Pulling apart a log one afternoon I was very surprised to find a neat little row of flies in a hollow groove hibernating. When I brought them into the warmth of the house he was soon awake and alert. You can tell that it is a male by the closeness of the eyes at the top of his head. The cluster flies are just a little bit larger than house or blow flies, when at rest their wings fold over each other and there is  a patch of golden hair under their wings. They will  winter in houses in attics or any warm space and emerge when it is warm and be generally annoying - but that is really their only vice as they don't bite, infest food and they aren't known to transmit diseases.   They lay their eggs in the spring outside in cracks in the soil. The larvae or maggots are parasites on earthworms They wait for one to slither by and then burrow in to feed. In four to five weeks the life cycle is complete. There also are reports that they will use caterpillars as a host.  

For a long time there  was thought to be only one species of Pollenia in North American but when there was a close examination of the collections six species were determined to occur here. The key, Cluster Flies (Calliphoridae: Polleniinae: Pollenia) of North America by Jewiss-Gaines et. al. (2012) has photographs of each and distributions. Even with this and a lot of peering at leg hairs I am not totally convinced which species that this was. I *think* that it is Pollenia rudis. This is the more common one and the one that species that was considered to be in North America prior to the splitting. All six species have been found in B.C.

It is assumed that cluster flies were introduced from their native Europe in soil in the ballasts of ships with the earthworm. 

This is one of those species that when you go to find some interesting and fun facts, you are met with a wall of pages on how best to get rid of it.  It seems that this is justified in North America.  Otiorhynchus sulcatus was first officially reported from Connecticut in 1910, there are suspicions that it has been around since the 1830's, transported from Europe on plant material. 

The wing coverings, or elytra are fused together, so the adults can't fly. They  are nocturnal and spend the days under leaf litter and detritus, until they begin to roam after dark. There are only females in the population! 


Black vine weevils have been recorded on over a 100 host plants, commonly on azaleas, rhododendrons, yew, hemlock, cranberries....in other words a real bugger in nurseries, seed orchards and farms. The damage from the adults is mostly cosmetic consisting of nibbles on the greenery and it is the larvae that cause the real damage by eating the roots. They can cause considerable damage before they are discovered. 

I found dozens of these wee (~8-9 mm) skinny millipedes curled up in the soil where the garlic was about to be planted. They are Blaniulus guttulatus, an introduced species from western Europe. They can be a pest if there is already damage from fungus or mechanical damage so that the millipede can get inside the crop. Touch one of the garlic cloves and there will be war! 

The red spots are defensive glands that contain palmityl acetate (Weatherston et. al. 1971) , which was the first time that an acetate was found as a defense mechanism in a millipede. 

B. guttulatus is prone to desiccation and is more commonly found in heavier soils that stay moist. Which is what we try to do with the garlic. In this photograph you can see some of the typical millipede design; the thoracic segments, of which there are three. The first has no legs ("head" to me), then the 2nd and 3rd have a single pair of legs and then moving on, you get to the abdomen with two pairs of legs. All those legs are useful for pushing the long body through the soil or leaf litter. Away from the garlic. 

Most people seemed to be surprized that there is such a thing as a "weedy" orchid, but there is. Epipactis helleborine  is a introduced plant that is most often found in dry, shady areas. 
It is often overlooked, and usually not very showy.  However,  this plant, a seedling that popped up in one of the herb gardens, was recieving additional water from our drip irrigation system - and produced a 0.8 m spike of green and purplish-red flowers.  They are insect pollinated plants, most often wasps and bees (you can see the back end of a Bald-faced Hornet on the lower right hand side of the flower spike).

This species has an enormous range, it is native from Portugal to China and has been widely introduced elsewhere.  Not surprisingly there are a number of subspecies and described forms.  

Nectar of this species apparently contains small quantities of Oxycodone and another opiod compound. Like most orchids the seeds are tiny, and it is estimated that a single Helleborine can produce up to a million seeds.  

 
This introduced species of wasp is from the western US States. The galls are tiny, pin head sized round galls that form the house and shouldn't be confused with the other species of gall often found on Garry Oak (#24).  On Vancouver Island it was first found in 1986, and it is assumed to have been introduced here.  

Inside the gall, the larvae of the wasp is curled into a "C" shape, eventually reaching 1.5 mm long.   The larvae lives inside the gall feeding on the interior of the gall wall.

The jumping gall wasp (Neuroterus saltatorius) completes two generations each year. The first generation is "gamic", consisting of both males and females, while the second generation is made up of  only females. The first generation is started by the females emerging from underground and laying up to 150 eggs in the swelling buds of Garry Oak in the second half of March.  Adults emerge from these galls in the first half of May. Some clumps of galls produce males and other females, but not both. 
Females are darker, with more rounded abdomens than males.

