Mid-career, Dyar was charged with bigamy having been married to a second person under an assumed name and fathering three sons. His first wife divorced him and he was dismissed from the USDA ”for conduct unbecoming a government employee”.  He later legally remarried and adopted the three boys.   

In 1924 a truck’s back wheels broke through some pavement in Washington D.C.. Upon investigation it was discovered that it had broken through the roof of a tile-lined tunnel. After some speculation in the press, Dyar admitted that he had yet another hobby building tunnels and had developed extensive labyrinths around at least two of the places he had lived. Some were up to 24 feet deep and equipped with electric lighting.
 
For more information on the life of Harrison Gray Dyar Jr. click here and here.

And if Stephen Heard is looking for material for a second volume on ”Adventurers, Heroes and Even a Few Scoundrels” that have lent their names to species, he may want to look at the person behind the name on Gabriola dayri, he appears to fall into all three categories. 

We were excited to find this attractive moth under our porch lights in August.  Leah had been working on assessing the status of all the Lepidoptera (Moths, Butterflies and Skippers) of British Columbia and we had read about this species (Elophila icciusalis), and were fascinated by the aquatic larvae portion of its life cycle.  The larvae feed on duckweed, Buckbean, pondweeds and aquatic sedges. Our pond now has a flourishing cover of (#253) Common Duckweed which we suspect has, in turn, attracted this species to take up residence on our property. 
BC records for adults of this species are from June and August. It is a member of the Crambidae family, or Snout-Moths.  Larvae and pupae are in cases made of aquatic vegetation, similar to those made by some caddisflies. The background colour  of the adult varies from tan to yellow to orange. 

​The Pondside Pyralid Moth is found across much of North America.

This seed-bug, Rhyparochromus vulgaris was first found in North America in Seattle in 2001 and by 2004 was being found throughWashington and Oregon. It occurs naturally in throughout Europe, including south to the Mediterranean region. In BC there is a 2013 record from a Langley nursery.  The first record from the interior of BC was from Creston in 2015. This species overwinter as adults, feed on seeds and will enter buildings in large numbers. This was just a lone individual. 

​The genus means "dirt-coloured" thus the rather blah English name. 

(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. 

This common introduced European moth seems to be somewhat poorly known here on southern Vancouver Island.  In Britian the caterpillar feeds on plants in the carrot family (Apiaceae), and Bedstraw (Galium) as they presumably do here as well.  The Single Spotted Wave is often found on walls under lights in the summer months, as indeed was this specimen.  Idaeae dimidiata is a variable and attractive species, ranging from creaming white to dingy brown, often with a smudgy spot on the wings. It is in the very large family of Geometrid moths.  

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. 

Burying or carrion beetles are sometimes referred to as the "undertakers of the beetle world". I think of them as the arthropod equivalent of vultures-out there doing an important job so that we don't end up knee deep in dead animals. One of the common English names for this group are the sexton beetles, referring to one of the jobs that a sexton often had to carry out which was burying the dead. 

The beetles are attracted to the odors associated with early decay and are often the first on the scene.  Once an individual arrives at the carcass it will wait until a mate arrives and the pair will then proceed to dig out underneath the small bird or rodent until it is covered. Once this is done, the food item will be stripped of it's skin, fur or feathers. The happy little pair will then chew the flesh and cover it with salivary and anal secretions to help preserve it from decay, whilst compressing the corpse into a tight ball. Eggs are laid and when they hatch, the female (or some sources say either parent) will regurgitate liquids for the small larvae until they are able to partake in the yummy preserved food ball.  They mature within six to eight days, when they will leave the feeding chamber and pupate somewhere in the vicinity.  Leech (1934) does some good 'ol natural history observations that indicate that one of the parents remain on the meat ball while the larvae are feeding and describes it as "a frightened hen and her brood of chicks". He surmises that they are defending this food source from other carrion beetles or fly maggots. **

The life history between the different species of Nicrophorus (Greek for 'carrier of the dead') are generally similar, following the above pattern, although this . I believe that this is Nicrophorus defodiens. A few sources I found say that this species doesn't bury their prey but covers it with leaves. 

