In many ways this is more of a ‘not-sighting’ report having spent a pleasant few hours yesterday wandering around Bradfield Woods, mostly to the soundtrack of singing Blackcap, Chiffchaff and the odd Willow Warbler. My main reason for visiting was to look for the distinctive feeding signs of the larvae of Pterophorus galactodactyla. While I managed to find quite a few Burdocks, I failed to locate any signs of this plume moth. Given that Tony, Neil and I only found two larvae a few years ago (see Neil’s excellent write up dated 4 May 2014) I do hope that this is not a bad sign. On a more positive note, the buttercups in some sections of the wood were alive with Micropterix calthella and I also had a probable Micropterix mansuetella at rest very briefly on sedge flowers. A handful of Glyphipterix simpliciella, a couple of Drinker Moth larvae and the odd Speckled Wood pretty much summed it up ‘on the ‘lep’ front.
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