More Moths and Butterflies

Sunday, August 25th 2019

Friday night saw the reserve light up as Dr C Fletcher and his team set up nine moth traps in different habitats.  Early morning saw the team go around and close the traps before returning them to the Field Centre.  At a more civilised time the moth-ers arrived to watch the traps being opened and the moths ID'd.

One of the first moths to be identified was Angle Shades.  This beautiful moth is often hard to photograph as it starts to vibrate its wings as soon as it is released onto a leaf.  I was lucky, this one stayed still.

The traps sat in line waiting to be opened.

As the egg cartons were removed so the moths were identified and Jill recorded them all.

Once the moths had been identified, they were released by Raye and Dave.

A Feathered Gothic, one that we have not caught on a Wednesday, was noted.  This one is a little worn.

The final results were quickly fed back to us.  There were 103 species of which 11 are new for our moth list.  Aristotelia ericinella is a new record for VC 65.  There were a few Square-spot Rustic moths caught, 455 in the final total!

Thank you to everyone who helped make this activity a success.

As the day warmed up so the butterflies made their appearance.  Catherine and Jenny carried out another butterfly transect and their results included 61 Peacock butterflies

and 22 Painted Ladies.  There are some of these butterflies looking a little worse for wear but others are newly hatched and they look pristine!

Sightings of Comma butterflies have increased over the last few years.  Two were noted on the butterfly walk. 

Keith and June checked on our dragons and damsels and saw three Black-tailed Skimmers on Spigot Mere.  

And finally the spider on Wednesday's blog has been identified as a Walnut Orb-weaver. 

Thank you to everyone involved in recording and observing the variety of different species to be found at Foxglove.  All your hard work is much appreciated.

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