This guy was just a wee red blob, but I knew it was something interesting from previous observations from up north :-)
The last image has a scale (mm and 1/2 mm divisions), the bell is about 4mm high.
It can curl up its tentacles so they are just little knobs, which it does when swimming. It can then unfurl those tentacles and drift with them extended.
Bioluminescent Lingulodinium polyedra bloom off SIO pier. Filmed with A7S camera.
On a Grand Fir Christmas tree at the Anawim Christmas tree sale! One of my favourite species, was pretty psyched so see it here. Apparently they source their trees from a tree farm in North Cowichan
Some kind of gall on spurge, which I’d never seen before. @earley_bird Any ideas?
in vernal pool. Accessed with permission. Central meadow is closed currently
Photo license and credit belong to the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH), the Hakai Institute, and MarineGEO | http://specifyportal.flmnh.ufl.edu/iz/ | Field Number: BHAK-3159 | This observation is a part of the collaborative work between FLMNH, the Smithsonian Institution's Marine Global Earth Observatory (MarineGEO) and Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and the Hakai Institute
@fmcghee Brian mentioned you knew what these were, small insect egg (?) on the bottom of a Doug fir needle. Any ideas?
This was sighted on a boat with researchers who were using a hydrophone to track it
Photo license and credit belong to the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH), the Hakai Institute, and MarineGEO | http://specifyportal.flmnh.ufl.edu/iz/ | Field Number: BHAK-6695 | This observation is a part of the collaborative work between FLMNH, the Smithsonian Institution's Marine Global Earth Observatory (MarineGEO) and Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and the Hakai Institute
In rocky exposed ephemeral pool with Branchinecta cornigera. Apparently capable of swimming, though seems to prefer walking or hiding in sediment at bottom. 1.70 mm length. Denticles on anterior margin of right valve. Last photo taken by Gordon Green
Specimens deposited at the Royal BC Museum.
Collected by @shawnb2 and IDd together (mostly him) with the help of Starzomski’s lab. 1.71 mm in length with bumpy dentricles seems to point to genus but size doesn’t match any of the listed for Canada, so possible we made a mistake or new species for Canada. Possible as it seems Vancouver Island was never sampled, and this was found in the same vernal pool as a species of fairy shrimp that was new for Canada.
Specimens deposited at Royal BC Museum
This is Simon, he’s part of a rescued litter from a feral colony up in Port Hardy that the BC SPCA has in their care. They confirmed by respiratory test that Simon has calicivirus, a lifelong condition in cats that causes coughing and watery eyes when they get stressed. We are fostering Simon and plan to adopt him, so wanted to just iNat his cold, welcome him to the family, and remind everyone reading to keep your cats indoors
The Thing. A siphonophore that moved with jet propulasion via contracting the orange tipped appendages and contracting its semi- cylindrical body. Approximately 4cm at full extension + orange tendrils, 0.5cm to 1cm wide, contracted length maybe 2cm.
Hoping between all the pictures shared between observers we might be able to get this to genus or species.
@liamragan @stephbrulot @liamsingh @rebeccareaderlee @ctwing and more
Note - there were two siphonophores present, I only got decent pictures of the larger one
@dave328 What do you think? Found on the wing which seemed pretty unusual for this time of year this deep in the Kootenays
Subspecies restricted to mountains of Oaxaca
https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/stejay/cur/systematics#subsp
@bstarzomski Any idea what these are? They’re the little white organisms that live in the Branchinecta cornigera pond
Habitat small pool.
Ventral view of male. The flattened ventral surface facilitates adhesion to the surface film as this species pursues its hyponeustonic way of life, scooting around just under the water's surface.
Around 5pm today in the middle of the road. Large 3ft or more snake. Hisisng, loud, almost like a rattle noise. But no tail rattle. Defensive while I kept distance. Aggressive. Never took its eyes off me. Opened mouth often. No teeth. Black eyes. Black tongue. Large center. Moments prior a large barred owl flew past my windshield and watched me as I approached snake. An epic moment in my day. I was going to pick up my son who was with a native medicine woman.
Phytomyza lugentis perhaps (needs to be added to iNat) leafminer on Senecio lugens
Reaches 3 cm long. Found on soft mud habitat in shallow water (5 to 10 m deep). Appears to eat small hydroids.
Found under a log in heavily shaded mixed forest.
Sikes (2019) lists only two species of Japygoid in Canada, Occasjapyx americanus and Evalljapyx saundersi; a Parajapyx is also mentioned, but expected to be a misidentified E. saundersi. No other species are predicted to occur. From Allen (2002), given the macrochaetae are barbed, and trichobothria are present on antennal segments 4-6 (most visible on 6th segment in second last photo), this seems to best match Evalljapyx saundersi.
maybe? Or some other Alpinobombus? @sydcannings @manysarahs @beesofcanada
Observation collected with permission from BC Parks
Actinoptychus adriaticus var. pumila Grunow 1883
Class: Coscinodiscophyceae, Order: Coscinodiscophycales, Family: Heliopeltaceae, Genus: Actinoptychus. (Guiry and Guiry 2022).
