2025 July 18 morning

   A selection of photographs by Ian Cooper from his July 15 /16 2025 photo shoot along the E&N trail and near the 9 km marker of the GG trail in View Royal.

  The first is the cocoon of a bagworm moth.  The cocoon is made by the caterpillar and decorated with short sections of grass stems.  The caterpillar lives in the cocoon and pupates inside it.  If it is a male, a small black moth emerges.  If it is a female, however, the female adult moth is flightless and remains inside the cocoon, waiting for a male to find her and mate.

Psyche casta  (Lep.: Psychidae)     Ian Cooper

Complex Enoplognatha ovata  (Ara.:  Theridiidae)   Ian Cooper

Cybaeus sp.  (Ara.: Cybaeidae)  Ian Cooper

Probably Tipula pubera   (Dip.: Tipulidae)   Ian Cooper

Philaenus sp. (Hem.: Aphrophoridae)   Ian Cooper

Phytocoris sp.  (Hem.: Miridae)  Ian Cooper

Homoneura sp. (Dip.: Lauxaniidae)  Ian Cooper

2025 July 17 evening

Aziza Cooper writes:
Today, July 17, at Mount Douglas summit there were:
Pale Tiger Swallowtail – 1
Western Tiger Swallowtail – 1
Anise Swallowtail – 1
American Lady – 1

Also July 17, at Mount Tolmie:
Pale Tiger Swallowtail – 1
Lorquin’s Admiral – 1
Painted Lady – 1
Cabbage White – 1

Aziza sends these photographs:

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

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

American Lady Vanessa virginiensis (Lep.: Nymphalidae)
Aziza Cooper

American Lady Vanessa virginiensis (Lep.: Nymphalidae)
Aziza Cooper

2025 July 17 morning

   Sher Falls sends this photograph of a Yellow Velvet Beetle Lepturobosca chrysocoma.  Thanks to Scott Gilmore for confirming Sher’s identification.

Lepturobosca chrysocoma  (Col. Cerambycidae)  Sher Falls

   Val George writes:  These two moths were at my Oak Bay house yesterday, July 16. The Small Magpie Moth Anania hortulata was in the garden; the Elder Moth Zotheca tranquilla was on the wall of the house.

Anania hortulata  (Lep.: Crambidae)   Val George

Zotheca tranquilla  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Val George

2025 July 16

   This small moth was at Jeremy Tatum’s Saanich apartment this morning. 

Carcina quercana  (Lep.:  Depressariidae)     Jeremy Tatum

 

  Ian Cooper writes:  I took many photos over a six-hour photo shoot excursion along the E&N trail and the GG trail in View Royal on July 15 / 16.

Telphusa sedulitella (Lep.: Gelechiidae)  Ian Cooper

Agrilus sp.  (Col.: Buprestidae)  Ian Cooper

 Camel cricket  Pristoceuthophilus celatus 
(Orth.: Rhaphidophoridae)
 Ian Cooper

Unidentified Jumping Bristletail
(Order Archaeognatha, Family Machilidae) 
Ian Cooper

Meadow Spittlebug Philaenus spumarius  (Hem.: Cercopidae)
  Ian Cooper

Western Leafcutting bee  Megachile perihirta 
(Hym.: Megachilidae)
  Ian Cooper

2025 July 15

   From Jeremy Tatum’s Saanich apartment this morning.  A relative of the Silverfish and the Firebrat.

Ctenolepisma longicaudata   (Zygentoma:  Lepismatidae) 
Jeremy Tatum

   Sher Falls found this insect in her yard today.   Doesn’t it look like an ichneumonid?    But, if you saw it live, you’d see that its antennae were not moving rapidly to and fro all the time like an ichneumonid’s does.  And if you look more closely, you would see what look like a pair of very short beetle-like elytra – which is why I (Jeremy Tatum) sent it to Scott Gilmore for identification.  Scott identified it as labelled beneath the photograph.

Necydalis laevicollis (Col.: Cerambycidae)   Sher Falls

2025 July 14 evening

  This morning, Val George had this hawk moth and two of the emeralds on the wall of the Swan Lake Nature House.

Smerinthus ophthalmica  (Lep.: Sphingidae)   Val George

Nemoria unitaria (Lep.: Geometridae)  Val George

   Ian Cooper sends some photographs from his July 11 2025 photo shoot in *Colquitz River Park and the #Galloping Goose trail in View Royal.

