Recent Moths

Another belated update from August and September. In my previous post I mentioned that I'd found what I was fairly sure were Mirificarma lentiginosella larvae at Wendlebury Meads, but was waiting for adults to emerge to confirm the ID. They duly did so the next day, making this the second Oxon site for this scarce Gelechiid.

Mirificarma lentiginosella - ex larva from Wendlebury Meads

Unfortunately work ramped up a bit in August, so wasn't able to get out looking for moths as much as I'd have liked. I had a few nice leafmining sessions though, at Bagley Woods on 07/08 highlights were plenty of Phyllonorycter tenerella (on Hornbeam) a nationally scarce species that I don't find often despite searching, Stigmella tiliae (Lime), Bucculatrix cidarella (Alder), Parornix fagivora (Beech), Phyllonorycter sorbi, and Stigmella nylandriella (Rowan). At Shotover Country Park later in the week, I found Stigmella nylandriella again, but no sign of Stigmella sorbi (which doesn't seem to have any VC23 records) despite a good search.

Bucculatrix cidarella larva on Alder, with moulting cocoonet on the bottom of the leaf, mine, and grazing)

Parornix fagivora mine

On the 22nd I went to Sydlings Copse in the hope of finding Coleophora artemisicolella on the abundant Mugwort in the nearby arable fields. No luck unfortunately, but the bonus was arguably much better - 4 lovely Wormwood larvae. This species only seems to have a handful of records in VC23, of random adults here and there, which probably does reflect local breeding (as the adults are quite shy at light), so it was nice to confirm it.

Wormwood larva - Sydlings Copse

Fortunately I did also find Coleophora artemisicolella a few weeks later, while helping with Barberry Carpet surveys (a record year it seems!) in West Oxfordshire on 05/09. There were a number of larval cases on Mugwort near where we parked for one site, which seem to be the first VC23 records of what is a very under-recorded species, thanks to how well-camouflaged the cases are. The best way to spot them is by looking for the trademark feeding holes in mugwort seeds, and once one case is found there are often more nearby.

Coleophora artemisicolella larval case and feeding holes 

I found it again on a brief visit to Aston Rowant a few days later (08/09). I managed a day there on 12/09 as well, but couldn't find much to add to the site list, though there was a good collection of leafminers that I've seen there before. Ectoedemia arcuatella was widespread in shady spots on Wild Strawberry, as were Stigmella poterii (Salad Burnet) and Trifurcula eurema (Bird's Foot Trefoil) in the grassland. All of these species only have one or two previous Oxfordshire records but are probably waiting to be found at lots of other chalk grassland sites on the Chilterns, along with Trifurcula headleyella (Self-Heal) which I found one mine of in a quick search on Bald Hill. Despite searching high and low though, still no sign of Stigmella aeneofasciella here.

Trifurcula headleyella mine

Stigmella poterii mines

Trifurcula eurema mine

The day before I had a failed search for Campanula Pug larvae at BBOWT's Warburg reserve. There were some nice bonuses though, in the form of more mines of Phyllonorycter tenerella on Hornbeam, Ectoedemia arcuatella on Wild Strawberry, and Lyonetia prunifoliella on Blackthorn continuing its expansion. I think the latter two are both second records for VC23. More common, but no less exciting was my first ever Lobster Moth larva spotted on Blackthorn along the entrance road - what an amazing beast!

Ectoedemia arcuatella mines

Lobster Moth larva

I searched a number of other sites on the Chilterns for Campanula Pug this autumn, all without success. On 15/08 I went round most of the woods near Christmas Common looking for the foodplant, but didn't really find enough to justify a return trip to search (a maximum of 20 deer-nibbled spikes in one wood). On the same day as Warburg I also visited the National Trust's Cliveden estate where the moth was recorded where the track along the escarpment drops down to the river in the 90s. About 100 spikes of the foodplant, but no larvae here. Happy to send more specific information on locations and numbers of plants if anyone else is interested in having a go, and I'd love to hear from anyone that knows of any good stands of the foodplant (60-70+ spikes maybe) on the Chilterns. I'm sure the moth is out there, but the foodplant is quite patchy, so I'm probably just not looking in the right places.

Those not on social media may have missed some extremely sad news for the moth world this week as well, in the form of the passing of Doug Boyes. Many of you will have heard of Doug for his amazing work as a scientist (his recent study on the effects of streetlighting on larval abundance made headlines around the world) and a moth recorder (as the youngest county moth recorder in the history of the scheme). I was fortunate enough to get to know him via his work at Wytham Woods (collecting moths for the Darwin Tree of Life project), and see first hand his brilliance, dedication, and generosity with his time and knowledge. He was an extraordinary person with such a bright future ahead of him and I and everyone else who was lucky enough to know him will miss him terribly. You can read a tribute to him from his colleagues at CEH and Butterfly Conservation here: https://www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-media/news/tribute-douglas-boyes.