It has been a month since the moth trap has been out, but with a window in the weather, plus warm temperatures and cloudy skies it
was an ideal evening to put them in the Orchard and Flower Meadow. The results speak for themselves. Here is a selection of the 50+ species encountered.
Box Tree Moth
This is the first record of this moth at the Trust. An Asian species, first recorded in the British Isles from Kent in 2007, where it was attracted to light. Since then sightings have increased greatly and is now encountered frequently across the south and even central London , and as you can see moving north.
Ruby Tiger
Phragmatobia fuliginosa
The English name of this moth is most appropriate for those found in southern England. In northern England and Ireland, the forewings are darker with some blackish tints on the hindwings. One or two small spots are present on the forewings, these can be connected forming a crescent.
Can be found in flight by day, particularly in sunshine. Mating sometimes occurs in mid-afternoon. Also flies from dusk and into the night.
Flies in April to June, and in the south, again in August and September.
Lavrvae feed on Herbs, including ragworts, plantains, heathers, dock, dandelion, Spindle and Broom.
Selection of micro moths. Left to right - Single-dotted Wave, Double-striped pug, Wormwood Pug.
Rosy Rustic
Hydraecia micacea
Common and widespread throughout the British Isles, this species has a wide variation both in colour and size.
It is on the wing from August to October and frequents waste ground, marshy areas, and other places where the foodplants grow.
The larvae live on a range of low plants, but especially dock (Rumex spp.), feeding beneath the ground on the roots.
Chinese Character
Cilix glaucata
This small moth has an excellent form of mimicry, bird pooh!
It occurs fairly commonly in England, Wales, Ireland and southern Scotland, and can be found in hedgerows, gardens and woodland.
The larvae feed mainly on blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) and hawthorn (Crataegus), but occasionally other Prunus species.
The Drinker
Euthrix potatoria
The yellowish females are slightly larger than the orange-brown male below, but both sexes usually show the two distinctive white spots on the forewing.
Flying at night, in July and August, the males especially are attracted to light.
Grasses and reeds form the bulk of the foodplants, and the species is fairly common in the southern half of Britain.
Micro Moths
Other insects the light moth traps attract
DICRANOPALPUS ramosus senso lato, a variety of harvestmen
Burying Beetle Nicrophorus humator
and Sexton Beetle , Nicrophorus vespilloides, a burying beetle that its larvae are laid and feed on carcass of of mammals and birds. The small phoretic mites , seen in the photo above, also need carrion for reproduction, but they lack the means to travel between such breeding opportunities. So, to get about, the third instar stage of the mite (deutonymphs) attach themselves to the beetles. They have no trouble hanging on to the beetles as they fly or move between carcasses. Once a beetle arrives at a carcass however, the mites disembark. The mites feed and breed alongside the beetles on the carcass, and then the next generation of mites climbs aboard the beetles, and flies off with them to a new site.
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