2024 January 27

   As mentioned on January 23, I am updating my computer system, and this will lead to some delays in Invert Alert.  Invert Alert is still “down”, so we won’t be back to regular service for a few days yet – though I have found a way to post an Alert today, and may also be able to do so again tomorrow.

Ian Cooper sends some photographs of spiders, obtained shortly before the recent cold snap.  We are grateful to Dr Robb Bennett for help with the identifications.

The first two photographs are of a crab spider found in a drawer in James Bay, January 8.  Dr Bennett writes:  Either Bassaniana utahensis or Coriarachne brunneipes; they are both very flat and dark and difficult to differentiate.

Bassaniana utahensis or Coriarachne brunneipes (Ara.: Thomisidae)  Ian Cooper

Bassaniana utahensis or Coriarachne brunneipes (Ara.: Thomisidae)  Ian Cooper

The next one was photographed at Colquitz River Park, January 9.  Dr Bennett writes: Could be a Cybaeus and C. signifer is not a bad guess. But can’t say for sure.

Cybaeus (probably signifer) (Ara.: Cybaeidae)  Ian Cooper

The next two were also photographed in Colquitz River Park, January 9.

Aranaeus diadematus (Ara.: Araneidae)  Ian Cooper

Philodromus (probably rufus) (Ara.: Philodromidae) Ian Cooper

Aziza Cooper writes:  On January 23, members of a VNHS field trip found this European Ground Beetle on a trail near the Derby Road entrance to the Cedar Hill Golf Course.

 Carabus nemoralis  (Col.: Carabidae)  Aziza Cooper

Jeremy Tatum writes:  On January 26 I found my first noctuid moth of the year at my Saanich apartment building.  You cannot see its legs – the moth, I think, may be feigning death.  It is, however, alive and well, with all its legs, and it flew off strongly at dusk.

Egira hiemalis (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum