"Don't it always seem to go 
That you don't know what you've got 
Till it's gone "
Joni Mitchell had it wrong, because if your not really looking, you don't even know then.  
That was the case for me with this species.  It wasn't until I found one in Delta, B.C. a few years ago, that I realized that this species; one of the commonest bumble bees of my childhood, has almost disappeared.  Apparently I needed to see one to be reminded that I hadn't seen on for a very long time.  The last five years or so we have had one or two appear at Leaning Oaks, often to nectar on  the Eryngium planum planted in the garden(as per the photo).  This species was assessed recently by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).  COSEWIC determined that the southern subspecies (the subspecies we get here) meets the criteria for threatened.  Their assessment can be found here.

Western Bumble Bee is not the only bumble bee in trouble, in fact, just about all the bees in this group of bumble bees are in decline (or in the case of Franklin's Bumble Bee in the western US - likely completely gone).The reasons for the decline are not clear, and it may be a combination of introduced disease (from commercially available bee colonies used for pollination), new insecticides and other factors.

Like many bumble bees this species has a couple of different colour forms, the one pictured is the easiest to identify. A black and yellow bumble bee with a white rump.

There are five of the King Skimmers in B.C.; all quite showy, aggressive and can be seen skimming across ponds or lakes. Libellula forensis is found in southern B.C. from Vancouver Island to Kootenay Lake, being more common to the west.  Older individuals will appear bluey-grey on the body; the result of a waxy deposit, or "pruinosity". Eggs are deposited directly in the water and the larvae may transform away from the water. We have yet to find a larvae or exuvia of this species around the pond. 

 Libellula comes from the Latin for little book and refers to the open wings spreading like the pages of a book. Forensis is "of the forum or market place", referring to those that may enter town during their early adult life. This is a bit of an odd name as many will flit about settled areas when foraging if that is where the bugs are! Mind you, the same goes for the genus name -most of the dragonflies open their wing like a book and in many languages (including French, Spanish, Italian and Romanian) the word for dragonfly is some derivation of libellula. 

The eight-spots are the total large black blotches that you can see here. 

This Bumble Bee (Bombus vosnesenskii) has undergone a remarkable change in status on Vancouver Island in the last few years.  The first specimen record from Vancouver Island was one collected here at Leaning Oaks in May 2005. Since that time the species has spread up the east side of Vancouver Island and is known from at least as far north as Campbell River. In parts of Victoria and the Saanich Peninsula it is one of the commonest bumble bees.  The reasons for its rapid spread are not known, although it has done well at the same time that Western Bumble Bee  and a number of other Bumble Bees have declined. The change in status of this species in BC is documented in this journal article by David Fraser, Claudia Copley, Elizabeth Elle and Rob Cannings.  

Big and colourful, it is an interesting addition to the fauna here.

This large Eurasian cutworm moth, Noctua pronuba, was first recorded in Canada in 1979 in Nova Scotia and had made its way to BC by 2002, now commonly seen on the eastern side of Vancouver Island. It may have winged its way to the west coast on its own as a strong flier, but there are suspicions that it was human assisted. Many of the host plants of  N. pronuba are widely used in the horticultural trade and the larvae eat many common food crops. A summary of the status and spread was written in 2005 by Claudia Copley and Rob Cannings from the Royal BC Museum (http://journal.entsocbc.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/62/276).

There is another introduced moth with bright underwings -the Lesser Yellow Underwing,  Noctua comes that is smaller, has a dark spot in the centre of the underwing and was introduced to BC in 1982. You will have to trust us that this particular specimen did not have the dot!  

These small, bizarre wasps are called Carrot Wasps because they often are found feeding  on flowers in the carrot family.  Here however, they are commonest on our Pearly Everlasting plants.  Females have long ovipositors.  Carrot Wasps are not very well studied, there are likely unidentified species in North America and only a little is known about their life history. They are mostly parasitoids on solitary bee and  wasp species. The long ovipositor allows the female to place the egg on, or near, the bee larvae or egg. In photographing the Carrot Wasps here, we thought there were two species, one with a two red bands and another with a large single red band, however, in examining our photos, there are individuals with one, two or three red bands of various sizes, so perhaps it is one variable species or a whole mix.  The genus name for this group is Gasteruption.

