Category: Biology

I had my first Lymantria dispar sighting of the year in the garden last night. He was very battered and worn and had a chunk missing from his left wing. As such, I let him on his way without potting him to photograph and then release. So this is perhaps one of his ancestors photographed on my finger last year!

There’s a call in the US to remove inappropriate vernacular names for organisms and such from the textbooks. So, Stateside the moth is now often referred to as the Spongy Moth. The proposed name comes from the common name used in France and French-speaking Canada, Spongieuse, and alludes to the spongy mass of eggs laid by the females.

Incidentally, Geoffrey de Havilland was an amateur Lepidopterist, hence many of the names he gave his aircraft referring to moths, Tiger Moth, Gypsy Moth etc. I doubt there will be a name change of those vintage aircraft though.

Anyway, we always have the pseudo Latin scientific binomial, Lymantria dispar, to fall back on. I am not entirely sure whether that is a more politically correct name than the original English name of this species because it loosely translates as the “sexually dimorphic destroyer”.

Lymantria dispar is commonly still known as the Gypsy Moth in the UK, a name with racist connotations, hence the need to adopt an alternative vernacular name for the species.

In my effort to add some “wild” patches to our garden, I’ve got a lot of yarrow growing this year. A Yarrow Pug, Eupithecia millefoliata, turned up in the garden last night. This moth brings the new for me total for 2022 to 38 so far. I’ve logged 280 species of moth in the garden this year; not including the butterflies.

The Yarrow Pug is quite a scarce species only been in the British Isles since the 1930s. Usually, only seen on the south coast from Essex to Dorset but it’s spread along both sides of the Thames Estuary and beyond. First recorded here in Cambridgeshire in 1978. Pugs have that name because the naturalists thought the shape of their wings resembled the jowls of the breed of dog known as a pug!

Also new for me (NFM) last night was this tiniest of tiny moths, the Apple Leaf Miner, Lyonetia clarkella. Where the larges of the native, breeding moths in the UK, the Privet Hawk-moth can have a wingspan of up to about 120 millilimetres, L. clarkella has a wing span of a mere 8 mm or so. This particular specimen seemed even smaller than that. The larvae of leaf miners burrow through leaves eating as they go and leaving a trail behind them.

*Butterflies in the garden this year: Brimstone, Comma, Common Blue, European Peacock, Gatekeeper, Green-veined White, Holly Blue, Large Skipper, Large White, Marbled White, Meadow Brown, Orange-tip, Red Admiral, Small Copper, Small Tortoiseshell, Small White. For all my moth and butterfly photos check out the galleries on my Imaging Storm website.

In the summer of 2020, just after the first covid lockdown, I visited Waresley Wood, which is a few miles west of the city of Cambridge. The wood itself is good for Silver-washed Fritillary and the adjacent Brown’s Piece has plenty of Marbled White. That summer, there was a small patch of meadowland next to a maize crop where Common Blue and Brown Argus danced among clover, borage, viper’s bugloss and vetch.

On that visit, I also spotted a couple of fast-moving and vivid butterflies chasing up and down this ad hoc meadow. They were Clouded Yellow butterflies, Colias croceus. The species is quite rare in the British Isles and if you see one here it will usually be a migrant that’s flown in on an Easterly breeze from continental Europe. Some years we do get irruptions, mass immigrations, where they arrive in relatively large numbers in the summer and breed.

As to why they are so fast moving compared to some other related species, such as the “cabbage” whites, the Clouded Yellow does not accumulate toxins from the plants it eats. Where the Whites are often unpalatable to predators, such as birds, the Clouded Yellow is a tasty little morsel. However, while the more sedate Whites have poisons on their side to protect them, the Clouded Yellow has speed. It rarely sits still for more than a fleeting moment, as my good friend and fellow amateur wildlife photographer, Andy Hoy will attest. In between those rare rests it moves seemingly erratically and at speeds much greater than any White, or indeed any of the other butterflies you might see sharing the nectar of a wildflower meadow.

