Recent Sightings

More belated news of day time moth-ing around Oxford. On the 7th, I went to Chilswell Valley again, looking for micros in the area of limestone grassland and a nearby field corner. Highlight was several Bucculatrix cristatella fluttering around and swept in the field corner. Embarassingly, this is what my 'Trifurcula sp.' found last time definitely was, I saw its orange head and grey body and assumed it was a Trifurcula, but several much fresher specimens set me right. Other good moths were 2 Six-Belted Clearwings, Dichrorampha vancouverana (a couple netted around Yarrow), Cydia nigricana (one swept from a big patch of Tufted Vetch), Yarrow, Brown and Crescent Plumes, several Cochylis hybridella, a Blackneck disturbed from some Tufted Vetch, and a Nemophora species that I think is again cupriacella  which looks to be a bit of a rarity in VC22. I had another here last year that I reached the same conclusion on, but happy to be corrected!

Bucculatrix cristatella

Metzneria aprillela

Nemophora cupriacella

Dichrorampha vancouverana

In a quick look at the fen area of the site, I also found a single young larva on Valerian that I'm fairly sure is the appropriate pug. I've since found it on two other patches of Valerian I've checked around Oxford this week - at Iffley Meadows and along the river up near the Victoria Arms.

Valerian Pug Larva - Iffley Meadows

On the 9th I had a brief visit to the lovely Wendlebury Meads. It was raining for most of my visit, so not much of a success for moths, and sweeping the Dyer's Greenweed failed to turn up any of its associated rarities. Best was a leaf miner in a nearby arable field - Chrysoesthia drurella on Orache.

Chrysoesthia drurella mine

On the 10th I had a fairly quiet wander around Dry Sandford Pit. Highlight there was a couple of Dingy White Plumes flushed from Marjoram, and some early Stephensia brunnichella mines on Wild Basil. I also had a look in a rough field in nearby Frilford Heath, just east of the Dog House Inn that was full of Viper's Bugloss. I swept a couple of Coleophoras from it, one of which looked really good for the rare Viper's Bugloss-feeding pennella, and inevitably escaped from my net, and the other which I'm not so sure looks the part, but will hopefully get dissected in time.

On the 12th I popped out briefly to Longbridges Nature Park (near Iffley Meadows) to try out the new Lunar Hornet lure. Conditions weren't great, and nothing appeared between 14:19 and 14:51. I also put out the Red-Tipped Clearwing lure though, which was much more successful, with at least 5 in 10 minutes. There were probably more (with several still buzzing around after the lure had gone away), and the first arrived within less than a minute. Others here were mines of Ectoedemia atricollis on Pear, and Acrolepia autumnitella on Bittersweet.

Red-Tipped Clearwing

Yesterday I went to Chilswell Valley again, sticking to the field corner for an hour or so. It was largely more of the same, with the additions of Cochylis dubitana, Aspilapteryx tringipennella and Shaded Broad-Bar. Highlight was a surprise Mecyna flavalis.