2017 March 20

 

   Welcome to Spring, which started at 3:30 PDT this morning. 

 

   It’s a pretty cold start to the season.  Libby Avis in Port Alberni remarks that it’s the slowest start to the season that she can remember, though she has had a few moths in the past week: 2 Eupsilia tristigmata, 3 Egira hiemalis and several Eupithecia gilvipennata.

 

   To help those who have no idea what all these long names are:  E. stigmata is a noctuid moth whose caterpillar feeds on various shrubs and low-growing plants (and also on other caterpillars if the opportunity presents itself!).  The moth spends the winter in the adult state, and so is often one of the earliest moths to be seen.  E. hiemalis is also a noctuid.  Its caterpillar feeds on Douglas Fir.  It overwinters as a pupa, and is one of the earliest moths to eclode (emerge) from its pupa.   E. gilvipennata is one of these small, narrow-winged geometrids known as “pugs”, most of which are challenging to identify. E. gilvipennata, however, is considerate enough to be well-marked for a pug, and, although variable, it is usually relatively (as pugs go!) easy to identify.  I have never seen the caterpillar, but it is said to feed on the flowers of Arbutus and Arctostaphylos.

 

  Libby agrees with my tentative identification of Nathan Fisk’s moth in yesterday’s posting as Hydriomena nubilofasciata or manzanita – more probably the former.

 

  In the complete absence, so far, of butterflies, and the paucity of moths, contributors are sending me all sorts of challenging invertebrates to identify (and please continue to do so!).  Ken Vaughan sends me the photograph below of  “a fly/midge/mosquito I found in my bathroom.  It didn’t strike me as a run-of-the-mill mosquito.”

 

Winter gnat (Dip.: Trichoceridae)  Ken Vaughan

 

  Well (writes Jeremy Tatum), that is a bit of a challenge, though I think we can be certain at the Family level.  It is a winter gnat of the Family Trichoceridae.  We’d need a specialist to go further than that.  If anyone can go down to genus or species level, please do let us know. In spite of what looks like a fierce proboscis, I don’t believe it can bite a human. Viewers may recall that a Gnat appears in Through the Looking-glass, and What Alice Found There.