Four-spotted Moth on Zoom

The Herts & Middlesex Branch of Butterfly Conservation has organised a series of on-line talks on Zoom this winter and the next one in particular may be of interest to some of the moth recorders in our area:

Wednesday 17th February (join from 7.45pm for a start promptly at 8pm) 

Sharon Hearle, who is the Eastern Regional Conservation Manager for BC, will be talking about conservation work in the East of England and projects you can get involved with, in particular for the day-flying Four-spotted Tyta luctuosa which desperately needs more volunteers who have the time to go out looking for the moth during the summer.

This is free to join on the night and will last for between 60 and 90 minutes (no need to pre-register).  The Zoom link for the meeting is here (it will open in a new window). 

Four-spotted is known from the very north of Bucks, in particular around Lavendon although the last VC24 record in 2019 was from a little further south at Moulsoe near M1 jct.14 on the Bucks/Beds border.  The moth does come to light at night but is more regularly found during the daytime, in particular along uncultivated field margins which support the larval food-plant field bindweed Convolvulus arvensis.  

This is unfortunately a moth I've never encountered in the UK.  However, I have seen it frequently in Europe so the image below is of one which came to light in Portugal a couple of years ago (remember when we were allowed to go abroad?!). 

Four-spotted (Algarve, June 2019)

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks