Tuesday 7 July 2015

Tigermoth - Steve Hackett

A jaunty little lullaby to accompany you though our latest offering.
It has been wall to wall Moths all over the weekend and it will be of little surprise to hear that most of it was shared with our friend

DAVE FOOT
Before his arrival there was a quick look for the pair of
LITTLE OWL
 which are still both on station
and looking well.
At 23:45 on Friday there started one of the most furious Thunder Storms in recent years, which included torrential rain and at one point HAIL! Good job then that we had left the Rain Guards off of half of the traps
with the irony being that those 3 were 'dry as a bone' next morning while the others, which I have to admit as being MINE, required a Ballast Pump to recover the Insects. Despite the weather overall the Collective Haul was a huge success with with 540 Macros being taken at Merritown Heath of 109 Species, while PCF produced 344 Macros to 75 Species. As might be imagines there were 'hundreds' of photographs taken over our 2 day hunt, which are still needing some attention, so for now we will just bring you the most interesting ones which were all additions to the 
Parley Court Farm Macro Moth List.
Dave spent the latter hours of Saturday and the first two of Sunday searching for Moth Larvae, so was up a little later than myself but meeting up at 05:30 there was something a little special awaiting him. I had done the rounds to turn off the traps and finding en-route 3 species clinging to the Horse Stable wall. The first to be seen was too high up to reach while the others were readily identified as Barred Straw and the Macro Small Magpie. The stool used to mount the horses (not by me I hasten to add) was utilised and the 'stranger' was captured and I even surprised myself by identifying it before Dave's arrival.
ROYAL MANTLE
is described in the book as Scarce and Thinly Distributed in Dorset
with only about 70 records between the mid-1930's and 2011.
An unbelievable start to the day, a major addition to the List and
not a bad looking creature at that!
The other First Records over the two days are as follows.
 DINGY SHELL
PURPLE CLAY
LITTLE THORN
 

RED-NECKED FOOTMAN
 The tiniest of them all and at first thought to be a Micro to this
Untrained Eye
 SMALL MARBLED
the lower one was brought over by Dave to alert me to
its impending arrival, but we had already caught one.
LUNAR SPOTTED PINION
SCARLET TIGER
and a species which perhaps should have been secure a long time ago
or has maybe been overlooked
PURPLE BAR
A few dated items hung-over from last week when
there appeared to be something of a fracas
 in the
NANNY GOAT CORRAL
 The MUTE SWAN had already led us a merry chase across
Harbins Lawn before getting entangled in the
Tennis Court Netting
 and now it was having a pop at the Goat,
with the MUTE SWAN finally giving in.
The 'diggings' at the Airport are coming on a treat and we have now

been told that there is to be something of a

small Lake constructed as part of the Watershed
on this site - now that would be a bonus.
Additionally
 EMPEROR DRAGONFLY
are back on the Irrigation Pond, while real favourites at this time of year
 BANDED DEMOISELLE
male
 another male with female left.
 BEAUTIFUL DEMOISELLE
male
 BEAUTIFUL DEMOISELLE
female
are popping up everywhere.
If time allows, it ain't easy being retired (Bomber), we will
endeavour to produce a couple of extra Posts over the next
couple of days featuring mainly More Weekend Moths but
also any other incidentals that come our way.
Otherwise, here's one for the
JOCKS
Bless 'Em
WOOLY THISTLE
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