That'll do nicely, thanks!

I had a butterfly transect to do in local woodland today and, although there were only occasional glimpses of the sun, I decided it was worth taking the SAL pheromone lure with me for Sallow Clearwing Synanthedon flaviventris because the site was one of those which produced the species two years ago.  The lure was hung up inside a trap at a suitable spot and left for the 90 minutes it took me to complete the tedious job of counting getting on for 1,000 Meadow Browns and Ringlets.  When I got back to the trap there was, much as expected, nothing in it!  Having arrived back home at about 4.30pm I decided to hang the trap out in the garden rather than putting it away, not really expecting anything, so I was amazed to find that by 5pm it had attracted two male Sallow Clearwings.  Needless to say, this is a new species for the site and both are illustrated below.  They were very skittish and I was lucky to be able to grab any pictures at all.
          

Sallow Clearwing, Westcott 4th July

Sallow Clearwing, Westcott 4th July

I suppose I shouldn't really be surprised that they turned up here because I do get Lunar Hornet Moth which uses the same food-plant.  There is sallow (both Salix cinerea and Salix caprea) along our boundary fence and there is quite a large area of sallow secondary woodland on the adjacent Westcott Venture Park which is only the width of a couple of gardens away from us.  Now would seem to be an excellent time to try this lure if you have it.

Dave Wilton Westcott, Bucks