Walking for Butterfly Consevation

http://www.justgiving.com/epicbutterflywalk

Lewington's micro book out soon.

For all you micro lovers out there (and hopefully for all you micro haters as well) it looks like the new micro "bible" will be out in May. At thirty quid it covers 900 species with perhaps another book to follow to fill in the gaps.It looks worth buying for the art work alone and hopefully it will be the starting point for ID-ing the majority of micros in the UK - time will tell.

Here's a thread on the subject from Back Garden Moths.

http://back-garden-moths.co.uk/community/showthread.php?10468-Lewington-Micro-moths!

Mottled Grey 11 01 12

Found this Male Mottled Grey today while working at Meadows Edge,the earliest ive ever seen.Regards Bri.

My first of the year

my first Moth of the year turned up last night, a chestnut

despite having a go all winter this is my first Moth since 14th November

Early Moth

http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=6078 This is a good early species to keep an eye out for at the moment,Large areas of hawthorn,Cromwell Bottom should be a good spot.Also the female is another flightless species and may well be found locally.

Sleeping Beauties

Had a look at the Ghost Moths Cats today,seem to be doing ok at 20mm .!!

A nep from last spring.

Harry's just had a look at this one and is confident it's Stigmella lapponica. It was disturbed from Silver Birch in North Dean wood in April last year. Not a rare species by any means but the adults are not often reared because the larvae mine in June/July and the adults don't appear again until the following spring.

Wingspan 5-7mm.

Many thanks

Thanks to all who sent in records for 2011 they are now sent off to the Yorkshire recoreder to be included in the annual report.There were some great records from Calderdale so well done. Also thanks to all who posted on the blogg and also all those who read it .All the best for the new year ahead.

Can you guess what it is yet?

After last night's frost I thought I'd take a look of three of my charges to see how they were coping. No clues as to whether anything is still alive inside but no reason to suggest otherwise. It's little wonder the camouflage is so good having to over winter in such a vulnerable position.

Not much else on the go at the moment other than a few phyllo mines on cherry.

Happy new year

So here we are again,in the quiet of winter.I am planning a trip to hardcastle Craggs tomorrow evening sat,to look for Spring Usher etc...will be there from 4.30 till 7 latest.All the best for the year ahead..........A couple of hours tree searching with torches produced nothing but 2 yellow spot ladybirds and a few spiders...Next week going up langfield common looking for anomalouse larvae..
Some Highlights of 2011 were
Devon Carpets  86 recorded at Hardcastle Craggs only a handful of yorkshire records from one other site..
Pine Carpet ,Buff Footman and Grass Rivulet first calderdale records  from Hardcastle Craggs
Southern wainscot..32 in one night
Silky wainscot....28 same night as southerns.
Golden Rod Brindle at Luddenden Village light trap
Humming Bird Hawkmoth beeding in Charlies garden
Fox Moth to light at Hardcastle Craggs along with dark form of Northern eggar,and eventually finding female Winter moths and sorting out Nov aggs at last..........This year 2012 we will be consentrating our efforts around Cromwell Bottom....Allthe best Andy

Priority Species Workshop POSTPONED

Please note this event has been POSTPONED until February. The new date will be confirmed ASAP. If you would like more information please contact Hugh Firman: hugh.firman@calderdale.gov.uk

Christine

January Priority Species workshop

Hello all,

To celebrate the new year there will be a priority species workshop on Weds 4th January at 7.15 in the Mytholmroyd Countryside Services Office (above the library). The meeting will include an update on Calderdale's Biodiversity Action Plan and small discussion groups for different species.

It will be a opportunity to discuss actions for priority species in Calderdale for the coming year with Hugh Firman and other interested parties. If you would like to come along and represent Calderdale's lepidoptera please email Hugh to express your interest: hugh.firman@calderdale.gov.uk.

We look forward to seeing you there!


Christine

Arctic Woolly Bear Moth

After our chilly conversation about Frozen Planet, while Winter moth hunting at Hardcastle Crags, I looked up the mysterious 'Woolly Bear' that David Attenborough told us about. It appears that is is the Arctic Woolly Bear Moth, Gynaephora groenlandica, found in Greenland and Northern Canada.
There seems to be some uncertainty about the length of it's freeze-thaw cycles, the estimate of 14 years that Frozen Planet went with, having been revised to 7 years by some sources. However long, it is pretty amazing, and you can still see the clip here in case you missed it.
Christine.

Charlie's back

Glad to see Charlie's blogg is back,,,,,,,,,,,,I for one have missed this great blogg.


http://charlielepidopteraofcalderdale.blogspot.com/

Winter Moths(males and females)and id request..

Hi all, yes, a fantastic night on Sunday at Hardcastle Craggs with the predominent species being Winter moth Operophtera brumata (see below)

With females as well as males being found on trunks

Also (What surely must be) a female Scarce Umber Agriopis aurantiaria. ID comments appreciated.


Pt 2 was a 1 hour session tonight at 5pm in my local woods just to the East of Hebden Bridge. Again a fine display of maybe 30 Winter moths flying and settling on trunks and twigs. 2 females also found and a Scarce umber male.
Win

Sunday Hardcastle Craggs

|Meeting at 4.15/30 in top car park for a couple of hours,,,,,

Female Winter Moth steals the show at Hardcastle Craggs Sat 19 11 11

Interesting nights mothing,  Winter Moths most of the 27 males and 1 female found by trunk searching with a few males coming to car headlights ,2 species came to actinic ie red green carpet and a small autumnal moth id on size all the others to mv light,about 3ft from base of ash tree we found these winter moths in cop the pair slowly made their way up the tree female 1st with male in-tow stopping and seperating when reaching about 5ft up the trunk,whereby the female slowly crawled upto nearly 7ft higher up and stopped on a knot on the trunk presumably laying her eggs,frustratingly out of our view.we also found a few males expanding their wings.also a few of this form of mottled umber,Bri/Andy

Acleris sparansa  x 1
Exapate congeltella  x1
Winter Moth  x  27
Mottled umber  x 6
Chestnut x1
Dark Chestnut x 1
Spruce Carpet x 1
Red Green Carpet  x 1
Autumnal Moth    x 1
Small Autumnal Moth   x 1

Craggs Saturday Night

This saturday meeting 5.15 top car park..target species   Sarce Umber , December Moth (not much chance ) and Sprawler..??(cancelled ;last week due to crap weather) All welcome...Any Records for this year asap please so I can send them to the YNU in time for next years report.....My computer has blown up this week and has caused no end of trouble..Ive lost all this years records on mapmate,hopefully I will be able to salvage some off the old hardrive but if not i will putting them in to the new year.all the best Andy

Craggs Friday Night

1041 Acleris sparsana 2

1760 Chloroclysta siterata Red-green Carpet 1
1795 Epirrita dilutata November Moth 3
1795x Epirrita dilutata agg. November Moth agg. 8
1797 Epirrita autumnata Autumnal Moth 5
1935 Erannis defoliaria Mottled Umber 4
2258 Conistra vaccinii Chestnut 7
Couple of good hours hours before the rain,

What a beauty!

The first of the Mottled Umbers emerged overnight and lo and behold it's a female.It's practically wingless as well as flightless but quite distinctive and should be easy to find by trunk hunting if they are present.Might try and assemble this one tonight.

Autumnal Moth

After finally getting to grips with the Epirrita  gen det,I managed to id 4 Autumnal moths from Hardcastle Craggs on sat night.If any one catches any in the next week or so can the keep them for me.