Category: Lepidoptera

UPDATE: I mentioned this larval nest to the County Moth Recorder, Bill Mansfield, and as he was not too far from the site in question, he took a look. It’s on a type of cherry tree, he found, so he’s narrowed down the moth species, to Bird Cherry Ermine, Yponemeuta evonymella. He points out that the tree is largely defoliated at this point and the web mostly now covering evergreen fir trees.

Friends often come to me with their lepidopteral and avian queries, it’s often a bird they’ve seen that they imagine is some great rarity, a mega, but often turns out to be something common, a Long-tailed Tit mistaken for a Great Grey Shrike for instance. One friend spots lots of moths in his farm-facing garden and on his allotment and jokingly emails me as MothMania…I can usually put him straight.

Another friend’s sixth-former offspring was perturbed to see what she thought was a huge spider’s web on the way to college, it shook her up a little. The friend asked me to take a look at the photo, I immediately thought – not spiders, moth larval nest! But, I didn’t know which species.

From the photos I’ve seen, I initially thought it to be the caterpillars of the Small Eggar moth, but that’s quite rare and present in the UK in specific, sporadic colonies. Other moths that make nests like this on bushes and trees would be The Lackey and the Brown-tail of which I’ve talked here in the past. It would be worrying if it were the invasive Oak Processionary Moth too, but thankfully it’s not that.

Over on Facebook, friend and fellow Cottenham moth-er Martin Fowlie suggested one of the ermine moths (Yponomeuta species) and that is what we’re settling on for the ID. Can’t be more specific without additional details at this point.

Photos kindly shared by Ken Bateup who posted on the Cambridgeshire Moths Facebook group.

Let me introduce Mother Shipton. This is the moth Euclidia mi. It’s a day-flying moth, darts between resting places quite quickly during May and June. It’s a fairly common species, but I’d only ever seen it briefly once before and didn’t get a decent shot of the upper side of its wings. This one was feeding on hawthorn alongside some Common Heath moths on Devil’s Dyke in Cambridgeshire. The larvae feed on trifolium, clover, and some grasses.

Oh, one more thing, some people might call it a Mother Shipton butterfly because it flies during the day, but all butterflies are moths by definition.

The vernacular name alludes to the renowned 16th Century soothsayer and alleged witch Mother Shipton (aka Ursula Southeil (ca. 1488–1561) of Knaresborough in North Yorkshire, England.

The markings on the moth’s forewings are said to resemble a fa fanciful and cartoonish impression of Mother Shipton’s profile featuring a beady eye, prominent nose and chin, and toothless maw. Judge for yourself.

Also seen on Devil’s Dyke: Green Hairstreak (21x), Brimstone butterfly, Orange Tip, Blue  (possibly Adonis, given time of year as opposed to Chalkhill, which emerges much later)

Other people’s hobbies are weird, aren’t they? Bird watching, trainspotting, stamp collecting…what’s that all about. But, some are particularly strange, at least until you find yourself introduced, intrigued, interested, and then heavily invested in that particular hobby.

Take mothing, it’s like birding, but with moths. What could be weirder? Many people think of moths as pests, dull grey and brown fluttery things that fly around lights at night and eating clothes and carpets. But, nothing could be farther from the truth. There are indeed some moths that are grey or brown and just two species whose larvae (caterpillars) eat textiles. However, there are about 2500 species in the UK alone and something like 150,000 species around the world and they come in all shapes and sizes, colours and patterns, many that outdo their lepidopteral cousins, the butterflies, for glamour and flamboyance.

Moth-er extraordinaire James Lowen who first went from intrigue to interest to investment when he first set eyes on the magnificent and enormous Poplar Hawk-moth has travelled far and wide to see some of those tens of thousands of species of moth. Now, in “British Moths – A gateway guide“, he reveals some of that intrigue and interest in the hope of enticing his reader into sharing his investment in the world of moths. And, what a world it is from the aforementioned Poplar Hawk-moth to the Angles Shades from the Emperor to Mother Shipton. The names are as diverse and distinctive as the shapes and patterns of this richly diverse group of insects.

In the pages of this handily spiral-bound book, Lowen introduces to what might be our first 350 or so ticks (as it were) on a novice moth-er’s list. Each described in crisp detail with an equally crisp photo. Labels highlight the highlights of each moth’s features, patterns on its wings, their antennae, even the males’ pheromone-releasing tail, its so-called hair pencil.