There was one very cool study done on niche differences  near Bella Bella . The authors looked at the diets of two species of Nicrophorus that co-existed within a salmon-bearing watershed. In this location one species, N. investigator ate 86.5% salmon, while this species, N defodiens lived on shrews and songbirds, 100%. Which is a good thing as Leaning Oaks is short on salmon! (Hocking et.al. 2007)

** Breaking news!! See installment #295 for the REAL story on what happens to the fly eggs and maggots!

Campaea perlata is a common,widespread moth that appears often on our window or on the moth sheet that we hung out in the meadow. The adults fly from late June to August. The larvae are generalists that feed on deciduous and coniferous trees and shrubs. 

This genera of robberflies, Laphria, are convincing bumblebee mimics. This species is apparently thought to be a mimic of Bombus vosnesenskii (Yellow-faced Bumble Bee #158). I can see that. This species is found from Alaska to California. Laphria prey on other robberflies, beetles, bees and wasps. They have a sclerotized  proboscis that they  use to poke between beetle elytra to aid in feeding. This one here would have to watch that her mustache did not get in the way! 

The original description was published in J.K. Lord's  "The Naturalist in Vancouver Island and British Columbia",   in 1866. (written by Fred Walker). This book looks like a fun read, with the adventures that go along with being the naturalist to the " British Boundary Commission" and in the mid 1800's!    

Sphinx perelegans occurs from southern British Columbia to Baja California.  The beautiful larvae feeds on arbutus, snowberry, manzanita and can be a pest on plum or apple trees. I've never seen the larvae but there are some honkin' big chunks out of some of the arbutus leaves that look as though this guy could have done. 

I was a bit distracted while trying to get a photograph of this twitchy moth - not only had it come in through the open window to light in the bedroom, but so had a bat which was swooping around the room at the same time. I didn't get a photo of it!

This big (~10 cm) floppy, uncoordinated insect surprised me as it threw itself at the window one night along with the much more coordinated moths! Another joined it and then another came in through another open window...the first time that either of us had seen this creature. Dobsonfly was what popped into my head-at least I got the Order correct (Megalopteran).  There are no dobsonflies in BC, but there are three species of the fishfly subfamily, Chauliodinae. This species, Dysmicohermes disjunctus, is found through Vancouver Island, lower mainland and just into the interior. The other two are much rarer. 

The adults live up to seven days and only fly at night. Most of a fishfly's life (2-5 years) is as a voracious predatory larvae in freshwater. Apparently they like fast flowing streams, however there are few of those near Leaning Oaks and I am not sure how far the adults will fly. My brief observations would indicate that long distance flight would be a challenge! 

Thanks to Dr. Rob Cannings (@DrCannings) for ID help. You rock!

Tonight's dinner entertainment was a life and death drama with the role of the protagonist being played by a Bald-faced Hornet.  She had been attracted to the wasp traps we had set out, which had managed to gather quite a crop of flies. The hornet spent quite a bit of the time trying to catch the flies she could see crawling on the inside of the plastic container.  As we watched she was joined by a second Bald-faced Hornet and there was an immediate fight, both of the rolling around on the deck until eventually one of them left.  A few minutes later a wasp arrived and the Bald-faced Hornet quickly jumped on it, there was another roll-around scuffle on the deck that resulted in the hornet flying off with the corpse of the wasp.   Later that evening I watched a Bald-faced Hornet walking around on the planter of Pitcher Plants, coming dangerously close to entering the pitcher, possibly attracted to the other insects already in the pitchers.

Dolichovespula maculata makes round paper nests,  that can contain up to 700 workers.   Active hunters they also feed on nectar. 

It is hard to believe that we had never seen this long-horn beetle at Leaning Oaks (or anywhere for that matter) until it came crashing into the sliding glass doors the other night. Mind you, the adults only live for 10-20 days and don't feed, their focus on finding a mate and then the female will lay up to 200 eggs. The rest of the life cycle can take three to five years, mainly in the larval stage.  Prionus californicus  larvae will burrow in the roots of deciduous or coniferous trees and can become a serious in orchards.  They will kill the host plant either by directly killing the root, or bacteria or fungal pathogens will attack the tree through the damaged roots. 

The Prionus Root Borer is found from Mexico to Alaska and emerges as in adult usually in July. The maggots or larvae can grow to 11.5 cm and are edible. No thanks.

The Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui ) is likely the most numerous species of butterfly in the world, and one of the most widespread.  It inhabits both the new and old worlds, most of the northern hemisphere and some of the southern.  In North America it is a regular breeder in the deserts of the southwest and Mexico.  In some years there is a migration northward and millions of Painted Ladies are on the move.  Included in these are the ones that reach B.C. - usually in the early spring and looking quite ragged.  Here they breed, and their offspring emerge as butterflies in July, often larger than the migrants that were their parents.  

It is thought that these butterflies seldom are able to overwinter and do not migrate back southward,  so it is a dead-end for the population  and we rely on a new wave of immigrants for our next crop of Painted Ladies.  This is an early date for a 'fresh' Painted Lady for us, July 1 - no doubt the result of record high June temperatures on southern Vancouver Island this year.

The Long-haired  June Beetle is a large (up to 3 cm) beetle that I associate with very warm summer nights.  This beetle spends most of its life as an underground grub feeding on roots.  In sandy soils they can be a pest on orchards, and here they can do some damage to strawberry patches.  Adults are leaf feeders, although they seldom consume enough to become pests. The genus  name (Polyphylla ) means many-leaf , referring to the peculiar antennae of the male.  When stressed the male folds the separate "leaves" of the antennae together, as shown in this picture.  When relaxed (he didn't get to the relaxed state during the photography session), they separate into a series of leaves, like the slats of a venetian blind.  These structures are used to detect female pheromones.  Larvae can take as long as four years to reach the adult form.  This species (P. crinita) looks very similar to the Ten-striped June Beetle (P. decemlineata), but that species is rarely, if ever,  found on Vancouver Island.

 
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.

This behemoth of a beetle buzzed past like a wee helicopter before landing on my chest. All three centimeters barely fit in the collecting jar that just happened to be in my pocket (and at the same time releasing another beetle that was going to be way harder to identify!) The larvae of Chalcophora angulicollis feed on the dead wood of coniferous trees, including Douglas-fir. They start when the tree has just died or dying and though they may not be killing the tree, they will lower the value of the timber.  

When trying to find out any information that I could on this spectacular and heavy beetle I came across this great T-shirt with a beautiful illustration of the pine borer in flight. Nice eh ?

The taxonomy of this species has been in flux with a  similar one that occurs in the east (C. virginiensis) however it seems to have been reconciled using morphological characteristics and a distribution that has a big gap between them.

This bug is a "true bug" (order Hemiptera) and to make it even more straight forward, it is in the family "Miridae", the Plant Bugs.  Stenotus binotatus was introduced from Europe in the late 1800's.  The first North American records are from Massachusetts and they have spread across the continent since then. They can be a serious pest on wheat and other cereal crops, causing them to collapse. It produces an enzyme which will degrade the gluten and the dough produced from this wheat has a sticky characteristic. (Every, D., J.A. Farell and M. Stufkens 1992).

The older the individual, the darker the colour will be. Looking at the photographs of this grass bug on Bug guide I'd say this was a younger one. It was about 5-6 mm long and came in  to a sheet that we had a light focused on for attracting moths. It was so small that there was no way we could see the beautiful colours until the photograph was taken!

Every, D., J.A. Farrell and M.W. Stufkens. 1992. Bug damage in New Zealand wheat grain: the role of various heteropterous insects. NZ J of Hort and Crop Sci. 50. 305-312.

Ladona julia  is not common at Leaning Oaks and my suspicion is that this fellow is a visitor from a larger or boggier piece of water somewhere nearby. The English name comes from the two distinct stripes on the thorax -stripes of a corporal. These are more distinct in younger ones.  And of course the "chalk -fronted" refers to the pruinosity on the abdomen. Pruinosity in dragonflies is a waxy deposit - like what you get on Italian prune plums.

I learned this as Libellula julia, but some DNA sequencing (Kambhampati and Charlton 2002) determined that  this skimmer was indeed a separate genera within the Libellulidae family. 

You will see these chunky dragonflies sunning themselves on sticks facing the sun (like the photo), perching on vegetation over the water or flat on the ground when away from the water. This tendency to land on the ground distinguishes from the other big skimmers found in BC which seem to rarely do that.