Spring Usher female

Thanks for posting Win. Spring Usher female was one of my target species for Feb so glad to find it tonight. Plenty Dotted Border still about with 20 + again tonight. If the weather is ok on Friday we are going to trap at Hardcastle Craggs all welcome be there about 6ish......

Spring Ushers (from Andy)

Andy is still having posting problems so has asked me to put these pics up of some great Spring Usher pairs :-)

February round up...

Well with no light trap put on all month, I have headed for the local wood each evening with nowt but a torch and net......with it being a mild February  it has been great so far
Dotted Border   45 (inc 2 females and 5 melanic types)
March Moth        3
Spring Usher       1
Chestnut              2
Pale brindled Beauty  1
Agonoptrix heracliana      5
Satellite                            1
In the local tunnel there have been up to 25 Heralds and 5 Peacock Butterflies hibernating and around the house and garage 3/4 White Shouldered House Moth.

Dotted Border Females from Andy

Hi all, posting these great pics of Dotted Border Females Agriopis marginaria as Andy has technical issues at the moment. Enjoy :-)

Currant Clearwing larvae..

Charlie back to doing what he does best,,,,,,,Brilliant stuff http://charlielepidopteraofcalderdale.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/clearwingschoreutidae-and.html

Walks in the Woods

With the recent mild spell ,I've been having a quick walk in the local wood at dusk and the first half hour of darkness its a mix of Oak and Beech with a few Sycamore , one of two Elms, also lots of hawthorn and Elderberry trees round the edges. There have been lots of Dotted Borders of various forms and I found my first female on Beech tonight about 7 foot off the ground. The males are easy to find flying around or on the fop of a prominent twig. Chestnut and Spring Usher were found on the larger Oaks and Agonoptix heracliana can be found along the Hawthorn hedges,1 melanic Pale - Brindled Beauty was found freshly emerged about 2 foot off the ground on Beech.

Trapping

Anyone started yet?

Bits and pieces.

I had my earliest butterfly ever yesterday with a Peacock sunning itself on the allotment - and it wasn't even that warm. Also had my fourth Skircoat record of Red Sword-grass on Jan.22nd resting openly on  a dry stone wall, as they all have been.

I've just started bring my Phyllonorycter mines indoors. I only started collecting them around Christmas so I'm not expecting anything unusual but there's lots of them so you never know. I'll send any parasitic wasps off for ID-ing so I might get something interesting in that lot.

Roll on spring :-)

Hibernating Moths and Butterflies

22 Heralds in bare Head Tunnel today along with 5 Peacocks. A small tortoiseshell flying around the house yesterday and a Peacock flying around St Judes Church last Monday. ..carnt post pics at the moment...grrrrrr

Moth id

Found this roosting on car park lights today at Bowers Mill Dam. Im a bit out of practice but it looks like a November Moth to me, or is it a poorly marked Winter Moth,any thoughts please.

New British checklist

Just before Christmas, a new checklist of Lepidoptera was published, which completely overhauls the out-dated Bradley list and brings us into line with the current European classification of moths and butterflies. This book entitled RES Handbook: Checklist of the Lepidoptera of the British Isles is the result of a huge amount of work led by David Agassiz, Stella Beavan and Bob Heckford. The new checklist will be adopted by Butterfly Conservation and the National Moth Recording Scheme. However, there will undoubtedly be months or even years of transition from the ‘old’ to the new checklist as the field guides and species dictionaries used in recording software and websites are updated. There is no need to worry about the new names or checklist. For now, it is fine to continue to record the way you have been and we will be happy to receive datasets and moth records using the ‘old names’ and numbering systems as the new ones become familiar.

Green-veined White?

I was out and about collecting leaf miner pupae this morning in N.Dean before the rains set in. The ones on oak and Beech are really easy to find at the moment so I've got quite a few pupae overwintering in my garden at the moment ready to bring inside in a couple of months.

One pupa I didn't expect to find was what I think is that of a Green-veined White butterfly. It's attached to a Sycamore on the towpath near Copley - you can just make out the silk girdle round it's middle. I'd be interested to hear what others think, maybe it's just a well marked Small White? I'll go back and collect it soon and try and rear it through just to be 100%.

Mystery Visitor

This, last night at the bedroom light. A mystery visitor. Any ideas. Poor pics im afraid. about 5mm WL max

Luddenden Dean

 

 

This Peacock butterfly was a real surprise this morning flying around and sunning itself on the rocks on the rough hillside above 'The Lowe' - it is December !!!

Winter Moths

With the temps dropping and a cold wind the numbers had dropped tonight to about a 1000, still plenty females could be found a couple on fence posts and one on a wall...

More Winter Moths

Well with the cold temps and rain over the last few days I was wondering how many Winter Moths would be left, it has been 6 nights since I was last in the woods. Entering the wood I was amazed to see plenty of moths about and the first wall had about 20 males and a female .As I continued it seemed as though nothing had changed. Winter moths on every tree numbers still in the thousands......................................

                                                      Dead males on the ground

                                                 Female dragging male

Glyphipterix haworthana.

I had a wander up Stoodley Glen and over the tops to Broadhead Clough on Monday (2nd). Whilst crossing Erringden moor I found lots of Cotton Grass seed heads that were still intact, presumably spun together by G.haworthana. I'll try and rear them through so hopefully next April I'll see my first adults.

Is anybody else searching for early stages or leaf mines at the moment as now is a really good time to have a go? 

Winter Moths

Out again at 4.30 - 5.15..and still very large numbers of Winter moths despite the temp dropping dramatically. Many males were seen pumping there wings into shape so still emerging in large numbers.4  males were observed trying to mate with a lone female ..she eventually chose one ,At one point I could see males crawling out of the leaf litter and flying to the nearest tree.
One female Mottled Umber  was seen but no males..Working for the next 5 nights and with the weather on the change that may  be it for this extraordinary occurance.

Winter Moth round Up

3 mild nights in a row with little wind have produced an amazing     abundance  of   winter Moths in the local Woods, I  had 3 / 4 winter moths round the house earlier last week so on my way out on Sat night  I  grabbed the head torch just in case..As I entered the woods a moth flew past me and then another soon after,, within 10 paces I had seen 11. .Every tree was covered in Winter Moths  most around the base and up to 6 feet but on some they went so far up I could not count them. I went round at least 150 trees a mix of  50% Beech, 40% Oak and 5 % Sycamore and 5% other(including Elm, Nettle, rosebay willowherb, Bramble, Elderberry ,Hawthorn and various grasses)   every single  tree/bushwinter moths on it , I estimated about  10,000 moths  .They were erupting from the ground as I walked through the leaf litter and seemed to be

WINTER MOTH SPECTACULAR 2

Back to the wood this evening at 4,45..Again Winter moths on every tree the first 34 trees I counted 1381 males and 34 Females,as I went through the wood every tree was crawling with males,at one point I was watching a female drag a male upwards  quite fast and the male took flight carrying the female up about 10 inc  and landing back on the trunk.(?).As I got to the wall that cuts through the wood there were Winter moths all over the wall and on barbed wire fences ,on the dead nettle stems ,50+ on one small elderberry tree,on the dead brambles and swarms flying around the wood. 10,000 seems a massive number but I think it was an underestimation......