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 5

2107 June 5

 

   Here are some photographs from yesterday’s VNHS Butterfly Walk to Mount Tolmie and Layritz Park.

 

Painted Lady Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Nymphalinae)  Aziza Cooper

 

Painted Lady Vanessa cardui (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Nymphalinae)  Gordon Hart

 

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Nymphalinae) Aziza Cooper

 

Large Heath (“Ringlet”) Coenonympha tullia (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Satyrinae)

Aziza Cooper

 

Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)  Aziza Cooper

 

Western Spring Azure Celastrina echo (Lep.: Lycaenidae)

Honey Bee Apis mellifera (Hym.: Apidae)

Gordon Hart

 

 

Large Heaths (“Ringlets”) Coenonympha tullia (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Satyrinae)

Gordon Hart

 

Large Heaths (“Ringlets”) Coenonympha tullia (Lep.: Nymphalidae – Satyrinae)

Gordon Hart

 

 

   And more photographs from elsewhere yesterday.  Ken Vaughan was at Beaver Lake Retriever Ponds and he photographed a dragonfly and a butterfly:

 

Cardinal Meadowhawk Sympetrum illotum (Odo.: Libellulidae) Ken Vaughan

 

Cedar Hairstreak Mitoura rosneri (Lep.: Lycaenidae) Ken Vaughan

 

   On June 2, Dar Churcher photographed a Green Pug in Colwood.

 

Green Pug Pasiphila rectangulata (Lep.: Geometridae) Dar Churcher

 

 

  And a big thank you to Corry Sheffield for identifying these tiny bees photographed by Ann Tiplady on Mount Tolmie during the June 4 butterfly walk.

 

   They are all Ceratina (Zadontomerus) that cannot be identified to species with certainty. Ann remarks that not all of them were the same size, so possibly more than one species was involved.  For those unfamiliar with the way these things are named, the “Zadontomerus” in italics, with a capital Z, following the genus name in parentheses, means Subgenus Zadontomerus.  That is, Cory was able to identify it below genus level as far as subgenus – but not as far as species.

 

Ceratina (Zadontomerus) sp. (Hym.:  Apidae)   Ann Tiplady



Ceratina (Zadontomerus) sp. (Hym.:  Apidae)   Ann Tiplady

 

Ceratina (Zadontomerus) sp. (Hym.:  Apidae)   Ann Tiplady