2024 April 1 evening

Gordon Hart, who has organized the monthly Butterfly Counts for eight years, now wishes to pass the torch on, so we need to find someone to organize these Counts, starting this month.  These Butterfly Counts are an important part of the VNHS’s activities, and we very much hope that someone will volunteer, so that the counts can continue uninterrupted.  Please, if you would like to help in this way, get in touch with Gordon (hartgordon19@gmail.com), who will be happy to help you to get started. 

   We all thank Gordon for organizing these Counts for us over the years. He will continue to organize the monthly Butterfly Walks as usual, starting in May.  For details, watch this site and the Victoria Naturalist.

Jeff Gaskin writes:

Yesterday afternoon, March 31st, I went up Christmas Hill and saw my first of the year Western Spring Azure. I saw only one, as well as a Satyr Comma.

2024 March 31

  Here are photographs of two Grey Field Slugs, one photographed by Ian Cooper at Colquitz River Park on March 29, and the other, of a slightly unusual colour, by Aziza Cooper on Mount Tolmie, March 27.

Deroceras reticulatum (Pul.: Agriolimacidae)  Ian Cooper

Deroceras reticulatum (Pul.: Agriolimacidae)  Aziza Cooper

Here are further recent photographs of invertebrates by Ian Cooper:

Lauria cylindracea  (Pul.: Lauriidae) Ian Cooper

Harvestman (Opiliones)   Ian Cooper

Harvestman (Opiliones)   Ian Cooper

Armadillidium vulgare  (Isopoda:  Armidillidiidae)   Ian Cooper

Camel cricket, possibly Pristoceuthophilus celatus (Orth.: Rhaphidophoridae)
Ian Cooper

Aziza Cooper writes:
Yesterday, March 30, a moth was in my house. Today, March 31, one Western Spring Azure was in front of the Swan Lake Nature House. Two Mourning Cloaks were seen on the trails at Swan Lake.

Today, March 31, Jeremy Tatum saw two Western Spring Azures at Swan Lake, and a Mourning Cloak and a California Tortoiseshell on the Mount Tolmie reservoir.  Jeff Gaskin reports a Mourning Cloak today at the corner of Wascana Street and Gorge Road West.

Nomenia obsoleta/Venusia pearsalli  (Lep. Geometridae)  Aziza Cooper

For a long time we (Invert Alert) have had difficulty in distinguishing between the similar Venusia obsoleta  and V. pearsalli, and we have been sort of hoping that the taxonomists might one day lump them as one species.  Alas, they went the other way, and they are now in separate genera, as you see from the label to the above photograph.  And we still can’t tell them apart!

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

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

2024 March 30 morning

Spring!

Jeremy Tatum writes:  According to my (astronomical) definition, Spring started here on March 19.  However, many butterfly-watchers believe that Spring starts when the first Orangetip butterfly is seen.

Jules Thomson reports having seen two Sara Orangetips on March 27, on the upper south facing slope of the main summit of Mount Douglas, just west and below the upper parking lot, in low shrub area with short spindly oak.

2024 March 29

   Ian Cooper sends photographs of a March Fly (also known as St Mark’s Fly).   Dr Rob Cannings writes: “This is a female of a species of Bibio (Diptera: Bibionidae). Known as March Flies (some appear in March). This is the only genus we have here in the family, but there are quite a few species and I can’t tell them apart without a microscope and a lot of trouble!

Interestingly, the most abundant insects found in BC Eocene fossils are in the genus Plecia in the same family. Plecia doesn’t get much farther north now than Florida, I think.”

Bibio sp. (Dip.: Bibionidae)  Ian Cooper

Bibio sp. (Dip.: Bibionidae)  Ian Cooper

Jochen Möhr sends photographs of two pug moths from Metchosin.  They are clearly one of two similar species, Eupithecia ravocostaliata or E. nevadata.  Jeremy Tatum thinks probably E. ravocostaliata,  but this is not a certain identification.  They could be the other one.

Eupithecia  (probably ravocostaliata)  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr

Eupithecia  (probably ravocostaliata)  (Lep.: Geometridae)  Jochen Möhr