Unique BC creepy crawlers

Photo: Contributed

Click here to view gallery

Photo: Contributed Photo: Contributed Photo: Contributed Photo: Contributed Photo: Contributed

 

Creepy crawlers have had Okanagan residents puzzled over the past few weeks, but a bug expert has helped solved at least one mystery. 

A West Kelowna homeowner got a surprise visit from a creature on their driveway, and Castanet discovered it was a cyphoderris, also known as a great grig or monster haglid.

Multiple photographs have been sent to Castanet since then, inquiring about unique bugs.

“We saw this one back in May on our camping trip, looks to be the same creature,” said Trevor McMurray.

Orkin Canada branch manager Matthew Wright says the creature McMurray found appears to be an exoskeleton of a dragonfly nymph.

“As they emerge out of the water, they molt their old exoskeleton and transform into the adult dragonfly,” said Wright.

Wright says a photo of a little spider is of a jumping spider (family salticidae).

“They are a visual hunter and can jump quite a distance,” he said.

A Kelowna resident sent a photograph of a bug that was almost the size of a lighter, which Wright identifies as a Canadian tiger swallowtail.  

“The caterpillar becomes brown just before molting,” he said. 

Another tipster sent a photograph of a moth on a hangar floor at Kelowna International Airport. 

It's a blind eyed sphinx moth, says Wright. 

And, an Osoyoos resident found a peculiar looking creature on Canada Day that Wright says is a longhorn beetle.

Okanagan residents are lucky to experience such unique creatures, he says. 

“It is a desert, so you will find critters that you would not normally find in other areas of B.C.,” he said. “It can be quite diverse in the little ecosystems that we have in the valley bottoms.”