Our “Creatures of the night” outing on September 9, 2025, attracted 8 Nature Nanaimo members willing to brave the dark and potential mosquitoes. Doug provided light sources and sheets to attract insects. The evening was moderately successful, although the bats were largely absent. Our lights attracted some insects, mostly what would be expected. Using iNaturalist the attached photos show some representatives of the Orders that showed up (Lepidoptera [moths], Diptera [flies], Trichoptera [Caddisflies], and Hymenoptera [wasps]).
Note that identifications are suggestions by iNaturalist, so species ID’s may be inaccurate.
Of the above, a few deserve special mention. The Douglas-fir tussock moth is an economically important species, causing periodic damage on Douglas-fir in the dry interior. The specimen photographed is a male with fully functional wings and plumose antennae designed to pick up miniscule amounts of attractant sex pheromone released by the female. The female is flightless (See photo), so to reproduce the male must find her, which he does by following the pheromone plume. Many moths possess an eardrum, called a tympanum which serves to hear bats and respond by evasive behaviours.
Our second goal for the outing was to listen to bats. Unfortunately, that did not work out. I did show my bat boxes, which have been occupied this summer as evidenced by my bat guano catcher. Doug and I used our bat detector/recorders but detected no activity apart from a couple of sightings as we were setting up.
-Outing Summary and photos by Staffan Lindgren