After mating, a gamic female lays up to 70 eggs one at a time,  on the underside of the leaf, preferring the most recently formed unhardened leaves at the end of the branches. In early June the "agamic" generation have hatched and  tiny galls begin to form on the lower surface of the leaf  and by mid-June many of these galls have matured into mustard seed-like galls,  1.0–1.5 mm  in diameter.

  The galls start to fall off the leaf in late June to mid July with a small  number dropping off in August and September. 
Once on the ground the curled larvae flexed and the flexible walls of the round gall move.  The purpose of this movement is to work the gall into the soil to overwinter there.  Often however, the gall jumps from this flexing motion, hence the name.  On dry July days you can hear the noise of jumping galls  as they move and land on the dry leaf litter. The "jumping period" can last for 8 weeks.  The wasp pupates in the gall, underground and is fully adult inside the gall by October, but stays inside until spring. 

Heavily infested trees can have a scorched appearance by mid summer, and it can cause leaf drop.  An excellent extenion pamphlet on the life history of this species can be found by clicking here.

Running Crab Spider (Philodromus dispar) is a common crab spider found in trees and bushes at Leaning Oaks.  It is a" sit-and-wait" predator and hunts by ambushing its prey.  It does not build a web (what looks like a web in this photograph are actually reflections of its legs on a thermopane window ).  Males are a shiny black or dark brown with a white edging, females are much more variable in both size and colour.   As you can see the palps are large on this species (making it look like it is wearing boxing gloves). This male was photographed hunting at night on the sliding glass doors on the house, no doubt attracted to the insects lured by the lights inside the house.  It is yet another introduced invertebrate from Europe.

This is another introduced Woodlouse from Europe, and a handsome one at that.  Striped Woodlice (Philoscia muscorum) are named for the dark stripe that runs down the back of the animal.  It's other common name the Fast Woodlouse is a reference to its ability to run more quickly than the other common woodlice. Native to Europe, it was been introduced into parts of North America, including Washington State and BC,  and New Zealand.

California Quail (Callipepla californica) are noisy, visible parts of the avifauna of Leaning Oaks.  We have several pairs using the property this breeding season.  Some years they disappear for the winter months, and some years we have large groups visiting the bird feeders throughout the year.  They almost always successfully hatch chicks here, but some years the chicks succumb to wet weather and other years they are preyed on extensively by Cooper's Hawks.

California Quail are introduced species here, brought onto Vancouver Island as a game bird.

Aack! Unbelievable! Rant, grumble, curse, stomp, stomp, pull, curse. How can there still be bloom sized broom anywhere on the property, let alone within easy sight of a main trail? When we arrived at Leaning Oaks 17 years ago, we faced a meadow of broom, thick and tall and blooming. What has ensued has been a non-stop (well, except when I did a severe back thing while pulling) commitment to annihilation of Cytisus scoparius.

We have seen tangible results - the meadow wildflowers are much thicker and widespread without the shading and space-sucking broom. It has been SO rewarding to see these increase over the years.

There are reasons that it is so pervasive.  The green, photosynthesizing stems enable the plants to continue happily along despite leaf loss due to drought or herbivory.  Each plant can disperse an average of 18 000 seeds and these seeds can live in the ground for up to  30 years after being spectacularly catapulted up to five metres away from the plant. I have seen figures like 42,000 seeds and 60 years, but there is a tendency for hyperbole when it comes to Scotch broom. 

Captain Walter Grant, a "homesick Scot" that lived in Sooke seems to get most of the blame for the introduction of this plant in 1851 from seeds that he picked up on the Sandwich Islands. It was the next owner of the property in 1853, Anne Muir, that apparently insisted that the three plants that had sprouted be kept as they reminded her of her home in Scotland. This plant that is now is found on much of the island and mainland to the Kootenays and south to California had multiple introductions. John Murray writes that when he arrived in Fort Victoria in 1849, there was at the base of Beacon Hill a "here and there growing luxuriantly, a bunch of broom".  This introduction is attributed to Governor James Douglas and some seeds that he had picked up in Oregon.  It is also thought that seeds arrived via the rocks and dirt that were used as ballast in ships.  The ships would dump this load willy nilly and was a source of many plant introductions here and particularly on the east coast. The late 1800's were a great time for an invader that loved disturbed soil and freshly logged patches - this was happening all around southern Vancouver Island!

Scotch broom was planted extensively along road ways, banks and below power lines for stabilization; it was perfect as it grows very quickly and is drought tolerant, spreads (duh) and the long roots do a great job of holding the soil.

For a fabulous read on the human history of broom and the myriad of ways that broom, and other European seeds were easily available and the people behind the broom,  "Glistening Patches of Gold" by Troy Lee.  I could go on and on with the tidbits that I learned from this essay. 

