Sitka Nature

This photo is from a hike up Indian River in 2006. I noticed a metallic gold beetle crawling on the zipper of my backpack while stopped for a break. Only recently did I get around to posting it on bugguide.net, where it was quickly identified as Lioligus nitidus by v belov, who noted it was a new genus for the site.

Looking on-line, I found very little about this beetle, but I did find one paper about a study done on Prince of Wales Island where this species was one of many invertebrates found in alder leaf litter. (That study was looking at diversity/productivity of conifer and alders, with a mind toward the management of second growth, and whether alder should discouraged, as it has been in past years, or encouraged.)

In May Connor found and brought me this Thallophaga hyperborea which had been crawling up a stake he had pounded in the ground. It seemed a strange place to find a moth, but upon learning its identity (via bugguide.net) and reading a little about the life history, it made more sense.

Larvae of this species dine on conifers, including our local Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) and Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) then spend the winter as pupa in the soil before emerging as adults in the spring. It seems likely this individual was just emerging when Connor found it.

Connor and Rowan noticed this moth on the outside of my home office window, so I went out and took a picture of it. It’s been photo identified as Pearsall’s Carpet Moth (Venusia pearsalli) courtesy of Bob Patterson on bugguide.net, though it may be a similar looking closely related species.

The NPWRC account for Venusia pearsalli indicates that it is abundant and widespread in the wet coniferous forests of Western North America. The only larval food plant listed which occurs in the Sitka area is alder.

Margined White (Pieris marginalis) is the most common butterfly in the Sitka area (not that it has much competition, as there seems to be only one other regularly occurring species). During the warm years in 2003 and 2004, I remember seeing lots of these flying around during the summer, especially in June. In the years since, they have been much less common, though I’m pretty sure I noticed at least a couple each year.

Larvae of this species are said to feed on plants in the mustard family and they will often have two flights a year.

E-fauna BC shows a Sitka record for another related species, P. angelika, but assuming it’s a valid record, I suspect that species does not typically occur here given its overall range and the lack of other records along the coast.