Monday, 17 January 2011

A new species already!

Spring Usher

Chestnut

1932 Spring Usher (Agriopis leucophaearia) 1 NEW
2258 Chestnut (Conistra vaccinii) 1 NFY


Only two moths trapped last night between 5pm and 10pm. Despite the very bright and clear moonlight one of them was a new species for me. 

Spring Usher is a scarce species in Northumberland with only 34 previous records of 42 individuals. In VC68 this is only the 8th record. To give you an idea what the numbers are like, the last one  was a single in 2006, then one in 2003 and one in 1997. So, I might get another one in five years time or so...

The Chestnut is much commoner in the garden and was an expected winter addition. This one is pretty raggy arsed, maybe its been lucky to escape an interested bird...

2 moths of 2 species bringing the year total to 6 moths of 6 species...2 up on last year at this time.

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for sending me the blog link Stewart. It's good to see what is being caught at the other end of the country. Spring Usher is still on my wanted posters....fingers crossed

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  2. Moths have wonderful names, Stewart.

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  3. Well done on what is one of my favourite species at this time, Stewart. Spring Usher is a smart moth.

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  4. Cheers all. Its back to winter now though witha heavy frost this morning so the trap is away again until the next mild one...Feb probably.

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