Dotted chestnut – 1
Chestnut – 55
Yellow-line quaker – 12
Barred sallow – 7
Pink-barred sallow – 7
Angle shades – 7
Square-spot rustic – 2
Lesser yellow underwing – 4
Large yellow underwing – 4
L-Album wainscot – 6
Large ranunculus – 1
Autumnal rustic – 1
Pine carpet – 2
E. monodactyla – 1
Red-green carpet – 3
Feathered ranunculus – 1
Lunar underwing – 1
Dark chestnut – 1
Grey shoulder knot – 1
Green brindled crescent – 1
Dusky-lemon sallow – 1 (first site record of one on Ivy here, a quite yellow example that had me scratching my head for a short while)
21 species recorded, think that’s my highest species count in one night on the Ivy here with some real quality species. As I said in my previous blog, I wonder whether the rain has brought the moths out?
Now going out to check the patch again to see if I can add to the Ivy species total here, maybe with a Crimson speckled?
Neil
]]>Tony had a Convolvulus Hawk in his trap on the 2nd, whilst my trap this morning was busy, but uneventful. 22 species of 112 moths. 44 were Large Yellow Underwing, 19 Setaceous Hebrew Character and 16 Lunar Underwing. 2 Dark Sword-grass, a fresh Red-green Carpet and 2 Grey Shoulder-knot the best of the rest.
]]>I saw on Twitter that Merveille Du Jours are now on the wing in Norfolk. One of those would be very welcome.
]]>I checked my patches of ivy today and they are just coming into flower, so I’ll have a look again this autumn. It was good last year to see sallow and angle-shades nectaring, well away from the MV.
Incidentally, anyone in sandy areas might like to keep an eye open for a pretty solitary bee called Colletes hederae. A recent colonist which is now fairy common along the south coast and is recorded from Essex, but as far as I know not yet from Suffolk. Easy to spot – it visits ivy blossom (in the day!), and nests in sandy places. Orange thorax and ringed abdomen. This year has been good for bees – especially bumbles. The recent colonist Bombus hypnorum (the tree bumble-bee) was quite common earlier in the summer (in my garden it was especially fond of buckthorn flowers).
]]>We didn’t catch the ivy bug until October last year, but in the time left in that season we still managed to record 25 species before the month was out. Starting earlier this year (with only 10% of the ivy seemingly in flower currently) we would hope to get the village ivy list to between 30-40 species.
Back the title of this post. I thought it would be an enjoyable exercise to gather a Suffolk ivy list this autumn. Enjoyment aside, putting a figure to the importance of ivy for moths as a nectar source would add to existing wildlife facts – Holly Blue foodplant, shelter for birds and bats etc, etc. I often hear figures quoted for invertebrate usage of ragwort – wouldn’t it be nice to set the ball rolling for ivy?
I hope that this will spur you in to action, get recording (go on, put those traps away for a bit) and post your results on the blog. If you do, I would be happy to receive end of season scores to come up with a grand total Suffolk figure.
For your interest, here our results from the 12th – Square-spot Rustic (20+), Large Yellow Underwing (6), Lesser Yellow Underwing (4), Vine’s Rustic (2), Snout (2), Angle Shades (3), Emmelina monodactyla (2), Agonopterix arenella (2) and singles of Light Emerald, Brimstone, White-Point, Double-striped Pug, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Common Wainscot, Turnip and Flounced Rustic.
]]>