Stephanitis takeyai was introduced in eastern North America in 1946 from Japan and can be a serious pest in the nursery trade on Pieris japonica. The first record from BC was 2001 in Richmond on a P. japonica (Scudder 2004).  This wee tingid was caught in a spider web, so we don't know what the host was on Leaning Oaks as we are Pierisless. We do have a few of the less common hosts, Rhododendron, Azalea and Salix. We will now be watching for yellowing and mottling on the upper side of the leaves, one sign that they are feeding on the underside.  

Apparently there can be four to five generations per year in Connecticut where there has been research done on this pest. I couldn't find anything on generation time for the population in the west.  

Scudder, G.. Heteroptera (Hemiptera: Prosorrhyncha) New to Canada. Part 2. Journal of the Entomological Society of British Columbia, North America, 101, 2004. Available at: <http://journal.entsocbc.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/76>. Date accessed: 13 Feb. 2015.

Himalayan Cotoneaster, also known as Khasia Berry, is an naturalised  introduced shrub here at Leaning Oaks.  For the most part, it goes largely unnoticed on a thin soiled, dry slope in part shade.  This year however, the cold snap has come at exactly the right time to catch the foliage at the point of turning and the leaves have turned scarlet, making it stand out like a beacon in the woods. ( Cotoneaster simonsii) is native to the Himalayan mountains of India, Bhutan and Nepal and high elevations of Myanmar.  It is sometimes used as hedging material and grown for its dense growth and scarlet berries.  I have never seen it become an aggressive weed here, but it is considered such in some other places, particularly in Australia. 

Or Chestnut Slug -or in several places , "no common name".  Derocerus invadens went totally unnoticed by us until malacologist Robert Forsyth was visiting, turned over a tile and pointed it out. He also happens to be the person who wrote the Land Snails of BC. He knows his stuff. 
This species has been tracked on its invasive path  from Italy in many parts of the world, seemingly only limited by cold winters. The first record in Canada was 1966 in a greenhouse in Quebec and then the first outside record was at UBC in 1974. Since then it has been found in various locations on southern Vancouver Island (Hutchison et al 2014).  That same paper cites a study where this species was unable to survive a temperature colder than -6.4 deg. C. It hit -5 a couple of nights ago and we do get below that a number of times in the winter, so whether the tramp becomes another pest at Leaning Oaks is yet to be determined! 

I was quite keen on the jaunty art nouveau pattern, found on the orb weaver Metellina segmentata. 

The web that this spider spins has no threads at its centre. This is common for the tetragnathid spiders. M. segmentata was introduced to the Vancouver area from Europe and is now one of the more common orb weavers in the Vancouver and Seattle areas. It generally builds it's web low and near the ground. 

Thanks to the person who provided the correct identification of this species -much appreciated!

We built a small pond in garden here a number of years ago, and, for the most part it has been an amazing attractant for all manner of critters.  We have had River Otters and Mink, Mallards and Kingfishers, at least 8 species of dragonfly, and many other water dependent invertebrates.  One of the first vertebrates to find the pond however was this species, Lithobates catesbeianus  a very large non-native frog that colonized our new pond the very first rainy night in August.  So far despite the size of some of the frogs in the pond we have not had any evidence of breeding.  No egg masses, no tadpoles.  This is because our pond builds up Bullfrogs in large numbers from immigration, and then becomes a mecca for predators.  The first mass control of Bullfrogs took place on two consecutive nights when a mother and four or five River Otter kits visited.  They took the frogs down to a small number and the remainder became food for another weasel family representative, a Mink. Then another late summer rain and the pond became colonized by bullfrogs again.  This year a young Great Blue Heron has been visiting the pond and targeting the bullfrogs.  Our pond is a sink, it doesn't add to the population of Bullfrogs.  Its not all rosy though, we suspect the high number of Bullfrogs is the reason why we have not recorded Red-legged Frog on the property. Tree Frogs apparently don't breed in our pond either and we have only ever seen a single salamander larvae.  When the numbers of frogs are high, we suspect the numbers of damselflies is  lower.  We have watched Bullfrogs try to take birds - up to the size of an American Robin!

It is fall. There is no doubt. How do I know? Because the guests leave the downstairs bathroom in one of four ways: 1) come running up for a huge jar and paper to save an amazing creature, 2) come out after there is a great deal of swooshing, flapping, slapping and flushing and then casually ask a while later...uhm, do you guys normally get such HUGE spiders?  3) come running up to use an upstairs facility because there is no freaking way they are going into the downstairs room, ever, 4) run screaming from the house, tossing their bags in front of them and all we see is the red tail lights tearing down the driveway.