The Clouded Yellow will favour clovers growing on unimproved chalk downland, so that’s kind of terrain is a good place to look for them, especially in a “Clouded Yellow Year”. At the time of writing, Andy had spotted a solitary Clouded Yellow on a local reserve, without much forethought we shared a hike in a neighbouring patch and took a detour towards the end of the walk in the hope of catching sight of a few butterflies. We were expecting Common Blue, Brown Argus, European Peacock, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, and the aforementioned Whites, Large and Small, and were duly rewarded.

The hope of a Clouded Yellow or two was rewarded as we walked a 60×250 metre patch of wildflower meadow with plenty of clover, vetches, ragwort, sow thistle and other nectar-rich flowers on the edge of a wheat field. Glass half-full, I reckon we saw a couple of dozen Clouded Yellow, whereas Andy reckons it was perhaps a dozen. It could be that some of the same individuals were counted more than once. I asked the County Butterfly Recorder, Edward Pollard, for his opinion on this point, following his advice and being a little more half-empty than my I’d like to be, I’ll record perhaps 15 or so individuals but with a margin of error of about 5 or 6.

TL:DR – Purple Hairstreak butterflies are present in Gamlingay Woods in the summer along with Purple Emperor and various other species.

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I’ve visited a few of the old woods to the west of Cambridge in the last couple of years including Hayley Wood, Wareseley Wood (and Brown’s Piece), and Overhall Grove. One that I’d attempted to visit this time last year was Gamlingay Wood. It’s not far from the village of Waresely, and for that matter, not far from Gamlingay.

Google Maps gets you to what it thinks is your destination at a farm gate on the B1040 road. Unfortunately, this isn’t the nature reserve managed by the Wildlife Trust. That’s further along the road up a gated track, there’s no parking now, and the nature reserve sign that was apparently opposite the track and the erstwhile parking is missing.

Anyway, I was visiting as this is another site with some old oaks and a sighting of Purple Emperor butterfly. So, I found a layby back up the road, parked there and walked back down to the sign that isn’t there and up the gated dirt track. There’s a Y in the footpaths when you go through the accessible style-gate and after a quick look to the tops of the oaks there, I took the right fork and then a sharp left to cut across the woodland. Within 100 metres or so I spotted a Purple Hairstreak fleetingly basking on the ground.

So I hunkered down with my camera and macro lens and watched for more. There were plenty. Perhaps a couple of dozen. Interspersed with Silver-washed Fritillary, Large White, Ringlet, Large Skipper, Speckled Wood, Gatekeeper, Comma, and Meadow Brown. I was just about to move on, when a Purple Emperor wafted towards me and flew overhead never to be seen again. I lugged camera and camera bag a little further into the wood, saw more Frits and lots of Peacock nectaring on Purple Loosestrife, there were insects on Chichory flowers, and an occasional moth, and at least a couple of Brown Argus in a scrubby clearing. All nice enough to see, but I was peeved that I didn’t get a snapshot of Gamlingay’s Purple Emperor. That will have to be for another day.

TL:DR – Update on moth species observed as part of my citizen science work on Lepidoptera.

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The summer seemed sluggish, as it were, but last night’s lighting up session brought around 200+ moths of about 50 species to the scientific trap. Most of them I had seen and photographed before, but in the absence of novelty I will always try something creative with some of the ones I see, so these are all Summer 2022 photos of mostly moths I’ve snapped before, with one or two exceptions. As of this morning, I’ve recorded 30 species to the garden that I have not seen in previous years.

I went looking for Chalkhill Blue at Devil’s Dyke, Cambridgeshire, this morning, having seen several hundred there this time last year. There must’ve been 1000 or so today out and about on the banks of the Dyke and the chalky footpath. There were also dozens of Marbled White, a dozen or so Dark Green Fritillary, and several Brimstone butterfly, a few skippers (Small mainly), lots of Cabbage B*st*rds, and just one solitary male Oak Eggar moth. He has something of the Donnie Darko about him, this one, I’d say…

The moth’s name comes from its chrysalis looking like an acorn and the “enormous” eggs the females lay. The males are day fliers, the females are active at night. Those antennae! Oh my!

