Apologies

Hi all
Sorry for my lack of posts recently but Sue and I have now got our static caravan in wales and thus spend all our spare time there. Its a different world for inverts compared to Calderdale, with far more species and numbers seen. Most common larva spotted last week was Drinker Moth, we moved dozens of these from the roads as we cycled round. Lots of adult moths with plenty of carpet sp, and a huge range of micros which I did not manage to sort as I had no gear with me last week. I will be setting up a wildlife blog covering the flora and fauna of the Llyn peninsular as soon as my broadband access is put in place next week and hope to link it with this site.

Bits and Bobbs

A friend of mine on Birdcage lane, halifax sent us this photo yesterday(friday), of a Lime Hawk Moth his wife found at Calderdale Hospital.
Up Staups moor today a few Common Heath moths about on the heather, 2 greenhairstreaks also seen.
Cheers Colin
Hi all, sorry for lack of posts in May but I just dont seem to have been in calderdale that often anyway.
Last nights saw the trap on for the first time in ages and things seem to have picked up a little.2White Ermine.1 Scalloped Hazel (melanic)3 Clouded Bordered Brindle,1 angle shades,2 Common swift,1Shuttle Shaped Dart,2 Rustic shoulder knot,7 Silver Ground carpet,1 Brimstone,1 Spruce Carpet,Common Carpet,1 Knot Grass,1 Small Magpie,2 Ingrailed Clay and a pale shouldered Brocade oh and a reddish Yellow Barred Brindle (thanks Charlie F)
Loads of Nettle Tap(500+) out today and a couple of larvae on Wood sage but not what i was looking for.
Another mention for NMN this Saturday if any one wants a lift or sees us there.

National Moth Night,7th June 08

Just a quick note to let everyone know that myself and Brian leesey will be running a trap at Blake Dean on NMN and all are welcome.Cheers

Help !

I only had one moth last night, hardly suprising really with the strong NE winds, and guess what I have no idea what it is, any ideas?

I'll post some more pics later today

Last Night Moths too

It certainly seems the year for Campion - a new species for me - also the usual hard to i.d. Pug, is this a Currant Pug?

Last Nights moths

A few more moths in the trap last night including this Spectacle,Angle Shades,White Ermine,Shuttle shaped Dart,Campion,Rustic shoulder knot,Garden Carpet and Small phoneix.

Today

1252 Grapholita lunulana(cheers Paul)

Six Spot Burnet catapillar

The Campion

Cromwell Bottom today was a bit cool for moths but found a few Speckled wood and Green Veined Whites.

Scarr Wood LNR

Went down to clear Scarr Wood LNR of litter yesterday, (26 bags removed but that is another story).

Lots of speckled wood, orange tip and whites around at the moment especially down at the bottom in the regeneration area, also possible sighting of a small copper but this was heading away from me and despite clambering over the rocks (with litter pickers and bag in hand) could not get a decent look at it.

If anyone has a chance to have a look down at the bottom of the wood on a sunny day it is well worth it.

Chris

First Butterfly Dates so far

Orange Tip 26th april
Meadow Brown 22nd may
Small Copper 20th May
Peacock 10th Feb
Speckled wood 28th april
Holly Blue 7th May
Comma 28th March
Small tortoiseshell 29th March
Green Hairstreak 2nd May
Large White no date
Small White no date
Green veined White no date
Butterflys recorded so far this year and the first date.If any one can add to this please do.

garden

1 golden y moth
2 large white

Hebden Bridge Foray

On the 20th Charlie Streets and I went for a forray around Hebden Bridge and Pecket Well.

Photo CS

Photo CS

Photo WP

Photo WP

Here is our joint list-

396 Glyphipterix fuscoviridella ~50
1251 Grapholita jungiella 1
1952 Common Heath 1
797 Neofaculta ericetella 1
385 Nettle-tap Anthophila fabriciana 5
391 Cocksfoot moth Glyphipterix simpliciella 7

Possible Emperor moth pupa
Green Hairstreak 15

Also
Orange Tip (m)
Peacock
Small Tortoiseshell

Speckled Wood
Green Veined White

Winston Plowes

Not calderdale

Pearl Bordered Fritillary

Dingy Skipper

Duke of Burgandy
Gait Barrows Nature reaserve near Silverdale at the moment is full of beautiful Butterflys and well worth a day visit if you get the time.As well as the above there were Common Blue,green Haristreak and some beautiful day flying moths Anania funebris the pick of the bunch.

ID help

Small Yellow Underwing ???

Small Copper
First small Coppers today along with Large white and Speckled wood,loads of nettle Tap and Adela reaumurella and this small moth wich i only saw for 30 seconds but it looks like a Small Yellow Underwing.?any ideas

Moorland foray

After work on Sunday I took a trip to the moors above Pecket well. Cloudy, gloomy and rather chilly and the prospects were not good. However two Green Hairstreaks were spotted and this rather impressive but as yet unidentified Larvae on billbery and heather. Anybody any ideas what it is? (37mm long) Happy hunting. Winston

May Tips

Hi all

Sorry for my lack of contributions this month, but my proposed move to Wales is at last happening AND despite the supposed recession we are suffering my book business is booming, thus not much time for bug hunting.

Two easy to find larvae now are Orchestes fagi (bottom photo) a beetle leaf miner of Beech the mines are very distinctive AND no lepidopterous mines occur on beech before this species. You should find these now on any Beech you look over.

Top photo is of an opened grass stalk and show the larva of a tortrix moth called,Timothy Tortrix (Aphelia paleana). The larvae are around now in a wide variety of spun vegetation such as Hogweed, Plantain, etc but I most often find them in the spun together top of a blade of one the tall coarse grasses like the one shown. You should be able to find these in just about any area of rough ground in Calderdale. When you find such larval spinnings open them carefully over a container of some sort as the larvea casn move at an amazing speed and dissapear rapidly once exposed to light.

A good tip to see if the larvea you have found is one of the micro moths as opposed to a macro moth is to apply the "tickle test". You gently touch or tickle the larvea at either end, micro larvae can move back and forwards with equal speed, macro larvae tend to move forward or curl up. Two useful bits of kit to take with are a small artists paint brush (the kind you can buy for a few pence in pound shops) and some womens eyebrow tweezers. The tweezers are excellant for opening small spun bits of vegetation or nettles and the paint brush for gently picking up small larvae. I will try and get some shots of my kit bag I take out most days when bug hunting. Apart from a camera and hand lens most of my kit comes from Wilkinsons or Pound shops, so its not expensive to build up a useful field bag to take on trips.

I will try and make some time in the next few days to find and photograph some Coleophorid case which should be around now on many trees. Hopefully I can upload with some more hints and tips later this week or early next week.

Hi All


Had an afternoon walking round Pecket Well area today and saw



1 White
1 Peacock
4 Nettle Tap
1 Common Heath (m)
19 Green Hairstreak

Winston.
P.S. Last night in the Skinner trap - Nothing!

P.P.S And its a change to post some images of bigger insects on this blog! lol

Larvae in Beech.?

Inspired by Charlys pics ,I found these today on beech,there seems to be at least 2 larvae in there.?any ideas

ID help

Is this a worn out orthosia species or something else.?

Hi All,

Is this accommodation suitable for my Ribwort Plantain resdents?

Winston

Last Nights moths

1 Ancylis badiana
1 light Brown apple moth
1 Yellow barred brindle
1 flame Carpet
1 Hebrew Character