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document.writeln('January 29
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document.writeln('Barry Camp reports a Southern Lady Beetle walking along his indoor ');
document.writeln('windowsill yesterday. I had ');
document.writeln('to search around a bit to find which species he was referring to, but I think ');
document.writeln('Barry is referring to the ubiquitous introduced species Harmonia axyridis. This species has been given a great ');
document.writeln('many different English names - indeed it has been suggested that it should ');
document.writeln('be called the Many-named Lady Beetle! I have sometimes raised objections ');
document.writeln('to coccinellid beetles being called "ladybugs", on the grounds that they are not ');
document.writeln('bugs at all. I have said that they ');
document.writeln('should be called ladybirds. But ');
document.writeln('then I was put in my place when it was pointed out that they are not birds, ');
document.writeln('either! Perhaps Barry has found the ');
document.writeln('right solution in calling them lady beetles.
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January 2
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Technical hitch! Viewers may have ');
document.writeln('noticed that the photos are omitted in some of the "retired" months, only ');
document.writeln('the text appearing. This is not by design. It is an unexpected ');
document.writeln('computer glitch. We probably shan\'t be able to do much about it before ');
document.writeln('sometime in February, but, if the photos still exist somewhere out there in ');
document.writeln('cyberspace, we\'ll attempt to restore the full retired months then.
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document.writeln('December 30
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document.writeln(' Most of the "winter moths" ');
document.writeln('that we see in urban and suburban Victoria are the introduced European Winter ');
document.writeln('Moth Operophtera brumata. O. brumata has featured several times ');
document.writeln('on this site, most recently on December 2. I was excited ');
document.writeln('today to see that among the Operophtera ');
document.writeln('moths gathered around the lights at the Goldstream Park Nature House, many ');
document.writeln('of them are our native species, Operophtera bruceata. Thanks to park naturalist Brie for ');
document.writeln('helping me to set up my camera to photograph one of them. The caterpillar is sometimes ');
document.writeln('called "Bruce\'s Spanworm", though generally naturalists prefer to give English ');
document.writeln('names to the adult moths rather than to the larvae, and if course it\'s not a ');
document.writeln('"worm".
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document.writeln('Operophtera bruceata (Lep.: Geometridae) ');
document.writeln(' Jeremy ');
document.writeln('Tatum
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December 04
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document.writeln('Bill Savale and Jeremy Tatum found a road-killed Saw-whet Owl along ');
document.writeln('Interurban ');
document.writeln('Road in Saanich today. It was carrying quite a lot of biting ');
document.writeln('lice (feather lice), formerly of the order Mallophaga, now apparently ');
document.writeln('Phthiraptera. Either way, it is a ');
document.writeln('new insect order to be added to this site. ');
document.writeln('Not being lice experts, we haven\'t formally identified the louse, but ');
document.writeln('Bill suggested that it is a member of the genus Strigiphilus (which means owl-lover), ');
document.writeln('and presumably from the host it is probably S. acadicus, though we have not examined ');
document.writeln('the insect in detail with a key.
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Presumed to be Strigiphilus acadicus (Phth.: Philopteridae) ');
document.writeln('Jeremy Tatum
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December 02
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Jeremy Tatum sends a ');
document.writeln('photograph of a female Winter Moth ');
document.writeln('from the garden of his Saanich apartment today. The female has mere stumps for wings, ');
document.writeln('and she does not fly. Her role in ');
document.writeln('life is to lay eggs.
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Winter Moth Operophtera ');
document.writeln('brumata (Lep.: ');
document.writeln('Geometridae) ');
document.writeln('Jeremy Tatum
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December ');
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Ann Nightingale writes that she, too, noticed (on November ');
document.writeln('23) some ladybird beetles which seemed to be having difficulty tucking ');
document.writeln('their wings under their elytra. (See Barry Camp\'s observation posted on ');
document.writeln('November 7.) She thinks that some of them may have only recently emerged ');
document.writeln('from their pupae, and that this is rather late in the year for them to be doing ');
document.writeln('that. Has anyone else noticed?
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November 22
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We have produced an Index of ');
document.writeln('the photographs of the invertebrates that have been posted on this site. You will find the index if you go to the ');
document.writeln('very bottom of this page, where all the "retired" months are.
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document.writeln('November 12
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document.writeln(' Gwen Greenwood found a most ');
document.writeln('interesting caterpillar on Mount ');
document.writeln('Newton, Saanich Peninsula, on October 9. We believe it is of the genus Lophocampa, but we don\'t know what ');
document.writeln('species it is. Another possibility ');
document.writeln('might be a species of Panthea ');
document.writeln('(Noctuidae). If anyone out there can ');
document.writeln('identify it, please do let us know. ');
document.writeln('We are all very intrigued by it.
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document.writeln('Lophocampa sp. (Lep.: Arctiidae) ? ');
document.writeln('Gwen Greenwood
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November 7
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Barry Camp reports that he has ');
document.writeln('great numbers of ladybird beetles, of five species, at his home in Saanich, but ');
document.writeln('that many of them appear to be deformed - unable to fold their hindwings neatly ');
document.writeln('under their elytra. I wonder if ');
document.writeln('anyone else has noticed anything like this?
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