After a reasonably hot day
yesterday the overnight temperature in our part of East Dorset plummeted
to a chilly 6°C resulting in a pretty meagre catch this morning. 267
individual Macro Moths were taken to the tune of 56 species which may
seem like a decent haul but compared to recent days is in effect a
noticeable drop in numbers. Birds too seem to be in sympathy with this
trend so a 'blessing in disguise' as yesterday was a real MEGA for me
with much photograph editing and note writing to be undertaken today.
Sunday had been set aside for a second visit of our friend Dave Foot who
has shown great interest in our success this end of the county and had
one or two ideas of his own to fill the day. He had requested that I
leave my traps until his arrival at 07:00, by which time all 5 had been
moved to a central location and placed in the shade. Dave had also
brought along a couple of Insects of Interest for my perusal after which
he was to show me the techniques of 'pheromoning' for selected Moth
species. 2 creatures I had not clapped eyes on before included a
representative of the CLEARWING family, a group that was completely new to me
SALLOW CLEARWING
along with the bulky form of a
DARK TUSSOCK
Saturday
night/Sunday morning had been kind as far as weather conditions were
concerned so expectations were great with both of us eager to get to the
traps. I invited Dave to remove and ID the Insects leaving me to fill
the log. First Moth out of the First Trap was another completely new to
me, let alone the Property List in the shape of a
male
SMALL DOTTED BUFF.
The next was merely a First for the Year
YELLOW-TAIL
followed by another 'Lifer'
SMALL RUFOUS
then, in quick succession 2 more Year Ticks
CLOAKED MINOR
and
LACKEY
If there is anyone out there who can equal or even better this
superb run, they are cordially invited to join me at Trap Side
any early morning of their choosing!
Otherwise a pristine example of
UNCERTAIN
was thought worthy of Posting as were
SMALL CHINA-MARK
and
EUROPEAN CORN BORER
Just to keep all the new addition Moths in the same segment as it were
later in the day, armed with my new net this
GRASS EMERALD was caught at the north end of the Farm.
All things 'flying' that morning were not of lepidopterist value
but it was a great delight to see this old
DAKOTA
still airborne.
Up at the North End what only last week was a silage grass field
is now taking shape as Phase II of the Solar Panel Farm.
An enormous amount of work must have taken place here during
just a few days to get all these support stanchions driven home.
We were met at the 5-bar gate, leading onto Merritown Heath,
by this young
STONECHAT
with what was before us looking resplendent dotted with
BELL HEATHER
LARGE SKIPPER BUTTERFLY
was first on show then a treat I couldn't even have dreamt of
met our eyes. It has been 'years' since seeing my last
BEAUTIFUL DEMOISELLE
and here were both male and
female
allowing me my first photographs of each.
While they were perching on other plants, by and large they seemed to be favouring
BOG MYRTLE
and if you could smell the aroma you'd understand why!
SILVER-STUDDED BLUE BUTTERFLY
was my 'first of the year'
as were both Large (above) and
SMALL SKIPPER BUTTERFLIES
COMMA
BORDERED WHITE MOTH
a day-time flier and
CINNABAR LARVAE
which next year will look like
THIS
another
COMMA
PHEROMONES
of 6 different species of Clearwing were deployed
at various sites but the lack of success was traditionally English
(if we are still allowed to call ourselves that) the Weather.
With never less than 6 oktas of cloud-cover throughout it was never
sunny enough for these delicate little creatures to take to the wing.
There will be a 'Next Time'!
New Pine Cones developing.
Another Larvae yet to be identified.
New Growth
GORSE
GALLS on ASPEN
MULLEIN
Back in Hugh's Wood Dave appears to have found something else.
thought to be the Caterpillar of one of the 'Blue' Butterflies?
While creeping through the grass at great speed this
WOLF SPIDER
carrying a huge 'sac' of eggs was very difficult to photograph.
Allowing her to creep onto the Butterfly Net had the desired effect.
Trivia:- Wolf Spiders have 8 Eyes.
Continuing the Arachnid theme, this Spider had made a 'funnel'
of this leaf, coated it with web and could just be seen inside the
lair/nest.
Nearing the end of our most illuminating wander
Dave pointed out a cluster of
FIGWORT
and
went on to tell me that it is the food-plant of the larvae of an
extremely rare Moth to Great Britain, the Water Betony. This was
followed by the rhetorical question " and how would you like to find one
of those"? As if he had placed them there himself, Dave looked
searchingly at the plant and immediately found
c2 Caterpillars crawling the stems. The much more likely contender would
be the very common Mullein, (see photo of plant of the same name above)
but do they feed on Figwort? Reference to the Internet, a couple of
other enquiries and a series of photographs
and then only time will tell!
It would have been great to end the day on such a high note.
To give the reader some idea of the 'rarity' of this Insect, Clancy in his Field Guide states, "
a very scarce immigrant to Britain, although probably overlooked, the
only two records both come from Swanage, Dorset (just down the road from
here) on 12 June 1949 and 18 May 1994. Suspected examples of this
species taken in Britain would need retaining and require confirmation
by means of dissection and examination of the genitalia". Whooooo Betty!
WATER BETONY
(Wiki Images)
(self taken)
MULLEIN
As you can see the difference is immediately obvious??
On the way back we stumbled into a beautiful roadside bower of
EVENING PRIMROSE
There are more images from this most memorable day, but as yet we are still tussling over identifications
Good to see you again Dave and my thanks for sharing your knowledge.
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