Tony, Paul , Bill and myself met up at Little Blakenham last night (28th) to search the Ivy patches along the country lanes not far from some large Poplar trees with the main target Pale-lemon sallow, a moth we have seen here on Ivy once before in 2011. Timing was perfect, with the Ivy in full bloom at most spots searched.
Things started really well, with the second moth located on the blooms a pristine female Pale-lemon sallow. Another was found a bit later on, again a female. Total species list on the Ivy for the night was 27. List below.
Willow beauty
Pale-lemon sallow (2)
Large yellow underwing
Square-spot rustic
L-Album wainscot (20+)
Pink-barred sallow (10+)
Chestnut (2)
Brick
Red-line quaker
E. monodactyla
Barred sallow
White point
Buttoned snout (2 of this scarcely seen moth found)
Sallow
Angle shades
Snout
Lunar underwing
Brown-spot pinion
Light emerald
Lesser yellow underwing
Tawny pinion (1, first time I’ve ever seen one on Ivy)
Setaceous hebrew character
Common marbled carpet
Red-green carpet
Beaded chestnut
Agonopterix arenella
Copper underwing
We also looked at the blackberries at the same time, and found a few extra moths on there: Herald and Agonopterix heracliana, plus some of the species already noted on Ivy. Checking the vegetation along the edge of the lane, mostly a species of Orache also resulted in quite a few larvae recorded: Plain pug, Mottled rustic, Bright-line brown eye, Dot moth, Chrysoesthia sexguttella (mines on the leaves) all on the orache, Pale tussock on Elm, Swallow-tailed moth on Ivy plus Brimstone larva on Hawthorn. Mines of Stigmella trimaculella and Ectoedemia hannoverella were located in fallen Poplar leaves. Blastobasis lacticolella also seen perched up. Total for the night in my notebook 39 species. Not a bad list with some interesting finds considering no traps were used at all we just searched using torches.
Neil
What a great list. There are ten on there that I have yet to record this autumn, which takes the Suffolk ivy list to 48 by my calculations.