Wednesday 31 May 2017

Further new arrivals

The flood of new arrivals in the garden here at Westcott reduced to a trickle over the past two nights, Tuesday bringing just Chrysoteuchia culmella and Beautiful Hook-tip while last night saw Narycia duplicella, Small Elephant Hawk-moth, a probable (and early) Uncertain and Green Silver-lines.  Another Puss Moth turned up too (a male this time), a moth I don't see in the garden at all frequently.  The little psychid Narycia duplicella seems to have become established here over the past few years and is now a garden regular, the only one from that family which has made it on to the site list.  Despite being a common moth the Green Silver-lines is only the second example to have visited the garden trap, the first being two years ago.

Narycia duplicella, Westcott 30th May

Green Silver-lines, Westcott 30th May

This evening I checked our supply of hedge woundwort and was pleased to find two examples of the tortrix Endothenia nigricostana enjoying the sunshine.  It has been an annual here since 2011 and undoubtedly breeds on these plants in the garden, keeping company with our many Woundwort Shield-bugs.  While out looking at some poplar trunks near Greatmoor, Bucks earlier this afternoon the only thing of interest proved to be a smart fully-grown White Satin caterpillar.

Endothenia nigricostana, Westcott 31st May

White Satin larva, Greatmoor 31st May
Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks

3 comments:

  1. Pangs of envy for the Narycia, Dave.A pretty nice moth for the garden, I would say.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is interesting that you don't see more Green Silver-lines. I had 8 here last year between 6th and 24th June. This year I had one on 21st May and 2 on 26th. I don't know if this is unusual for a garden trap. There is a row of mature oaks a couple of hundred yards from the garden.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We do have plenty of oak within a kilometre or two of the village but I'm only aware of a couple of trees (one of them quite youthful) within metres of the garden - it seems to be the only major tree species which we are a bit short of locally!

    ReplyDelete