Martin Corley reports the exciting discovery of a colony of Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk-moth (Hemaris tityus) in the south-west of Oxon (VC22 Berks).
A larva was found in 2017, feeding on field scabious, followed by two adults in May of this year. A further three larvae have been found this month, suggesting this species is successfully breeding at this site.
As far as I know there are no colonies within 20-30 miles of this location.
Martin added that most British literature gives little or no mention of field scabious as a food-plant although continental literature gives this as important. He wonders if this food-plant is overlooked in the search for larvae? Larvae were found resting on the stems. Last year’s larva was eating the peripheral flowers from a position on the stem. He suspects that morning is a better time to look than later in the day, so if you know of any moderate sized patches of field scabious that are not mowed or heavily grazed it would be worth checking out.
That's fantastic news, Steve! Maybe there's hope for Bucks too, then (last record in the 1950s).
ReplyDeleteHopefully Dave. There's very little suitable habitat over this way (I've never seen it up on the ridgeway), so perhaps it's adapting to less typical habitat (and foodplant!).
DeleteExcellent news.
ReplyDelete