Supporting what Neil said – there’s still time to look for these larvae. I had a couple in the Westleton Common area on Sunday 1st July – both early instar but there were also signs of larvae that would suggest later instars.
Tony
Found a 1st instar larva of Broad-bordered bee hawk this evening on Honeysuckle at the golf course so they are still around to find if anyone wants to search for them.
Neil
Trap run in the garden last night picked up a new macro for the site – Small ranunculus. I’ve been expecting this one as it is on the increase in the county at the present time and breeds not to far away from me at Orwell country park. One to look out for in other areas of the county.
Around 70sp recorded including my first Festoon for the year, more Blotched emeralds, Plutella porrectella and Dusky brocade.
Neil
Neil, Matthew and myself went up to Southwold beach last night for some light trapping. There were a couple of target species – Bordered Sallow and Sand Dart – moths we’d not seen for a while. Arriving at the site there was a brisk south-easterly breeze blowing across the dunes although out of the wind it was a warm night.
Five lights were put out – three on the exposed side of the dunes but where there was more variety of vegetation and two on the sheltered beach-side of the dunes, with rather limited choice of vegetation. After the first trap round the beach-side traps were much more active so we shifted the sheet light over to the beach-side as well.
As darkness fell Archer’s Dart and Drinker moths battled against the breeze to get to the sheet light. At the first trap round Shore Wainscot was noted from most of the traps, although the beach-side traps held the best numbers and species with a Bordered Sallow, Anerastia lotella and a couple of Lyme Grass.
As the evening progressed we managed to creep the species list up so that at the end I had 34 species recorded. Several more Bordered Sallow were seen and some more Lyme Grass. Other species of note included Phlyctaenia perlucidalis, Cream-spot Tiger, Privet Hawk-moth, Lime Hawk-moth, Elephant Hawk-moth, Dog’s Tooth and Bactra robustana.
We managed one of our targets but with the Sand Dart the opinion was that we may have missed it on the wing, with sightings from elsewhere occurring much earlier in the year.
Tony
I’m a bit late making this posting.
A rather cool and windy night meant that we retreated into the more sheltered areas of the forest and as dusk fell there were some sightings of Nightjar to keep the birding fraternity entertained 
. Lights were reasonably active early on but numbers coming to the light dwindled even though the wind had dropped.
I had thirty-three species on my list, a rather poor score for a mid-June moth night. Species of interest included Small Elephant Hawk-moth, Cream Wave, Gold Swift, Lunar Yellow Underwing, Orange Footman, Broom and Grey Pug.
Tony
A couple of recent sightings of the larvae to report from previously known sites.
Larvae were still small but easy to find once I’d located the honeysuckle
Tony
60 species recorded, not all micros done due to lack of time. Should really get that new book like Neil and Raymond.
Highlights; Alder Kittten, the third successive year here at home(saw three with Brian in Norfolk the previous night) Purple Clay, Privet Hawk-moth, Ghost moth. Others making up the numbers; Small yellow wave, Grey Birch, Treble brown-spot, the first Smoky wainscot of the season. Straw dot the most numerous moth of the night.
The 15w actinic in the garden pulled in 37 species (71 moths) last night. Highlight was Evergistis limbata, with my first Small Elephant Hawks (2). Elephant and Privet Hawk as well. Scorched Wing and Bird’s Wing too. Just 11 Dark Arches.
2 traps running in an area of wet woodland on the site last night, was expecting plenty of moths to sort out but that didn’t seem to be the case. Just over 100sp noted. I have trapped this spot and the spot on Tuesday night many times before at this time of year and given what appeared to be perfect conditions the total number of species recorded is lower than expected, should really be over the 150sp mark at both spots. In my experience at this site I would say that the numbers of macros seem to be much lower than normal. For example, last night I only noted 1 Heart and dart, 15 Heart and club and 5 Uncertain, these are normally abundant species at this time.
Even though it wasn’t as good as I thought, were still a few moths of note including: Tortrix viridana (only 300 this time!), Olindia schumacherana, Blotched emerald (7), Epinotia abbreviana, Rufous minor, Poplar lutestring (2), Bucculatrix cidarella and Epermenia falciformis.
Hopefully more warm nights are coming in July and things will really take off, well, we can only hope!
Neil
On Tuesday night, Keith and I trapped at one of my regular sites at Aldeby alongside the river Waveney. It proved to be the best night of the year so far. An abundance of wild redcurrant in the wet woodland produced Phoenix, Currant Pug, Spinach, V-moth, (2 very fresh examples) and a pRDB micro Lampronia capitella (Currant-shoot Borer). We had our first Shaded Fan-foot of the year (a female that laid eggs in the pot). Other good macros were Peach Blossom, Balsam Carpet, Pretty Chalk Carpet (a rare moth in this area and a first for both of us), Scallop Shell, Dark Umber, Small Seraphim, Alder Kitten, Double Dart (x 23), Silky Wainscot (a nice black dotted example), Cream Bordered Green Pea and Beautiful golden Y. An abundance of micros included N. mexatella, Eidophasia messingella, Parachronistis albiceps, Gypsonoma sociana, S. gigantella, Ephestia parasitella with a half dozen still awaiting IDs. So far 128 species of which 50 were micros and at least 16 new species for the site. Perfect conditions, at least for that night.
Brian
