I’ve just had a couple of species hatch out from stock I’ve been rearing. The Small Ranunculus were from larva collecting alongside the A14 between Felixstowe and Ipswich last year. The M. baliodactylus was more recently collected at Narborough in Norfolk in May.
Tony
This was a general recording meeting concentrating on the drier parts of the reed-bed and surrounding woodland. Although areas of heathland and grassland were also close by we thought that these would be pretty cold later on. Four MV lights were run – two along the board walk at the western end of the reed-bed and two in the strip of oak woodland bordering the reed-bed.
There was a steady trickle of moths into the traps through the evening and my list had just shy of 60 species by the end of the night. One of the more productive nights so far with a reasonable number of moths and species. A couple of hawk-moth species were seen – Elephant and Small Elephant. The mix of localised species gave an indication of the varied habitats nearby with Satin Wave, Cream-spot Tiger, Aethes cnicana, Small Seraphim, Tinea semifulvella, May Highflyer, Flame Wainscot, Grey Birch, Small Clouded Brindle, Dingy Shell, Clouded-bordered Brindle, Bird’s Wing and Gold Swift.
Tony
Brian and I set out the five traps and just as we had done so light rain began, meaning that Brian didn’t turn on some of his lights until after the rain stopped about 45 minutes later due to no rain protection. Even so a better night than we had both expected with the initial forecast of clearing and cold. Cloud cover remained for the duration and we left just after 2pm.
Some nice moths amongst the 76 species including
Alder & Puss moth, Elephant, Eyed, Poplar and Pine Hawk-moth, Flame, 4 Silver Y, Clouded-bordered Brindle, Small-Clouded Brindle and 2 Flame Wainscot! Clouded Border almost equalled Green Carpet for the prize of most abundant moth of the night
I now have a twin actinic from ALS and run that too. Species are different from the MV but will wait a while to see if that holds. Not keen on the trap construction and aim to change it. 13th gave me 5 new to my site list: Udea olivalis, Tawny Marbled Minor, Snout, Rhyacionia pinivorana and Coleophora lineolea. My checking of the Lesser Cream Wave of 9th proved it to be a Satin Wave and my new micro count of 10th was overambitious with only Cnephasia asseclana and Celypha striana being new ones.
At last a dry night, but very few moths caught as it was quite cool. 22sp, 31 moths only with nothing of note seen.
Neil
Ran three lights at Iken on Saturday night. Only 40 species recorded and a noticeable lack of micros. Two Diamond-back Moths, Udea olivalis, Flame Wainscot, Dog’s Tooth & White-point were the highlights.
Nice to see some moths in the garden trap for a change, although I still only managed 25 moths / 16 species. The highlights were singles each of White-point, Pale Mottled Willow and Silver Y. During the day, I tried for Six-belted Clearwing on the hill next to the office without success but did see a Painted Lady.
Tony, Paul and Myself went to North cove SWT reserve on Saturday to see if White-barred clearwing had emerged after its discovery there last year by myself. Not perfect conditions for trying for clearwing moths as it was quite breezy with patches of cloud drifting around but there were a few warm sunny spells and it was during one of these early afternoon when we were successful attracting one WB clearwing to my ‘Tip’ pheromone. We then moved on to Carlton marshes and tried there but again conditions were not ideal. There were some warm spells but no clearwings were seen.
Searching around whilst waiting for the sunshine produced a few other records of interest: Glyphipterix thrasonella, Adela croesella, Coleophora follicularis (larval cases on Hemp agrimony), Silver Y (a few), Beautiful golden Y, Adela rufimitrella and Marsh pug (2 at North cove).
Neil
Found a single Marsh pug yesterday at Great cornard, in a field with quite a lot of the foodplant, Mouse-ear chickweed. This is another moth that can be searched for in the daytime around the plants (although the weather needs to be warm and dry!). Tony, Paul and myself also found 2 Marsh pugs at North cove SWT reserve on Saturday, again flying near the foodplant.
Neil
Found 2 2nd instar larvae of Broad-bordered bee hawk yesterday evening on Honeysuckle, first ones for the year. Now is a good time to record this species as the caterpillars leave very distinctive feeding damage on the leaves. They sit on the midrib of the leaf on the underside, and reach out from there to eat small round holes. If these are found, caterpillars are not normally far away and can be found by turning over the leaves. Something to do even if it is raining.
Neil
