2016 November 10

 

   Annie Pang sends a picture of a soldier fly from Gorge Park, November 8.  Thanks to Rob Cannings for identifying it as Exaireta spinigera.  This is an Australian species, and the first published record of its occurrence in North America was in a 2006 paper by J.E Swann, R.D. Kenner, Rob Cannings and Claudia Copley (J. Ent. Soc. BC, 103, December 2006).  The paper cited about eight hitherto unidentified specimens all from the Victoria or Vancouver areas, dating from 2002. There had been an unpublished sighting of this species in a greenhouse in California in 1985.  This is a large soldier fly. Annie estimated its length from 10 to 12 mm.  Other sources put it as high as 14 mm.  Congratulations to Annie for this interesting record.

 

Exaireta spinigera (Dip.:  Stratiomyidae)   Annie Pang

 

 

   Jeremy Tatum sends a photograph of a more familiar insect, Autographa californica, from the wall of the Elliott Building at UVic this morning.

 Autographa californica (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Jeremy Tatum