Saturday, 15 March 2014

Bagworm Hunt

Planning a bagworm hunt to  Peckit Well Clough next weekend .Details to follow depending on weather.etc....
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3 comments:

charlie streets said...

This may be of interest, from a Dutch lepidopterist if memory serves me correctly.

Apr. 13th:
Hi All,

Didn't realize Paul challenged me for some more (old or new)
Psychid tips till now. He's right to do so. The next 8 or 10 weeks
are the best period of the year looking for psychid cases, because
most species (including species that live on the ground during most
of the year) will have resumed their feeding and/or be looking for
pupation sites (above ground level).

Here are some general tips:
0. Form yourself a search image of the types of cases you're looking
for
1. Look closely (from not more than 0,5 m.) at all kinds of substrate
(door posts, mail boxes, sign posts, walls, tree trunks, etc)
especially if the substrate has algae or lichens on it.
2. In general: look from about 30 cm. above ground level to about 2 m.
3. Start with the outside of your own house (many people have at
least one species around their own house), then move on slowly....
3. Take your time: you'll find a lot more of them when you're not in
a hurry. Take a few minutes for each tree trunk; give your eyes some
time to adjust and search the crevices for 'irregularities' on the
trunk surface or in the lichen.

To the outside world this looks like 'trunk staring'. Psychids is
probably something like Zen or Buddhism, although you'll have to keep
your eyes open.

Most psychid species tend to be dispersed very irregularly, so often
you find nothing and then you have hot spots where you easily find
very large numbers of one or two species or up to 5 or 10 species in
a small area (e.g. 100 x 100 m.).

Good luck!

Apr.14th: PS My favourite searching places are wooden posts in open landscape
or on the bordering of woodland and open landscape. Unluckily many
interesting places lack wooden posts and fences. I've often planned
putting some there myself to make searching easier!

18 March 2014 at 00:25
AndyC said...

Weather looking wet and cold over weekend, but then,, it is March.))
What day is best..????

19 March 2014 at 09:30
charlie streets said...

I can make either day, morning or afternoon - I don't think the weather should hinder our chances of success :-)

20 March 2014 at 01:09

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