July 2014

Ringed Border at Parke NT, Devon

MattPrince's picture

Submitted by MattPrince on

On the evening of the 25th July, Nicola, Myself and Andrew Cunningham headed out to Parke, a NT owned estate near Bovey Tracey on the edge of the moor. It was a Devon Moth Group event and after a hot day we were hoping there might be some good mothing to be had. We met up with NT ranger Fred Hutt and the guvnor of Devon mothing Roy (the nailer) Mcormick and headed down to the river with a small group of lepidopterists and out into one of the fields were Roy already had two portable traps set out.

Whilst waiting for it to get dark I had a wander around as the site looked like it...

Quadrat bashing

July isn't my favourite month as I find quadrats labour intensive and dull, there isn't much chance to find new species. Or is there...

Yesterday I decided to try and record all the inverts in the quadrats I was surveying and came up with two lifers (both hoppers) with one of them being quite a nice one. Commoner stuff included Formica fusca, Chalkhill Blue, Fox Moth larva, and several Phytocoris varipes. Hoppers inlcuded Neophilaenus exclamationis and...

Flatropers Wood survey update

Although this Lappet at Woods Mill yesterday stole the show, being one of my long standing bogeys, we did have a number of interesting records from Flatropers Wood on the survey there. The best being the nationally scarce (Nb) White-line Snout which was new to me and the very attractive micro Caloptilia alchimiella. Other nice moths included Satin Lutestring and the nationally scarce Anania...

County Durham does it for me

peewit's picture

Submitted by peewit on

A week's holiday based at Holwick, near Middleton-on-Tees gave me the opportunity to extend new species. Melancholy Thistle (Cirsium heterophyllum) was the first of many, seen locally. Down into Yorkshire where at Ballowfields LNR were lots of Spring Sandwort (Minuartia verna) and a small patch of Moonwort (Botrychium lunaria). A beautiful walk from Holwick through a hay-meadow to view two waterfalls along the Tees was excellent, and new to me were Pale Forget-me-not (Myosotis stolenfera), Alpine Bistort (...

NMN Tick

Skev's picture

Submitted by Skev on

Got me a mothy tick on National Moth Night. We've got unprecedented vehicular access to a large wood in VC55 this year - Swithland Wood. Lots of very old mature oaks in the area I was trapping with good species range despite the less than ideal conditions and torrential deluge an hour after dark ......

Catch included Epagoge grotiana - new for me. This site is likely to throw up some good stuff - new for VC55 Rosy Marbled taken there a couple of weeks ago.

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