2017 July 5

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  This will be the last Invert Alert before I start on holiday tomorrow.  If by any chance I should find myself near a computer and can figure out how it works (both of which are very unlikely) I may try and make one or two postings. Otherwise Invert Alert won’t be back in business before July 22.  By all means save up a very few of your most interesting photographs, but please don’t flood me with huge numbers of photographs of our most frequently-photographed insects when I get back!

We start off today with an insect photographed by Ken Vaughan in the Highlands. This has been identified by Claudia Copley and Libby Avis as a caddisfly of the family Leptoceridae, possibly, suggests Libby, of the genus Oecetis

Caddisfly (Tri.: Leptoceridae)  possibly Oecetis sp.

  Ken Vaughan

   Ken also photographed a soldier beetle in the Highlands.  Charlene Wood writes that they are tricky to identify to species, but that this one does look a lot like Podabrus cavicollis.

Soldier beetle, possibly Podabrus cavicollis (Col.: Cantharidae)  Ken Vaughan

Re the VNHS Monthly Butterfly Walk on Sunday July 2, Jeff Gaskin writes:  At Mount Tolmie we had  :  12 Lorquin’s Admirals, 5 Western and 1 Pale Tiger Swallowtails, and the usual Cabbage Whites. On Stelly’s Cross Road Eddy’s Storage we had :   2 Field Crescents, 25 Essex Skippers, and 1 Cabbage White.  At Island View Beach we had  :  9 Lorquin’s Admirals, 1 Purplish Copper, 14 Large Heaths (Ringlets), 1 Painted Lady, and 19 Essex Skippers.  When we returned to Mount Tolmie at 4:30 pm. on the Mount Tolmie reservoir were  :  1 West Coast Lady and 4 Painted Ladies.

Ann Tiplady writes:  Here is a photo from July 2, in my garden.  A crab spider with a dead honey bee, and particularly interesting was the cloud of very small insects buzzing around the dead honey bee.  I was reminded of jackals around lions at a kill, or arctic foxes around a polar bear at a kill.

Goldenrod Crab Spider Misumena vatia (Ara.: Thomisidae)  Ann Tiplady

    Jeremy Tatum writes:  This is the second time recently that we have seen a crab spider overcome a bee (see June 14 evening).  We can see two of the tiny insects.  They are hymenopterans, probably of the Superfamily Chalcidoidea.

Jeremy Tatum sends a photograph of a Common Emerald Moth from his Saanich apartment garden this morning.

 Common Emerald Hemithea aestivaria (Lep.: Geometridae) Jeremy Tatum

Jody Wells sends a bunch of photographs of invertebrates – one of them found on the beach and not strictly terrestrial – but we’ll allow it this time!

Blue Dasher Pachydiplax longipennis (Odo.: Libellulidae) Jody Wells

Blue Dasher Pachydiplax longipennis (Odo.: Libellulidae) Jody Wells

Polyphylla crinita (Col.: Scarabaeidae)  Jody Wells

Polyphylla crinita (Col.: Scarabaeidae)  Jody Wells

Nereis vexillosa (Phyllodocida: Nereididae)  Jody Wells