2024 December 16

No Invertebrate Alerts were issued on December 14 and 15.

Jeremy Tatum writes:  Although there have been no submissions yet (3:00 pm) today, December 16, I am issuing this Alert with an appeal for photographers to visit the Nature House at Goldstream Park to look for and photograph Winter Moths (Operophtera sp.) there.  You’d probably need to go there before Christmas – after Christmas may be too late.  Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to go there myself.

Nearly all Winter Moths that we see in Victoria are the European Winter Moth O. brumata.  However, at Goldstream there is a better than evens chance that you will see and photograph the native Western Winter Moth O. occidentalis.  Photographs of the males are of interest. However, of particular interest would be close-up photos of the wingless females, to see if it is possible to distinguish between the females of the two species.  It probably is possible, but we need to study them.

There is also a small chance of finding the much less common O. danbyi.