This is probably the most common butterfly that we see during the summer at Leaning Oaks -in the meadow and in the vegetable garden. The caterpillars is small, green and a voracious feeder of members of the Brassicaceae family.

The first Cabbage White, Pieris rapae was collected in Quebec in 1860 very near a port of entry for immigrants arriving mainly from Ireland. These people would have been fleeing  the famine. Many would have been farmers that would be bringing their own food on the voyage and much of that would be cabbages and turnips; food that would store well. Another bit of evidence for this origin was that the adult males were bright yellow, the same as the form found that occurs most frequently in Ireland.

Those pesky moths that flap around your head when you have the windows open and the light on late on a summer night? Look closer, you may be surprised. I was. This looper, Autographa corusca is only found west of the Cascades and Coast Range from southern Oregon to the Alaskan panhandle and is a specialist on Red Alder. 

The four spots on the thorax are an easy way to distinguish Ischnura cervula from other damselflies that we have the area. The other feature are male genitalia that are shaped like deer antlers; this the species name cervula.  With a little imagination I can see the antlers with a hand lens. 

Pacific Forktails have a long flight season as one of the earliest damselflies that you may see in April to the end of September. Great resources for looking at the range of dragonflies and damselflies in BC can be found by going to the reports page for the species on BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer (http://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/search.do ) and then looking at either the link to the interactive maps that are on eFauna or the Range/Distribution link. 

This distinctive skipper was first recorded in BC in 1960. There was a separate introduction in Sicamous that was first noted in 1980 and then spread east and southward. Victoria recorded it's first Thymelicus lineola in 1992 (although wasn't identified until 1994).  It is apparently still only found in the Victoria area on Vancouver Island and is the only one of this Genus in BC. The flight period is June to mid-July.

What is there not to love about the muppet haircut and the beautiful emerald green of Hemithea aestivaria? The underside that you can't see here is a pale creamy green. The emerald moth is found through out Europe and has been introduced to the Pacific Northwest. Apparently the first that were observed around Vancouver was 1979. In Europe the caterpillars are known to feed on willow, oaks, birch and a number of other deciduous trees. On southern Vancouver Island  they have been seen feeding on dogwood and snowberry. Here are some photographs of the caterpillar: http://facweb.furman.edu/~snyderjohn/tatum/218-221.htm

Lorquin's Admiral is a common species here at Leaning Oaks.  Males defend open patches and fight off intruders and aerial battles are a common sight in the summer months.  It is a distinctive black butterfly with a bold white strip in the wings, broken into cells by black viens.  The forewings are tipped in orange. Here the commonest food plant for the larvae is Oceanspray (133), but elsewhere, apples, willows, birches, cottonwood, hardhack and saskatoon are used.

Leaving the lights on at night means that there will be more species found than we will ever get to identify and post! This fuzzy, teddy bear like moth was just one of many that arrived a few nights ago. Lophocampa maculata is a common forest moth, the larvae feeding on a wide variety of hardwoods. The larvae are beautifully coloured  with black on either end and orangy in the middle. The "tussock" part of the name is in reference to the hair tufts that the larvae sport. 

The large Western Tiger Swallowtail is fairly common through western North America in meadows, gardens, woodlands or roadsides often seen "puddling" in wet spots. They seem to nectar on a wide variety of flowers; the horticultural alliums being a favorite.  The larvae of this species has funky, colourful eyespots - I will try and find one and post a photograph; but until then, here are some by Jeremy Tatum http://facweb.furman.edu/~snyderjohn/tatum/056-059.htm in the Butterflies & Moths of Vancouver Island. The caterpillars of Papilio rutulus feed on deciduous trees and shrubs, including willows and ocean spray.  

I learned a valuable lesson this weekend--never clean your windows. I inadvertently killed this beautiful Potter Wasp, Eumenes crucifera  by spraying vinegar where it was hiding in a gutter. As it crawled slowly out, sputtering and shaking, I realized I had never seen this species before. Drying it off and mouth to mouth did not work. 

