INVERTEBRATE ALERT
This blog provides an informal forum for terrestrial invertebrate watchers to post recent sightings of interesting observations in the southern Vancouver Island region. Please send your sightings by email to Jeremy Tatum (tatumjb352@gmail.com). Be sure to include your name, phone number, the species name (common or scientific) of the invertebrate you saw, location, date, and number of individuals. If you have a photograph you are willing to share, please send it along. Click on the title above for an index of past sightings.The index is updated most days.

2023 June 1 evening

2023 June 1 evening

    Jeff Gaskin reports that on Monday May29, in Esquimalt Gorge Park he saw a Twelve-spotted Skimmer and a Western Pondhawk near the ponds in the Japanese gardens.

 

Jeremy Tatum shows a photograph of a Hypena californica, reared from the caterpillar shown on May 19, morning.   Moths of the genus Hypena are remarkable for the long forward-projecting labial palpi in the adult, and the caterpillars, which have only three pairs of mid-abdominal prolegs.   The long palpi have given rise to the name “snouts” for this genus, and so Hypena californica could perhaps be called the California Snout.  This one ecloded (emerged) today and was released to the nettle patches on Lochside Drive north of Blenkinsop Lake.

 

 
Hypena californica (Lep.: Erebidae – Hypeninae)    Jeremy Tatum

 

 

2023 June 1 morning

2023 June 1 morning

    Marie O’Shaughnessy sends photographs, taken on May 30, of a Lorquin’s Admiral near the Lochside Drive pig farm and an Eight-spotted Skimmer from McIntyre Reservoir.

  Lorquin’s Admiral Limenitis lorquini  (Lep.:  Nymphalidae)
Marie O’Shaughnessy


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

 

Jeremy Tatum writes:  I recently made a bad mistake (since corrected) in mistaking a libellulid for an aeshnid.   Dr Rob Cannings offers the following hint (not a sharp, invariable rule, but pretty good most of the time):  Aeshnidae species usually perch vertically, hanging down (not all do, e.g. Aeshna sitchensis often sits flat on ground); Libellulidae species often perch horizontally.

2023 May 31 evening

    Jochen Möhr writes from Metchosin:  Today finally, I was able to get a picture of a Western Spring Azure, obviously an oldish one, perhaps as tired as I.   I have seen them around repeatedly since mid April, but always too fleeting.

Western Spring Azure  Celastrina echo  (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Jochen Möhr

 

Jeremy Tatum writes:  I saw a Milbert’s Tortoiseshell at UVic today.  And at 5:00 pm, the sole butterfly on the Mount Tolmie reservoir was a Red Admiral.

 

2023 May 31 morning

2023 May 31 morning

   Ron Flower found this moth sitting on a tyre of his truck.  We cannot be sure what species it is, but it is possibly Noctua pronuba.  Some wing damage may have been caused by a bird’s beak.

 

Possibly Noctua pronuba (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Ron Flower

 

Marie O’Shaughnessy sends photographs of a Lorquin’s Admiral and an Eight-spotted Skimmer  from Outerbridge Park.

Lorquin’s Admiral Limenitis lorquini (Lep.: Nymphalidae) Marie O’Shaughnessy

 

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

2023 May 30 evening

2023 May 30 evening

   Cheryl Hoyle sends photographs from Francis/King Park, May 30

 

Lophocampa argentata  (Lep.: Erebidae – Arctiinae)  Cheryl Hoyle

 

Euceratia castella (Lep.: Plutellidae)  Cheryl Hoyle

 

Sawfly larva  (Hym.: Tenthredinidae)   Cheryl Hoyle