There is much to learn, but you will learn fast if you take a seasonal tour through Lowen’s lovely introduction to what some of us already see as the most fascinating of hobbies. Many of us see make use of our hobby as citizen scientists reporting sightings to the professionals and the county moth recorders and such.

Be warned though…your trainspotting and stamp-collecting friends will think you’re weird. Let them! Maybe even invest in a copy of Lowen’s book for them, intrigue them, interest them, get them invested in this fascinating hobby. Don’t let moths flutter by without taking a closer look.

TL:DR – The LepiLED UV lamp is a rather useful, low-power and portable lure for use in citizen science with nocturnal Lepidoptera

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UPDATE: Aug/Sep 22 – Have done a couple of trips with the LepiLED and a portable trap. First, to the New Forest and then to Corfe Castle. The first, August trip, was quite productive with a few decent moths and a couple that were new to me, such as Rosy Footman. Fewer moths on the September trip, as you’d expect, but again a couple of new ones, including L-album Wainscot and Tachystola acroxantha.

UPDATE: Feb 22 – All set up and lit up on Friday evening at dusk just for a quick trial. The LepiLED is nice and bright and lasted several hours on the battery pack. However, the night was rather chilly, although the wind had dropped, there was very little visible invertebrate activity in the garden, sadly, and no moths seen. In previous years with fluorescent UV lamps, it has been the same, don’t tend to see any moths in February, activity picks up in mid-March.

Apparently, mothing became something of a lockdown hobby for nature fans who weren’t allowed to head out into their usual patch to watch birds, search for orchids, hug trees, etc. I can’t see I’ve heard much evidence that anyone who may have glanced at it as a hobby back in 2020 has kept up with it…let me know if you did and you have. Either way, I’ve been lighting up since July 2018 after being introduced to the idea by my good friend Rob that summer. It became something of an obsession and subsequent years and I’ve been keen to find ways to see new species each season. I’ve clocked and photographed well over 300 unique moth species in that time.

My German lepidopteral contact Gunnar Brehm of whom I’ve written a couple of times on here in the past has now supplied me with a LepiLED device. The device is basically a cluster of LED lights in a chunky protective canister made of ultraviolet-transparent borosilicate glass that is powered using a portable USB powerpack). It has three wavelength peaks for attracting nocturnal insects. Two peaks in the visible spectrum green (530 nanometres) and blue (450 nm), and a third, peak in the ultraviolet (365 nm). The associated research linked to the peak choice in the design can be found here.

Having spent the first four seasons (July 2018 onwards) of my scientific moth-trapping with conventional fluorescent UV tubes (the kind that are used, ironically, in bug zappers), I am very excited to have the opportunity to try a new approach with the lower power, tuned LepiLED device. The weather is not optimal at the moment, it’s very windy and we just had a squally hailstorm/snow shower. But, once I have set up the kit, I will start lighting up and report back to you with the countless specimens I see each evening as the moth season unfolds over the coming weeks.

I have now used an old actinic trap with its UV fluorescent tube removed to build a new rig for the LepiLED. As I mentioned, the lamp uses a USB power supply so should be portable, I can either hang it like it is in the above photo with a net sack added around the funnel (per Brehm’s field approach) to catch the moths or set it on the ground and use the box from the original trap with egg cartons as is traditional…I’ll try both at some point once the wind has died down and I’ve found a decent waterproof way to have the USB powerpack outside.

The Sprawler moth seems to spread its forelegs wide when it’s at rest on a chunk of wood. Its delicate patterning gives it something of a resemblance of a bark surface, perhaps. But, it is its scientific name that is a little curious and needs further explanation.

Lepidopterists originally referred to The Sprawler as Cassinia after the Italian astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini who lived from 1625—1712. It was first cited by Hufnagel in 1766. But, why was it named after an astronomer? The answer lies in the behaviour of the moth’s larva, its caterpillar. When startled the little green beast rears up its spine-covered head as if gazing heavenwards. Why it does this is something of a mystery, but then much about insects remains mysterious. Perhaps the behaviour is enough to fool a predator into thinking the larva might bite back.

The Cassinia genus was dropped in recent times for the term Asteroscopus, which is a more generic term for a star gazer, one might say. The astero part from the Greek for star and scopus from the word for watching (see also telescope). So, the full scientific binomial for The Sprawler is Asteroscopus sphinx (Hufnagel, 1766).

UPDATE: The Sprawler turned up in early November, bringing the total up to 36 new for the garden in 2021. No December moth yet, at the time of writing, sadly.

