A Busy Species Day

Wednesday, July 18th 2018

The moth-ers identified the moths collected from the trap. Some were easy to ID, some proved a little more difficult, so the books were out and everyone voiced their opinion until the correct ID was arrived at.

The moth team

Next, photographing those that we wanted, which usually means moths 7 photographers 2, as they fly off. We were lucky that we had caught five Scalloped Oak moths so we felt that we would be able to photograph at least one. The first one out of its container sat perfectly.

Scalloped Oak Moth

The next one just showed off, hanging onto a leaf with only one leg.

Scalloped Oak Moth hanging on by one leg

Our work was not done. The Rivers 2U bus is coming to visit next week (see events page for more details) so we set off to explore what we could find in Risedale Beck, which is not a frequent activity. As usual when we go 'walkabout' we were soon waylaid by droppings. After consideration we decided that they were Otter spraint, but a final test was needed, a good sniff! If it smelt of citrus then it was Otter, which it did.

Checking the scent of Otter spraint

'Pond dipping' in the beck caught many mayfly species and

Mayfly species

caddis larvae. The caddis species found in the beck are different from those in the ponds. This one had used quite large pebbles for its case, fixed to a small rock.

Caddis larva

Back to dry land, a Dark Green Fritillary sat on a Knapweed to feed.

Dark Green Fritillary

Later in the day a white butterfly was seen that had a patterned underwing so a closer look was carried out and with reference to a butterfly book we confirmed that it was a Green Veined White.

Green Veined White

Whilst looking at the butterflies we realised that we were surrounded by Cicadella viridis, delightful little frog hoppers who were certainly living up to their name.

Cicadella viridis

Many thanks to the volunteers who helped find species, ID species and enter data into the Species Programme.

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