More than Moths

Wednesday, December 14th 2016

A Wednesday and therefore a morning for moth recording! This morning we collected four winter moths (a regular at this time of year) and this early moth, Theria primaria. This one is a male, as like many moths that are active in the winter months the females are almost wingless.

Early moths are fairly common in the south, but up here in North Yorkshire their distribution is quite patchy, so this was a more unusual find. The early moth is also not typically around at this time of year, normally found flying in January and February, hence its common name of early moth. Finding it at this time of the year only shows us how mild the weather has been recently. The larvae of the early moth feed on hawthorn and blackthorn.

All five of the moths we recorded this morning we collected from the walls of the Field Centre, however the moth trap was not without a catch… In addition to a typical collection of small flies it caught this female great diving beetle (differentiated from a male by the ridges on her wing cases – a male’s would be smooth)!

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