This is a very attractive small moth is attracted to the lights on our porch on summer evenings. The yellow colour is easily mistaken on a branch for a yellowed and wilted leaf. It has a variety of english names, including the Pink-bordered Yellow and the Two-pronged Looper. The latter is from the two spikes on the caterpillar, which adds to its effectiveness as a accomplished twig mimic. Click here for an excellent image of the caterpillar. Sicya macularia caterpillars feed on a variety of deciduous shrubs including alder, blueberry, buckthorn, currant, false azalea, poplar, shrubby cinquefoil, spiraea, and willow.
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Alaska Onion Grass (Melica subulata) is one of the few native species of grass we have at Leaning Oaks. Commonest under the shade of some of our Douglas-fir it is an indicator of a rare plant community on southern Vancouver Island. Onion grasses are so named for the bulb like corm found at the base of the stem. The corm of this species is said to be edible, with a nutty flavour, although I haven't tried it myself. This is a perennial grass that spreads by rhizomes. There are two other species of Melica on southern Vancouver Island, but neither of those species produce the onion-like corms.
This micromoth is a variable, colourful moth with long antenna and a distinctive shape. Carcina quercana is native to Europe with a small range in western North America where it is introduced. It was first found in Victoria in 1920 and there are records from Victoria to Port Alberni, the lower mainland and the Seattle area in Washington State. Most references suggest it is a specialist on oaks, and indeed one of the other names for it is the Oak Skeletonizer Moth. In fact however, it appears to use a wide variety of host plants for its caterpillars, including beeches, blackberries, apples, chestnuts and recently in Victoria, it has been found feeding on Snowberry.
The larvae are small green caterpillars found on the underside of leaves, usually protected by white webbing. Another common name is Long-horned Flat-Body and the "flat body" is a characteristic of the family, the Depressariidae (which means flat). It can be tan, pinkish, orange or brown, usually with a small yellow line at the wing tip and a larger yellow spot on the wing and very long antenna, sometimes longer than the body of the moth. It finally happened this morning, our early morning bird count gave us a calling Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto ) calling almost constantly for over a half an hour. Our first record of this species was from October of 2012 and up until now, Eurasian Collared-Doves here have been short term visitors that stop in for a few hours at the most and then move on, but this morning's bird clearly was on territory and calling incessantly to prove it. Eurasian Collared-Doves are relatively recent arrivals to North America. After spreading from southeast Asia through the middle east and into Europe in the 1900s, they were introduced in the Bahamas from Europe in the 1970s. From there they spread on their own to North America with the first breeding record in southern Florida in 1982 and records from southern Vancouver Island by the early 2000s. Their spread has been primarily to the west and to the north, and it has been rapid indeed. This feederwatch website has an animated figure that shows just how fast this species colonized much of North America. Christmas Bird counts for British Columbia show also show a rapidly increasing number; Given that Mourning Doves only recently set up shop here at Leaning Oaks (see 310. Mourning Dove) it will be interesting to see how the two species interact in the future. Our latest jumping spider, a Salticid, was discovered in it's natural habitat, the butter dish. Platycryptus californicus is found in south western BC and south to Mexico through the western USA (see iNaturalist observations below). I went looking to find out more about their natural habitat and had to look no further than Sean McCann's great blog, "Ibycter" to discover it is lab walls! Hmm. I guess one can infer that they are fine around human habitation. Do make sure that you do click on the link to go to Sean's blog where you can see fun video of P. californicus leaping in slow motion. The lighter chevron leaf-ish pattern on the abdomen was one of the diagnostic features that I used for identification. Pause here for an iNaturalist plug. Not only have the wonderful naturalists on iNaturalist entered enough records to provide a range map, but the community also helped confirm the identification of this species after the AI gave this as a suggestion. (photos: A. Teucher) As the common English name suggests, this tiger beetle is nocturnal, coming out to stalk it's prey during the night and occasionally on cloudy days. It is a flightless hulk of a beast with massive mandibles and the distinction of being the largest of the genus Omus. Omus, by the way, according to BugGuide is "probably from Greek omos (ωμος) 'fierce, cruel'." Nice eh? The shallow dimples on the elytra and the broad "shoulders" are distinctive.
Omus dejeani ranges from northern California to the south west corner of B.C., to the lower slopes of the Cascades and southern Vancouver Island. They are found on the temperate rain forest floor and the adjacent grasslands and occasionally the upper levels of beaches under driftwood. The larval burrows are in vertical clay banks. The only other Omus that is found in B.C. is Omus audouini, Audouin's Night-stalking Tiger Beetle. O. audouini has only been found in a few very low elevation locations despite much searching. It is listed Threatened federally. The Indian Blanket Moth (Caripeta aequaliaria), also known as the Red Girdle Moth and the Western Conifer Looper is a common and widespread moth throughout western North America. The larvae in our area feeds extensively on Douglas-fir but has also been noted feeding on Pines and Western Hemlock. The larvae, at least the older instars, are grey and mottled "inch worms" that look very much like old, lichen-covered Douglas-fir twigs.
The White-dotted Prominent (Nadita gibbosa) is also called the Tawny Prominent, the Rough Prominent and the larvae is called the Green Oak Caterpillar. It is a widespread moth that ranges from coast to coast from southern Canada south to Texas and California. It has been noted feeding on a wide variety of trees and shrubs including Birches, Maples, Roses and Oaks. It is an attractive species that is tan to orange with two small dots on the forewing and is often attracted to lights. The adults do not feed.
The larvae is a large-headed caterpillar, blue-green in early instars and bright green in later ones, with yellow stripes along its body. Here they are often found on oaks. The Friendly Probole is a Geometrid moth found throughout much of North America. The larvae is sometimes given the name Red-cheeked Looper. A quick search on the Moth Photographers group site, or BugGuide will give you an idea how variable (and handsome) this species is. Remarkably little appears to be known about such a widespread species. Larval food plants are listed as Sourwood (a tree of the se USA) and Dogwoods, but given the range of the species, it must have a wider diet than the current literature indicates. Most recently Probole moths in North America have all been lumped under one species (Probole amicaria), however not all moth experts agree and this highly variable species may be split into a number of species in the future. Here the flight period appears to be June and July, and this photo was taken on the evening of 1 July on the wall of the house near a porch light. Band-tailed Pigeons are occasional visitors to Leaning Oaks. We have a few recent winter and summer records, but the majority of our sightings are from the spring and fall periods. On years where our oaks have good acorn crops, we often have flocks of feeding Band-tails. Patagioenas fasciata is on the provincial Blue List, largely because of declines over the last 30 years. Formerly Band-tailed Pigeons on southern Vancouver Island all migrated south for the winter, with most of our birds wintering in Oregon and California, although the species ranges as far south as Mexico and Guatemala. In the late 1970s this species began to overwinter on Vancouver Island and in the 1980s we had flocks visiting our bird feeder in the winter months. By the late 1990s the species started to decline and we no longer have Band-tailed Pigeons using our feeders.
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AuthorsTwo biologists on a beautiful property armed with cameras, smart phones and a marginal knowledge of websites took up the challenge of documenting one species a day on that property. Join along! Posts and photographs by Leah Ramsay and David Fraser (unless otherwise stated); started January 1, 2014. Categories
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