It is fall and Eratigena atrica is looking to mate. They are not coming to get out of the cold, they are just on the move searching for another. That they are in your sink or shower just means that they ended up there while trying to get a drink and can't get out. Their webs are flat, a bit messy and have a funnel at one end.  They were introduced (accidentally I am sure) to North America from north western Europe in the early 1900's. 

Claudia Copley, a local spider expert demonstrates aptly in this video how there is nothing to fear from these guys; "they are our allies".  There are similar spiders that are moving about this time of year, including the hobo spider. The Garry Oak Ecosystem Restoration team had this great information sheet done up to tell the difference. The scientific name has changed since this was produced and what is Tegenaria duellica in there is this species. From what I could tell, there have been a number of taxonomic revisions. 

The many names by which the flat, armoured crustaceans that feed on detritus and live under pots, moist logs and leaf litter go by -and are seemingly interchangeable make me want to swear off English names forever!  

This is Armadillidium vulgare, and the most descriptive English name is the pillbug (or roley poley!) and you can see that when it goes into defensive mode at the sound of a spider's footsteps, it could be mistaken for a pill. In the dark. After a bender.  The  woodlouse (#195) can not get into this tight ball (called conglobulation). Conglobulating is not only an excellent defensive mechanism, but also conserves moisture. This is very important when your respiratory organs or pleopods are on your ventral surface. One study (in Smigal and Gibbs 2008) found that pillbugs would  spontaneously conglobate at temperatures above 40 deg. C. or when in very dry soil (< 10% moisture). 

The females carry their eggs in a "marsupium" and even after they hatch, the young are carried until they are able to go into the world on their own. 

A. vulgare was introduced from Europe to North America.

Smigel JT, Gibbs AG. 2008. Conglobation in the pill bug, Armadillidium vulgare, as a water conservation mechanism. 9pp. Journal of Insect Science 8:44, available online: insectscience.org/8.44

This year's long dry summer seems to have been favourable for Common Earwigs, they have caused more damage to the plants on the deck than any year I can remember.  The Common Earwig (Forficula auricularia) is another introduced insect from Europe that can become a pest when their numbers are high.  They are remarkably adaptable and eat fruit, foliage, insects, decaying organic matter and flowers.  They can be major predators of aphids.  This photo shows a male, with curved pincers at the rear to the insect.  Females have straighter pincers. The origin of the name is not clear.  Some  say the name originated as an Old English phrase meaning "ear insect" or "ear creature," and there are old accounts of earwigs entering human ears to feed. This is dicredited by modern sources. Others conjecture it's a corruption of the phrase "ear wing," referring to the ear-like shape of the insect's hind set of wings. The pincers can be used to pinch though, although not hard enough to be a real menace.

This crustacean lives under piece of wood, plant pots, beneath the moss and fallen vegetation. Wood lice (and the pillbugs or roley polies) breath through gills and live in moist areas but not in the water like the rest of their crustacean relatives. 

The rough texture of the plates seperate this "woodbug"  from some of the others found on southern Vancouver Island. Porcellio scaber, like the other members of this group  has  blue blood as the result of a copper molecule in the oxygen transport molecule  instead of a iron molecule like our blood.

This is another common species found around houses and gardens that has been introduced from Europe. They feed on dead plant material and are generally not a pest unless they reach huge numbers. 

 The woodlice are not able to roll into as  tight a ball (or conglobulate, my new word of the day) as the "pillbugs" do (see #198).

Domestic honey bees, Apis mellifera were introduced to the east coast of North America from Europe in 1622.  Aided by settlers it took a couple of 100 years before they reached the west coast.  Today they are found across the continent with both domestic and feral populations. Because of their importance to the settlers their path has been well documented. We don't know if the ones visiting Leaning Oaks are from hives or a population that has naturalized.  I have seen estimates that up to 80% of all crops in North America are dependent on bee pollination -both native and non-native.  There are many other groups of pollinators in addition to the bees, but they do play an important role in agriculture. 

Usually, our annual war on Roof Rats (Rattus rattus) begins in November when the first heavy rains of winter tend to drive Roof Rats into the garage and the house. .  The past two years however, our battle with the wiley and prodigious rodent has started at the end of August as the Roof Rats have turned to our tomato patch and started to eat our tomatoes on the vine just before they ripen.  
 We think we finally have found the last remaining hole that they can gain entry into the house. This small opening along side the chimney required a gymnastic maneuver worthy of a Cirque du Soliel artist.  Steel wool has proven to be the most evective deterrent to the chewing rodents.  Roof Rats have proven to be an expensive species, most notably by eating the insulation off the wiring system of one of our vehicles.  They were also the reason we eventually moved to an all metal garbage can for storing bird seed and entirely metal compost barrel.