#Female Dwarf Spider  Agyneta sp. (Ara.: Linyphiidae) 
 Ian Cooper

Rugathodes sexpunctatus (Ara.: Theridiidae)   Ian Cooper 

*Complex Enoplognatha ovata (Ara.: Theridiidae)   Ian Cooper

*Steatoda  (possibly borealis) (Ara.: Theridiidae)   Ian Cooper

*Threeband Slug Ambigolimax sp. (Pul.: Limacidae)   Ian Cooper

# Dung fly  Probanly Scathophaga sp.  (Dip.: Scathophagidae) 
 Ian Cooper

2025 July 14 morning

   Aziza Cooper writes:   On July 13, at Mount Douglas, there were:

American Lady – 2
West Coast Lady – 1
Pale Tiger Swallowtail – 2
Western Tiger Swallowtail – 1
Anise Swallowtail – 1
Lorquin’s Admiral – 1

American Lady  Vanessa virginiensis  (Lep.: Nymphalidae) 
Aziza Cooper

West Coast Lady  Vanessa annabella  (Lep.: Nymphalidae) 
Aziza Cooper

American Lady  Vanessa virginiensis  (Lep.: Nymphalidae) 
Aziza Cooper

West Coast Lady  Vanessa annabella  (Lep.: Nymphalidae) 
Aziza Cooper

Anise Swallowtail  Papilio zelicaon  (Lep.: Papilionidae) 
Aziza Cooper

   Gordon Hart sends a photograph of an Eight-spotted Skimmer from the Highlands.

Eight-spotted Skimmer Libellula forensis  (Odo.: Libellulidae)   Gordon Hart

2025 July 13 evening

   Two views by Ian Cooper of a Large Yellow Underwing moth:

Noctua pronuba  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Ian Cooper

Noctua pronuba  (Lep.: Noctuidae)  Ian Cooper

2025 July 13 morning

   Ian Cooper sends more pictures from his pre-dawn /early morning photo shoot of July 11 2025 in *Colquitz River Park, the #Galloping Goose trail in View Royal and along the ^E&N trail.

*Clubiona sp. (possibly lutescens)  (Ara.: Clubionidae)  Ian Cooper

#Bombus vosnesenskii (Hym.: Apidae)  Ian Cooper

* Western Earwig  Forficula dentata  (Derm.:  Forficulidae)
  Ian Cooper

# Raspberry Weevil  Otiorhynchus singularis (Col.: Curculionidae) 
 Ian Cooper

2025 July 12

   Aziza Cooper writes:
   On July 11, Mount Douglas summit had 3 Pale Tiger Swallowtails, 1 Western Tiger Swallowtail, 2 Lorquin’s Admirals, 1 Cabbage White, 1 Anise Swallowtail and several red-brown flybys that I could not identify.  None of them except the Anise would sit still.

On Mount Tolmie, one Painted Lady was on the road by the Jeffrey Pine.

Anise Swallowtail Papilio zelicaon  (Lep.: Papilionidae)  
Aziza Cooper

   Jeremy Tatum writes:   I went to Mount Douglas at 5:45 pm today (July 12).  There were two butterflies flying around the Teacup: – an Anise Swallowtail, and a Lady.  As Aziza said, only the swallowtail would keep still, and I could not identify the Lady.  It could have been any of the three.  (Val George photographed an American Lady there on July 10.)  Perhaps some butterfliers could go up there and see what Ladies are there.

   Ian Cooper sends some photographs taken before dawn and in the early morning of July 11 in *Colquitz River Park, the #Galloping Goose trail in View Royal and along the ^E&N trail in View Royal and Vic West.

  Jeremy Tatum writes:  Rarely can I identify a moth from the underside alone, but I think this is a nicely-posed photograph of Caripeta aequaliaria.

#Almost certainly Caripeta aequaliaria  (Lep.: Geometridae) 
Ian Cooper

#Alucita montana (Lep.: Alucitidae)  Ian Cooper

Dolichovespula arenaria  (Hym.: Vespidae)   Ian Cooper

^Bombus fervidus californicus (Hym.: Apidae)   Ian Cooper

^ Bombus vosnesenskii (Hym.: Apidae)   Ian Cooper 

# Meriola californica (Ara.: Trachelidae)   Ian Cooper

* Medetera sp. (Dip.: Dolichopodidae)  Ian Cooper