These Lepidoptera were all new for my back garden in Cottenham drawn to a 40 Watt ultraviolet “actinic” lamp on the night noted. Any of dubious ID I had confirmed from a photo by Sean Foote better known on Twitter as @MothIDUK to whom I am very grateful for the assistance and have put a tip in his tip jar.

The 35 species new for the garden in 2021 are as follows

7/3/21 – The Satellite
20/4/21 – Agonopterix purpurea* (To Myo lure)
10/5/21 – Esperia sulphurella
31/5/21 – Mottled Pug
2/6/21 – Brown Silver-line
4/6/21 – Hypena rostralis
4/6/21 – Buttoned Snout
6/6/21 – Aethes tesserana
6/6/21 – Red-belted Clearwing*
12/6/21 – Currant Clearwing*
13/6/21 – Yellow-legged Clearwing*
13/6/21 – Argyresthia curvella
14/6/21 – Red-tipped Clearwing*
16/6/21 – Orange-tailed Clearwing
24/6/21 – Hedya salicella
25/6/21 – Mompha ochraceella
4/7/21 – Aleimma loeflingiana
4/7/21 – Cnephasia agg.
11/7/21 – Plain Pug
15/7/21 – Dark Umber
19/7/21 – Raspberry Clearwing*
24/7/21 – Leek Moth
24/7/21 – Scarce Silver-lines
2/8/21 – Dewick’s Plusia (I’d only seen this moth previously in Greece)
4/8/21 – Helcystogramma rufescens
9/8/21 – Toadflax Brocade (Had larva in the garden in 2019)
19/8/21 – Yellow Belle
21/8/21 – Tawny-barred Angle
22/8/21 – Common Wave
23/8/21 – Udea lutealis
24/8/21 – Square-spot Rustic
1/9/21 – Aethes smeathmanniana
5/9/21 – Swammerdamia pyrella
19/9/21 – Beet Moth
10/10/21 – Acleris schalleriana
9/11/21 – The Sprawler

*Drawn to pheromone lure during the day, rather than actinic light at night. If non-target then pheromone is named

Numbers were very much down on my previous three seasons of trapping, never getting to more than a couple of hundred moths on any given lighting-up night and usually of 30-40 species on such nights. When I last counted (2/9/21) I’d seen about 4760 moths of 260 species. In 2019, I counted 12000 specimens and hadn’t lit up anywhere near as frequently in that year as I have during 2021. Early to mid-September got quite busy with a lot of Large Yellow Underwings and Setaceous Hebrew Characters etc.

The spring was cold and wet, summer was a bit of a washout too, but we had two or three warm spells in September.

Mrs Sciencebase and myself visited the July Racecourse end of Devil’s Dyke near Newmarket back in July and saw literally hundreds of Chalkhill Blue butterflies and dozens of Marbled White as well as a couple of Dark Green Fritillary.

It was tip-off from a couple I met by chance in a woodland who were “twitching” a White Letter Hairstreak at Overhall Grove (Nick & Stella). All of this was mentioned in my Woodwalton NNR blog post at the time. The same couple pointed me in the direction of the Cambs and Essex branch of Butterfly Conservation website, to which members add their sightings on a very timely basis.

I’d missed seeing Clouded Yellow on the wildflower margin at Waresley Wood up the hill from Browns’ Piece this year, not surprising given the farmer had ploughed it for some reason and put a load of signs up warning off walkers from venturing anywhere near his land.

Anyway, the C&E branch had an update regarding another dyke, Fleam Dyke, near the one I mentioned earlier. Chalkhill Blues there and Clouded Yellow. So I took a trip there on the first sunny morning for a few weeks. I was perhaps too late for the Clouded Yellow. Although their season does extend into the autumn, they’re a rare migrant anyway, so you have to be lucky.

However, parking up at the Fulbourn Fen car park and walking from there to Fleam Dyke and to the far end of the ridge Mutlow Hill, I was rewarded with a fair few Lepidoptera – Common Blue, Brown Argus, Brimstone butterfly, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Speckled Wood, Small Tortoiseshell, European Peacock, Chalkhill Blue, Large and Small White. There were numerous moths around – Silver Y, Yponomeuta sp., Garden Carpet, Treble-bar.

I had planned to head to Devil’s Dyke after walking Fleam Dyke for more “Chalks”, but changed my mind as it clouded over. I learned later from the Cambs & Essex page that someone had spotted a solitary Adonis Blue there, which would’ve been a new species to me. Ah well.