Neil Sherman and myself had a wander around the privately owned Old Hall Wood yesterday. We were looking for Olive Crescent larvae after we had several of the adult moth turn up to light at a group moth night there earlier in the year. The good news is that we managed to find several larvae that look very good candidates for Olive Crescent. The larvae feed on withered leaves on broken/detached branches/twigs and we found them easily enough by beating the dried leaves over a beating tray. Larvae were found on leaves of oak and beech, along with some darker larvae on the beech that are probably another species of Fan-foot.
This would seem a strong indicator that the moth is resident in the wood and presumably a recent colonist as we’ve not seen the moth there previously.
A later search at Wherstead Wood proved negative.
Tony