On Sunday I took her to a couple of local sites in the Dorton area over lunchtime and she then spent the afternoon in our garden, all without success. I've had Oak Eggar females in the garden trap so they are around locally but the wind was in the wrong direction - all the good habitat for them is to the west of us. Today she came with me to Finemere Wood for a butterfly transect and then to Marsh Gibbon for a RIS trap pick-up but I had no joy again at either spot. I decided to go to Arncott where Ched had had success, just to make sure she was still "calling", and sure enough a male appeared within ten minutes. I moved off quickly to Brill Common where a male appeared within five minutes, then to the church at Wotton Underwood where the response was even quicker with a male in under two minutes. This one was allowed to pair up with the female.
So for very little effort we've got some extra records for a species which is quite widespread in the local countryside but simply isn't recorded that often. Just like the Emperor Moth, Oak Eggar males only fly in the daytime and are rarely seen, although the females do come to light. However, whereas Emperor larvae are easy to rear and over-winter in the pupal stage, Oak Eggars over-winter as part-grown caterpillars and I've never had success in seeing them through to the following year. Well done to Ched for managing to do it successfully!
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| Oak Eggar female, captive-bred |
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| Oak Eggar male from Wotton Underwood, Bucks 3rd August |
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| Oak Eggar male from Wotton Underwood, Bucks 3rd August |
Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks
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