The Oak Eggar (Lasiocampa quercus) is a species of moth belonging to the family Lasiocampidae, which are commonly referred to as “eggars”, their eggs are large and resemble acorns hence the name. The moth doesn’t really have an association with oaks. These moths are found throughout Europe, including the United Kingdom, and are also present in parts of Asia.

The Oak Eggar is a medium-sized moth with a wingspan that ranges from 45 to 70mm. The wings are typically a yellowish-brown colour with darker brown or greyish-brown markings. The males have feathery antennae that are used to detect pheromones released by the female moths as a sex attractant.

An unassuming moth new to me, Carnation Tortrix, Cacoecimorpha pronubana (Hübner, [1799])

The Tortrix moths, not to be confused with a potato chip product in Guatemala, are so-called because the larvae of many species of Tortricidae twist leaves around themselves. Tortus is the past participle of the Latin verb torqu?re, to twist.

The moth’s hindwings are orange, you can just see a hint of that in the way this one is resting. That Latin verb is also the root of the motoring term “torque” meaning twisting, or rotational, force.

Also had Timothy Tortrix, Aphelia paleana (Hübner, 1793) in the garden last night. First time I’ve noted and photographed these species.

UPDATE: I’d almost given up hope on the local Purple Hairstreaks for 2024, but had a last look at the oaks on the outer edge of Manor Farm Wood facing out over the Cottenham Lode and spotted one, then a couple more. Six sightings in all, so perhaps 3-4 individuals. Probably too late for White-letter of which there was no sign.

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I found a colony of White-letter Hairstreak in the middle of Manor Farm Wood, Rampton. I don’t think I’ve heard of anyone mentioning this species in this woodland before. It’s a relatively young woodland. The butterflies were emerging from a tall blackthorn and coming fairly low to nectar on bramble and flitting back into the blackthorn. There are elms in the vicinity, the foodplant of this species’ larvae.

I was then surprised to see another hairstreak flying in the top of a willow tree on the Lode-side edge of the same woodland – Purple Hairstreak!

As I watched, I counted perhaps 9 or 10 Purple Hairstreaks and got photos of a few when they settled. I don’t believe either species have been noted here before. Certainly, Ed Pollard, the County Butterfly Recorder was unaware of this wood and had not had records of butterflies there until I logged mine with him.

Les King Wood back towards Cottenham from this spot had a report of Green Hairstreak in 2020 (from Martin Fowlie) and I caught up with that species there in 2021, but I have not seen them there summer of 2022, sadly. UPDATE: 29 Apr 2023. But not seen any in 2024.

I have seen lots of Green HS along Devil’s Dyke in Cambridgeshire when I went chasing the Adonis Blue and Dark Green Fritillary.

I have only previously seen Purple Hairstreak in Woodwalton Fen NNR (2021 and 2022) and Brampton Wood (2022), so as with the White-letter Hairstreaks, I was quite surprised to see them in this relatively young woodland so close to home.

It is wholly unlikely that the most uncolonial of our hairstreaks, the Black Hairstreak, will turn up here, restricted locally to Brampton Wood and Monk’s Wood as they seem to be.

UK hairstreaks I have photographed so far

White-letter Hairstreak (2021) – Satyrium w-album (Knoch, 1782)
Green Hairstreak (2021) – Callophrys rubi (Linnaeus, 1758)
Purple Hairstreak (2021) – Favonius quercus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Black Hairstreak (2022) – Satyrium pruni (Linnaeus, 1758)

Ilex Hairstreak (2024, Greece) – Satyrium ilicis
Blue-spot Hairstreak (2024, Greece) – Satyrium spini
Sloe Hairstreak (2024, Greece) – Satyrium acaciae

I am yet to see Brown Hairstreak, the largest British hairstreak butterfly, and the only one missing from this list. It is scarce and found only in the South and South-West and Wales in the UK. UPDATE: July 2024, now present at RSPB Frampton Marsh near Dartford.