Description:
Hyalines in the central area are distinct.
(Lee and Chang 1996)
Images of Actinoptychus senarius from Chivers Pt., Wallace Island, Trincomali Channel, (TC), Southern Gulf Islands, British Columbia, Canada. June 25, 2022.
Actinoptychus spp. are coastal marine diatoms, mostly benthic, likely cosmopolitan and solitary (sometimes in chains). Cells seen here are discoid. The valves of Actinoptychus are divided into alternatively raised and depressed sectors, some as many as 20. (Hasle et al. 1997, Horner, 2002, Hoppenrath et al. 2009). Actinoptychus spp has been reported in West Coast marine waters by Gran and Angst (1932), Cupp (1943), Rao et al. (1976), Shim (1976), Tynni (1986) and Pienitz et al. (2003). This is the first report of Actinoptychus adriaticus var. pumila for the Salish Sea, though it is now recognized that this species is common to the Trincomali Channel.
Methods:
Actinoptychus adriaticus var. pumila cells were collected from a 60 µm net general plankton tow at Chivers Pt., Wallace Island, Trincomali Channel, Southern Gulf Islands, British Columbia, Canada. June 25, 2022. Live cells were pipetted onto 12 mm rd. coverslips on a glass slide and treated 3-4 times (drying out each time) with concentrated nitric acid at 75C on a hotplate. After heating to 250C, the coverslips are bathed upright in mesh holders in 2 x 100 mL. of distilled and deionized water to remove salts. After the coverslips are dried, they are mounted on 13 mm aluminum stubs then gold sputter coated. Imaged with a Hitachi TM4000 scanning electron microscope (SEM). Many thanks to Andrew Simon of IMERSS for collecting the plankton sample and Elaine Humphrey (UVIC) and Hitachi HiTech for the use of the TM4000. Grateful assistance to Arjan van Asselt for lab assistance.
References:
Cupp, E. E. (1943). Marine Plankton Diatoms of the West Coast of North America. Bull. Scrips. Inst. Oceanography. 5: 1-238.
Gran, H. H. and Angst, E.C. (1932). Plankton diatoms of Puget Sound. Publ. Puget Sd. Mar. Biol. Sta. 1929-1931. 7:417-519.
Hasle, G.R. & Syvertsen, E.E. (1997). Marine Diatoms. In: Identifying Marine Phytoplankton. (Tomas, C.R. Eds), pp. 34-36. Plate 1, page 32. San Diego: Academic Press.
Hoppenrath, M., Elbrachter, M., Drebes, G. (2009) Marine Phytoplankton, Selected microphytoplankton species from the North Sea around Helgoland and Sylt. pp. 45-46, figs. 18g-m. E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbunchhandlung, Stuttgart, Germany.
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 2020. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched on 19 September 2020.
Lee, J. H. and Chang, M. (1996). Morphological variations of the Marine Diatom Genus Actinoptychus in the Coastal Waters of Korea. Algae, The Korean Journal of Phycology. Vol. 11(4): 365-374.
Shim, J. H. (1976). Distribution and Taxonomy of Planktonic Marine Diatoms in the Strait of Georgia, B.C. Phd. Thesis, UBC.
Tynni, R. (1986). Observations of diatoms on the coast of the state of Washington. Geological Survey of Finland, Report of Investigation 75.
Van Heurck, H. (1882). Synopsis des Diatomées de Belgique. Atlas. pp. pls LXXVIII-CXXXII [78-132 and supplementary pls 22 bis,82bis, 83bis, 83ter, 95bis], tables genres. Anvers: Ducaju et Cie.
Almost every leaf here has these galls. Single larva inside is caterpillar-like
Looks strikingly similar to Marmara arbutiella but I found this on cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) which I’ve never seen a leafminer on before despite it being one of the most commonly cultivated plants in my area.
@ceiseman would this be worth rearing or am I making something out of nothing?
The Raptors had a flight demonstration at East Sooke Park. This is Chewbacca (Chewie for friends).
@ceiseman I found a few examples of what I believe are Leafminers on these non-Opuntia, Acanthocereus tetragonus cacti in coastal Oaxaca. Is M. opuntiella known from non Opuntia or could this be a new species?
I promise there’s an animal in this, first 2 pictures are the nose, 3 is head on showing white chin/throat and 4 is the same as 3 but with an outline showing the side of the head/neck. Got better looks than these pictures and it definitely has too much white and wrong build to be a young mink.