Thursday 26 June 2014

Heathland Moths

Two nights ago (Tuesday 24th) Martin Albertini, Andy King and I trapped on Stoke Common, Bucks as part of on-going invertebrate survey work there.  Heathland with heather is in very short supply in the county and this is certainly the best site we have.  Habitat specialists seen on the night included Anarsia spartiella, Pempelia palumbella, Grass Emerald, True Lover's Knot (which vied with Marbled White Spot for most numerous moth of the evening), Suspected and Beautiful Yellow Underwing.  Barred Red was quite numerous in the traps and the Grass Emerald seemed at first to be an "albino variant" until it was looked at more closely in the light of day!  As happens to many green moths, it had faded with age.  Dave Wilton  

Barred Red & Grass Emerald, Stoke Common 24th June

Two different forms of Suspected, Stoke Common 24th June

Beautiful Yellow Underwing, Stoke Common 24th June

       

4 comments:

  1. A Barred Red appeared in my garden moth trap this week (in fact, the same evening) - a first for my Cookham garden.

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    1. Very nice, Steve - it is not a species that has found my garden yet. There are some conifers locally here but probably too few to support the moth.

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  2. Hi Dave, that Beautiful Yellow Underwing lives up to its name. Great photo.

    Nigel

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  3. Thanks, Nigel. It took a lot of patience and a bit of prodding to get it to sit like that!

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