2015 May 13

   Libby Avis writes, from Port Alberni:  Two photos of the stag beetle which we found on May 3^rd at Nile Creek Estuary near Bowser. This was confirmed to the genus Platycerus on Bug Guide.  Scott Gilmore writes:   Libby’s beetles are stag beetles in the family Lucanidae,  genus Platycerus.  Species is a little tougher but the greenish lustre, the mandibles and a few other characters suggest P. oregonensis over P. marginalis which are the two options here.

Platycerus oregonensis. (Col.:  Lucanidae)  Libby Avis

   Libby continues:   And… this Nycteola columbiana flew into the front room on May 7^th. Have only seen it here twice before, so thought you might be interested!

Nycteola columbiana (Lep.: Nolidae) Libby Avis

   Scott Gilmore writes:  The wonderful warm weather over the weekend brought out a number of interesting insects here in Lantzville. I found several families, new to me, of beetles including a Raspberry Fruitworm Beetle Byturus unicolor, in the Byturidae family, at Thimbleberry flowers, the only member of that family in Canada.

Byturus unicolor (Col.: Byturidae)  Scott Gilmore

Hundreds of dry bark beetles, Oxylaemus californicus (family Bothrideridae) were flying near where neighbours had cut down trees in the last week.

Oxylaemus californicus (Col.: Bothrideridae) Scott Gilmore

   Aulonothroscus validus a False Metallic Wood-boring Beetle from the family Thorascidae.

   A remarkable longhorn beetle, a male Holopleura marginata (family Cerambycidae) was found sitting on a dandelion.

Holopleura marginata (Col.: Cerambycidae)  Scott Gilmore

A species of Leaf Rolling beetle (family Attelabidae) from the genus Merhynchites.

   Most surprising of all was finding my first ever Featherwing Beetle (family Ptiliidae). This family has the smallest beetles in the world, many of them with strange life histories like parthenogenic reproduction so that some species are only female. I was lucky to find a “bigger” one at around 1mm long but did not manage to get any good pictures. I am attaching one that shows the remarkable wing of the interesting family that I hope to find again sometime.

Featherwing beetle (Col.: Ptiliidae)

Scott Gilmore

My son and I also came across a species of Grapholita (family: Tortricidae) that I have not seen before.

Grapholita sp. (Lep.: Tortricidae) Scott Gilmore

  Jeremy Tatum writes:  Here is a caterpillar of an American Tissue Moth from Swan Lake today.  Some caterpillars will accept a wide range of foodplants.  Others are specialists.  As far as I know the Tissue Moth caterpillar feeds exclusively on Cascara Rhamnus purshiana (also known as Frangula purshiana).

    Gerry and Wendy Ansell write: We were surprised to find a Common Ringlet sheltering from the wind at Island View Beach this afternoon, May 13. 

    Jeremy Tatum writes that every book that you open puts a different adjective in front of “Ringlet”.  Since it isn’t really a Ringlet at all, I’m going to call it by its original name of Large Heath on this site – or else just use the scientific name!  Island View Beach is a good locality for the species, but May 13 certainly is a little early.

Wendy Ansell