Quoting the UK’s Butterfly Conservation: The Oxford and Ampthill Clays are the only place in the UK where all five of the hairstreak family of butterflies can be found.

There are seventeen “tribes” of hairstreak worldwide amounting to dozens of other species. Some of the Theclinae (the hairstreaks subfamily) are known as elfins.

UPDATE: June 2024 – Butterflying holiday in northern Greece. Saw Green, Purple, White-letter Hairstreak, and added Ilex, Sloe, and Blue-dot Hairstreak to my international list, as well as many other butterflies.

I spotted a White-letter Hairstreak in our local woodland (Manor Farm Wood, Rampton) in the middle of June 2022. Having only previously seen it at Overhall Grove flying at the tops of elms, I was a little surprised to see this species, of which I eventually counted 15 in the space of an hour or so (21 a couple of days later).

It’s a “hairstreak” butterfly, note the white streaks on the underside of its wings, but also note that towards the termen of the wings the white streaks form what might whimsically be perceived as a “W” or an “M” depending on your reading angle. Hence the scientific name: Satyrium w-album.

The adults nectar on bramble flowers but its larval foodplant is the elm. Obviously, since the 1920s, elms have commonly succumbed to Dutch Elm disease and so the WL-HS has not been as widespread nor as common as it perhaps once was when elms were everywhere. It’s making a bit of a comeback and not so localise nor non-colonial as its cousin the Black Hairstreak. From a quick scan of the records for S. w-album on iRecord it looks like they are seen in some disparate places across Cambridgeshire, but I think my Rampton record if the first noted on that site.

I saw my first WL-HS in Overhall Grove in 2021 but only encountered the B-HS for the first time at Monk’s Wood and then Brampton Park. The B-HS inhabits old woodland with well-established blackthorn bushes growing in particularly peaty earth. In the whole of the UK there is only a narrow strip of such habitat that stretches from north of Cambridge South-west to Oxford, and one or two other spots. Monk’s Wood and Brampton Wood are at the North-eastern end of this strip of land. There are perhaps hundreds if not thousands of B-HS at Brampton which has an abundance of blackthorn. These two woodlands are the oldest in the county of Cambridgeshire.

I have now added a sixth butterfly species to the list I’ve photographed this year for the first time, beating the total of five new species last year. The Small Blue (Cupido minimus) joins Adonis Blue, Black Hairstreak, Grizzled Skipper, Wall, and White Admiral on my list.

The Small Blue has to be the most brown of the Blues. The male has a bit of a bluish suffusion close to the body, but is basically a brown butterfly like the female. The wings have a white fringe and the underside has black spots that are unlike those of the other blues and resemble the Holly Blue but with beige as the ground colour rather than blue. However, its vernacular name rings true in the adjective “Small”. This is definitely the UK’s smallest butterfly. The scientific binomial might be translated whimsically as being “the smallest Cupid” but strictly speaking translates from the Latin as “a desire for the least”.

I saw the Small Blue for the first time on a visit to Trumpington Meadows nature reserve not far from Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge. A Cambs Wildlife Trust rep there, who goes by the twitter handle @HarryHedgehog7, pointed me to a small footbridge that crosses the M11 motorway from the Meadows to an additional chunk of wild area beyond the old crop research site. There is abundant Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria, also known as woundwort), which is one of the larval foodplants, although the caterpillars are cannabilistic and will eat each other, and while the colony did not appear to number in the hundreds as can occur, there were at least a couple of dozen that showed their true colours among the vetch.

Also seen, Common Blue (not that common, but the males are definitely blue), Small Tortoiseshell (quite a large butterfly, but its pattern is reminiscent of a coloured-in tortoiseshell), Large, Small, and Essex Skipper, Marbled White (which are sort of marbled but they’re actually a type of “Brown” Satyrinid butterfly), and a lot of Six-spot Burnet moths, which definitely have six spots on each wing.

Incidentally, the M11 is an arterial road that connects Cambridge with London, one might wonder whether the Cambridge-educated politicians and civil servants had the public’s interest or their own travel interest at heart when this road was first planned…