2017 January 31

 Index  

We are pleased to say that we have now re-installed the Index of photographs that have appeared on Invertebrate Alert, dating back to the beginning of the site in 2010.  Once you have logged on to the site, if you then click on the large white words INVERTEBRATE ALERT at the top of the page, if all goes well you will immediately get the Index.  The names are given as scientific names only – so you’ll need to know the scientific name of the animal that you are looking for.  The Index is arranged alphabetically by Class, then alphabetically by Order within each Class, then alphabetically by Family within each Order, and so on. The Index gives the dates on which the species in question was posted, so you then have to go back to the site and scroll down to the date needed.  I’m sorry that the Index doesn’t give more information, such as English names, or name of photographer – but, as you can imagine, it was quite a bit of work as is, and I think you’ll probably be able to find your way about reasonably quickly.  While I compiled the Index myself, thanks to Adam Taylor for managing to get it up on the site in a form that you can easily view and which I can update periodically.  Jeremy Tatum

Over the years, we have had several photographs of our large local June scarab beetle, including two recent photographs of its larva.  I have labelled them as Polyphylla decemlineata.  Thanks to Claudia Copley for pointing out that our local species is in fact more likely to be Polyphylla crinita.  If I can find a moment sometime, I’ll see if I can relabel them

Scott Gilmore sends a photograph of a snout mite from the family Bdellidae, found under stones in his backyard in Lantzville, January 29 – 30.

Snout mite. probably Neomolgus littoralis (Aca.: Bdellidae)  Scott Gilmore

University of Alberta acarologist Heather Proctor writes: It is indeed a bdellid, looking wistfully skywards! Possibly Neomolgus littoralis, if Scott’s backyard is very close to the ocean  –  although the Neomolgus littoralis I’ve seen on Vancouver Island have little white bootees (see attached, from Bamfield).   [Jeremy notes:  Scott’s mite is on a pale background, but it you look closely at Scott’s photograph, and others that he supplied, his mite does indeed seem to have white tarsi, though not quite as conspicuous as Heather’s, which are on a dark background.]

 Snout mite. Neomolgus littoralis (Aca.: Bdellidae)  Heather Proctor

   Scott also photographed a flat-backed millipede from the Family Polydesmidae.  Claudia tells me that we do have someone in Victoria who is knowledgeable about millipedes, but she is out of the country at the moment, so we’ll leave the label at Family level for the time being.

 Flat-backed millipede (Polydesmida:  Polydesmidae)  Scott Gilmore