INVERTEBRATE ALERT
This blog provides an informal forum for terrestrial invertebrate watchers to post recent sightings of interesting observations in the southern Vancouver Island region. Please send your sightings by email to Jeremy Tatum (tatumjb352@gmail.com). Be sure to include your name, phone number, the species name (common or scientific) of the invertebrate you saw, location, date, and number of individuals. If you have a photograph you are willing to share, please send it along. Click on the title above for an index of past sightings.The index is updated most days.

June 2

2017 June 2

 

From Gordon Hart

 

Hello Butterfly Enthusiasts,
The third Butterfly Walk of 2017 will take place this Sunday, June 4, starting from the top of Mount Tolmie. We meet by the reservoir opposite the summit parking lot at 1:00 p.m. You can park there or in the big parking lot on the north side of the summit. After a look around the summit, we will decide on a destination at that time. We will car-pool from there and likely be back by 4:00 p.m. or so.  As always, the walk is weather-dependent, although the forecast at this point looks reasonably good.
See you on Sunday,

Gordon

 

 

 

   Liam Singh sends a photograph of a spectacular beetle from Gordon Head, kindly identified by Charlene Wood as a Rugose Stag Beetle.

 

Rugose Stag Beetle Sinodendron rugosum (Col.:  Lucanidae)  Liam Singh

 

 

   Ann Tiplady sends a photograph of a Narcissus Bulb Fly.

 

Narcissus Bulb Fly Merodon equestris  (Dip.: Syrphidae) Ann Tiplady

 

 

  Jeremy Tatum reports that an Anise Swallowtail emerged yesterday, reared from a first-instar caterpillar found on parsley on Jochem Moehr’s Metchosin farm in 2015!  Unfortunately, because it was rather active, I didn’t get a photograph, and I had to release it relatively nearby – on Mount Douglas, where the species used to breed and where it is still seen from time to time.  The adult butterfly sometimes emerges in the same year as when the caterpillar pupates, and sometimes the following year, but this is the first one I have known that spent two winters as a pupa. 

 

  Jeremy Tatum reports that, at 6:00 pm today, on and around the reservoir and Jeffery Pine on Mount Tolmie, were several Painted Ladies and Red Admirals – some quite fresh, others rather less so.  Difficult to count exact numbers because of a lot of activity, but I would say half-a-dozen or so of each.

 

   Annie Pang sends photographs of a Black-tailed Bumblebee from Esquimalt Gorge Park.  Thanks to Cory Sheffield and Sean McCann for the identification.

 

Blacktailed Bumblebee Bombus melanopygus  (Hym.: Apidae)  Annie Pang

 

Blacktailed Bumblebee Bombus melanopygus  (Hym.: Apidae)  Annie Pang

 

Blacktailed Bumblebee Bombus melanopygus  (Hym.: Apidae)  Annie Pang