For those interested the AGM of the Suffolk Branch of Butterfly Conservation is this Saturday evening (21st September 2013). There has been a change of venue to that published in the programme.
The new venue is St. Luke’s Church Hall, Cliff Lane, Ipswich, IP3 0PJ. Click here TM174432 for map. Time: 6:00pm for 6:30pm start. After the short AGM there will be refreshments, cakes and members’ slideshows.
All our welcome.
Tony
Very quiet couple of weeks in my garden. A trawl through my notes suggests that although there were very good moths through July and August the total numbers (ie biomass!) was less than last year. I think things may be catching up through good second/third broods – which bodes well for next year. And good second broods in the area probably accounts for a few of my new garden records (eg lunar yellow underwing), and unexpected late things like heart and dart.
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).
Can people please keep the size of photos posted to the blog to under 200KB unless there is a burning need for a lot detail on the photo. There are some very large files 1MB+ that are just eating up disk quota on the web site. I have to go through an edit them all manually to cut down the size and I’d rather be doing something else 
. I would also suggest resizing them to a max of 1200 pixels wide although I tend to go for a maximum of 900 pixels wide.
Thanks, Tony
All this gloom about the crash in numbers. Here is something to cheer you up. Ivy is in flower and is already pulling in the moths. A mild evening on the 12th had me knocking on Tony Fox’s door to join me in checking a fabulous stretch of ivy along Alton Hall Lane in Stutton. It is west-facing so receives a good helping of afternoon sun, bringing on some early flowers. In an hour we noted in excess of 50 moths of 12 species. Either side of our joint effort, Tony recorded four other species.
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.
A new book on day-flying moths has been published – Britain’s Day-flying Moths: A Field Guide to the Day-flying Moths of Britain and Ireland by Newland, Still and Swash . I’ve not seen it yet but there is some information about it at the publisher’s web-site, Paperback available at £17.95.
Tony
Not a lot of interest in what feels like a lull between summer and autumn.
Just a smattering of autumn species amongst the underwings, Square-spot Rustics and c-nigrum. Nice to see the Black Rustic on the wing again though. Heath Rustic new to my site list.
A few micro’s of interest. A third Coleophora asteris on 4th. Endothenia quadrimaculana and Phyllonorycter leucographella new to my site list. Surprised to find a freshly emerged Cydia splendana on 12th. Not common here at any time. A few Teleiopsis diffinis and Aproearema anthyllidella around at present.
Always pays to be on the alert for finding moths, as you never know when interesting things will turn up. Whilst taking the dog for a walk just down Bucklesham Road near where I live I decided to have a look at the plentiful Field maple hedging along that stretch. My primary reason was to look for Caloptilia cones (found some, but only one had a larva inside), but I also came across the mines of Stigmella aceris, a species I’d not seen before and is also new to Suffolk! This mine has been searched for quite a bit in recent years as it has spread within Essex and was expected to arrive in Suffolk, so now it has. Something to look out for on your local Field maple. Even though the larva produces green frass I found the mines to be quite obvious.
Neil
Mine of Stigmella aceris
Like Matthew my moth numbers have also dropped this week, not surprising really given the cool nights early in the week plus the rain finishing off the late summer stuff. C.40sp both nights. Didn’t bother running any traps until Wednesday when it felt warmer, the first time for 6 days. Also ran 2 lights last night at the worksheds despite the forecast rain as again it felt mild and wanted to get some trapping in before the bad weather returns. Trap contents not really much different to last week, with the commonest moth the Large yellow underwing, also good numbers of Hedge rustic. Both Square-spot rustic and Feathered gothic on the way down now. Other moths of minor interest: Lunar yellow underwing (2 both nights), Autumnal rustic (first last night), Feathered ranunculus (again first last night, 2), Heath rustic (1 in garden traps Wednesday and 6 in workshed traps last night) and another Centre-barred sallow (Wednesday). No other sallows have appeared here yet and the autumnal species still very thin on the ground, probably due to the late leaf burst this year holding up the larval growth.
Micros now in very small numbers with Ypsolopha sequella the only species of minor note here. Odd records of Plutella xylostella and Nomophila noctuella have been the only migrants.
Neil
The second week of September has seen a crash in numbers in my traps. Most noticeable has been the dearth of micro-Lepidoptera. A few interesting micros have nonetheless still appeared with a Crambus hamella a new moth for the 10km square. Other pyralids about have included Orthopygia glaucinalis, Evergestis extimalis, Eudonia pallida and Eudonia angustea. Some lovely specimens of Epinotia nisella have been trapped this week and Acleris forsskaleana still going. Agonopterix arenella and Scrobipalpa costella have been about with a few plume moths still about too: Agdistis bennetii and Emmelina monodactyla the most prominent; but like the same month last year a single Oxyptilus distans has been light-trapped.
Appearing this week for the first time this season have been Black Rustic, Barred Sallow, Brown-spot Pinion and Brick. A Heath Rustic on the night of 11th was new for Bawdsey Hall and a local rarity with only about half a dozen previous Bawdsey Manor records. Red Underwing have been regular this month in the traps an one was even fluttering around the Board Room of Bawdsey Hall during the afternoon of 12th! Lunar Yellow Underwing has had a good week with many seen and comes, fimbriata and janthe still appearing. Copper Underwing and the comical Mouse Moth are still regular. L-album Wainscot autumn brood has now started but not really got going yet with just odd individuals being caught.
Pronuba numbers have increased dramatically this week which makes the traps look busy even though there is not much to get excited about within them! A few migrants were about over the weekend of 7th – 8th with three Convolvulus Hawk-moths and two Pearly Underwings caught. Dark Sword-grass have been a regular feature with small numbers of Rush Veneer, Crocidosema plebejana and Diamond-backs about.
I’ve been out in the field today at a few woodland sites, with probably my most interesting find the mines of Mompha terminella on Enchanter’s nightshade at both Bradfield woods and Priestly wood. Now we have been alerted to this species presence in the county I’m sure we will find more sites. Must have been overlooked in the past, either that or it has spread into Suffolk from elsewhere.
Beating for larvae revealed very little, perhaps the season for those is still running a bit late.
Neil
Mine of Mompha terminella on Enchanter's nightshade
