning Cloak in very poor shape on the west side of Panama flats along the north west dyke.

  Missing Butterflies:  The following butterfly species have not yet been reported this year to Invert Alert:
Margined White, Purplish Copper, Grey Hairstreak, Red Admiral, Mylitta Crescent,  Field Crescent

More invertebrate photographs taken by Ian Cooper along the Galloping Goose Trail in View Royal after midnight June 8/9.

Possibly Cybaeus sp.  (Ara.: Cybaeidae)  Ian Cooper

Callobius (probably pictus)   (Ara.: Amaurobiidae)  Ian Cooper

Callobius (probably pictus)   (Ara.: Amaurobiidae)  Ian Cooper

Hairy Spider Weevil – Barypeithes pellucidus (Col.: Curculionidae)  Ian Cooper

Raspberry Weevil – Otiorhynchus singularis (Col.: Curculionidae)  Ian Cooper

Crane fly, possibly Tipula paludosa (Dip.: Tipulidae)  Ian Cooper
This is a female laying her eggs into the side of the mossy tree trunk by the GG trail in View Royal.

Unidentified gnat  (Diptera – Nematocera)  Ian Cooper

2024 June 11

  More of Ian Cooper’s recent photographs of a variety of invertebrates.  In case anyone is wondering, the three slugs below were not placed there to pose for a photograph!  They were all there together when Ian arrived with his camera.

Identifications pending      Ian Cooper

Identification pending   Ian Cooper

Philodromus dispar (Ara.: Philodromidae)   Ian Cooper

Enoplognatha ovata (Ara.: Theridiidae)   Ian Cooper

Scaphinotus angusticollis (Col.: Carabidae),  with mites.   Ian Cooper

Armadillidium vulgare (Isopoda:  Armidillidiidae)   Ian Cooper

Jeff Gaskin writes:   Today, June 11th,    I watched a Common Green Darner for about a minute as it briefly passed through my mom’s backyard in the Burnside/ Gorge neighbourhood.

Gordon Hart writes from the Highlands:   Yesterday, Monday June 10, I saw at least one Pale Tiger Swallowtail several times, and at the end of the day, a Western Tiger Swallowtail. I saw a Lorquin’s Admiral but only briefly.

Aziza Cooper writes:  Today, June 11 at Swan Lake, there was a Western Tiger Swallowtail and a red dragonfly.

   Meadowhawk  Sympetrum sp. (Odo.: Libellulidae)   Aziza Cooper

2024 June 10 evening

   Gordon Hart writes from his Highlands home:  There were Cedar Hairstreaks on Stonecrop (Sedum spathulifolium) , and today on the white flat flower umbels of a Viburnum mariesii , there were two Cedar Hairstreaks and two Western Spring Azures, along with a small bee.

Jeremy Tatum asks:  Is there someone out there who can identify the bee?

Unknown bee (Hym.:  Apidae?)  Gordon Hart

Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo  (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Gordon Hart

       Aziza Cooper writes:  Yesterday, June 9, at Swan Lake there was a green dragonfly near the Nature House. A Western Tiger Swallowtail was there too.

At Boas Road near Spectacle Lake, there were two Western Spring Azures, two blue species, one Pale Tiger Swallowtail and one Cedar Hairstreak. The clearcut is very overgrown now, compared with my last visit  in 2017.

At Goldstream Heights, from the end of Olympic Road to the powerline, there were five Cedar Hairstreaks, 20+ Adela, and three Blue sp.

At the railroad tracks near Goldstream campground, there were six Cedar Hairstreaks, one comma, two blue sp., and one Western Spring Azure.

Cedar Hairstreak  Callophrys gryneus  (Lep.:  Lycaenidae)   Aziza Cooper

Cedar Hairstreak  Callophrys gryneus  (Lep.:  Lycaenidae)   Aziza Cooper

Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo  (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

Female Western Pondhawk Erythemis collocata  (Odo.: Libellulidae)
Aziza Cooper

Adela septentrionella  (Lep.:  Adelidae)   Aziza Cooper

Worker Bombus vancouverensis  (Hym.: Apidae)  Aziza Cooper
Kindly identified for us by Steven Roias

Golden Paper Wasp Polistes aurifer  (Hym.: Vespidae)  Aziza Cooper

Jeff Gaskin writes:   Today, June 10, Kirsten Mills and I saw one Cedar Hairstreak, and two Pale Tiger Swallowtails across the road from the Francis/King Park nature house.  Kirsten also saw a Lorquin’s Admiral nearby.    An Eight-spotted Skimmer and still a few Western Spring Azures were along the Prospect Lake Road powerline.  California Darners were also present.

Marie O’Shaughnessy photographed this Sheep Moth caterpillar in Uplands Park.  Viewers are reminded that this caterpillar can cause an urticating rash if handled.

Sheep Moth Hemileuca eglanterina  (Lep: Saturniidae)
Marie O’Shaughnessy