Potter Wasps are solitary and make small amphora type pots out of mud for nests. Some species of the potter wasps will paralyze a caterpillar (or several smaller ones),  stuff them in the nest where they will lay an egg and then seal the egg in the pot with this ready food source for when the larva emerges. I have now been peering intently at all the twigs in shady areas to see if I can find one of these exquisite wee nests. There are a lot of surfaces on Leaning Oaks in the shade.  

The Bubble Story

Once a newly hatched spittlebug is hatched it will wander until it finds a suitable host plant with a succulent supply of sap.  The beak is inserted down to the xylem and they begin to suck considerable quantities of sap. The excess water and sugar is forced through the gut and out the anus where it adheres to the plant and nymph which moves the liquid over its body using the back legs. The nymph breathes through spiracles on the outside of the abdomen. Bubble making happens by vigorous movements of the abdomen as the nymph sucks air into its abdominal breathing tube and forcing it out, while pumping its abdomen and moving it every which way. There is a mucilaginous substance that is exuded from glands on the abdomen that keeps the bubbles from collapsing…and why the goober balls feel so slimy when you get them on your legs as you are walking.  This foam keeps away predators, keeps the wee nymph moist and insulated.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0020179087900096 (the froth composition...should you care to know)


The species that we found (pretty sure....I'd like to find an adult to be 100%) on Leaning Oaks is Philaenus spumarius - and *sigh*, it is a European introduction. There are other possibilities here for other species so we will keep looking. It can be a economic pest on some crops if in high densities or when the froth acts as a vector for fungi.  So far our rosemary is doing just fine--

Oh--and if you want to identify your spittlebugs, Agriculture Canada has a book for you! On line courtesy of the Entomological Society of Canada:
http://www.esc-sec.ca/aafcmonographs/insects_and_arachnids_part_10.pdf

I am going out on a limb here; there are two  similar genera of syrphids and without a specimen I am not sure that I can say conclusively that this is a Melanostoma rather than  a Platycheirus sp.  There is only the one species of Melanostoma in this area. Syrphids are also known as Hover Flies or Flower Flies....and yes, you will often see them hovering over flowers! They are very important ecologically as pollinators and many are fabulous mimics of  various Hymenopterans.  

I really like this on-line key (even though I still couldn't get it to genus[!]) for its use of photos and clickable couplets.
 http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/bsc/ejournal/mylmst_23/intro.html

Spotless and shiny with a funky pattern on the pronotum that makes up for any lack of spots, Cycloneda polita is found through southern BC and west to the east slope of the Rockies. 

The term ladybird originated in the Middle Ages. They were called "beetle of our Lady", referring to Mary (the virgin) as she was just about always dressed in red in religious paintings. The other origin of the name comes from the Catholic farmers praying to Mary for help with crops and when the beetles arrived and did help by chowing down on the aphids and other crop pests, the farmers referred to them as "our lady's beetle". (from "All things Catholic" and "English Stack Exchange"

I found this elongated spotted beetle crawling deep through the moss in the middle of April, so probably one of the earlier ones. We found a key online,  http://www.discoverlife.org/20/q?guide=Ladybug that was pretty easy to use and (hopefully) accurate. Lady beetles have a larval stage where they look like a teeny tiny spiky alligators. Both the adults and the larvae are voracious feeders --particularly on aphids. The scientific name of the 13 spot is a mouthful, Hippodamia tredecimpunctata. 

This is by far the most common butterfly seen on Leaning Oaks early in the spring. It has two generations per year, the first being the most abundant.   Celastrina echo can be seen nectaring on most of the meadow spring flowers,  and often perches on grasses. It is found through the southern fifth of B.C. so it is likely that it is quite cosmopolitan in it's choice of food plants. 

One of the more common bumble bees on Leaning Oaks is Bombus bifarious...or at least one that is relatively easy to identify as it buzzes and bumbles about. The range of this  bee is Alaska to California, from the Rockies westward with a few occurrences on the taiga ad on the plains. The other English name that I  found is "Two Form"  -presumably because of the two divergent colour patterns that are closely related based on DNA evidence.