Pupa update

I was looking at the pupa today and (it moves when light goes through it)  and the pupa is very well defined e.g antennae, eyes, wings etc. It ll probably hatch in the next fortnite...

Sunday...................

Large yellow Underwing under some leaves in the garden today , 1 Hebrew Character , 1 D.Fagella and 1 Common Quaker last night..Small tortoiseshell and Peacock in the garden this afternoon and reports of Emperor Moths on the moors today...(thanks Barry)

Rishworth - A very good night! With a possible f,nubilata.

Moth Trapping Session 4th April 2020
A very good night with a possible Mottled Grey f.nubilata.

List of Species
Common Quaker x3
Small Quaker x4
Oak Beauty x1
Clouded Drab x3
Hebrew Character x5
Mottled Grey (normal form) x3
Mottled Grey (f.nubilata?) x1

                                                       Oak Beauty above

                                        Is this f.nubilata?????

Lee Mount - 4th April

Still pretty cold, day and night so not  a lot to report.
Hebrew Character x 2
The Early Grey from 2nd April is still on the fence tonight
Last night, and still there this morning, a Brindled Pug which I'm pretty sure must be 'herschkei' judging by it's colouration - or lack of it !

 Early Grey

Brindled Pug 'herschkei' 

Rishworth - A pupa!!

While gardening we found this pupa while gardening, this is a stupid question but what is the likely species if identifiable. Any help appreciated. I think I'll send it to Reg Fry.

Rishworth last night

In the trap last night was 2 Small Quaker and a Common Quaker.

Since this weekend and all the coming weeks look good for weather I am now going to start leaving the trap out all night again as I did all last year as seen on this blog. I won't start bringing it in at 9:30 again till December.

Lee Mount - 3rd April

Early Grey x 1 last night was the only moth. It had gone this morning and just a single Common Quaker in the trap. That was it !

Stainland.

Found a very small common footman catterpillar on the wall behind our climbing rose yesterday.

Test your identification skills!

For a bit of light relief.
I wonder what species these were and would thousands of people turn up if they occurred today!

"In the month of June 1881, quite a sensation was created in the district by the extraordinary spread of caterpillars on Pendle Hill and Nick of Pendle. Swarms were also at the village of Chipping a few miles away and hens gorged themselves to such an extent that they died of repletion.

Thousands of people visited the neighbourhood to inspect these swarms.

The caterpillars had a soft cylindrical body and varied in length from three quarters of an inch to an inch and a half. They had three pairs of short, horny, thorn-like legs in the front and four pairs of false feet, or "clingers". Their colour was a dark, shiny olive, relieved with two or three thin well defined, yellow stripes along the whole length of the upper part of the body. The under portion was of a uniform lighter shade of colour. 

Naturalists differed in their designation. One was of the opinion that it was the Silver Y Moth (Plusia gamma); another contended that it was the larvae of the Antler or Grass Moth (Charoeas graminis). 

The keeper of the moor said the caterpillars were making such a fearful havoc with the herbage that the farmers were contemplating making a trench along the bottom of the moor to prevent them getting into the lowlands.

A youth gathered some in a box and exhibited them at the market in Burnley, charging a penny for the sight of them. He did fairly well until a gang of reckless young fellows burst into the penny show and scattered the insects far and wide."

A few from the archives

                                                                Northern  Eggar (f .olivacea)

                                                                Latticed Heath (f.alboguttata)

                                                                   Mottled Grey ( f.nubilata)

                                                   Peppered Moth dark and pale form

Id help photo ..

ETS should be out any day now

Rishworth - Two productive nights.

Moth Trapping Session 31st March

List of Species
Clouded Drab x1
Common Quaker x5
Chestnut x1


Moth Trapping Session 1st April

List of Species
Common Quaker x8
Twin Spotted Quaker x2
Small Quaker x1

Since I've had a few how many individuals of Twin Spotted Quaker are on a regular year, on Yorkshire Moths it says 'never as common as the other Orthosias' is this the same in Calderdale as they seem to be doing well here in Rishworth?

Lee Mount - 1st April

In the trap this morning. Didn't really expect anything given the conditions last night so anything is welcome !
Mottled Grey x 1
Hebrew Character x 3
Small Quaker x 1

Mottled Grey

1st April 2020 Only house Wood Northowram

Only thing flying about last night was this monster......WOW.........yes its the 1st April (added after 12..)

Ghost Town

For my daily exercise I had a walk on to Cromwell Bottom yesterday and had the whole reserve to myself. Sad to see really but peaceful none the less. It gave me plenty of time to search for the mines of Triple-spotted Dwarfs (Elachista maculicerusella) in the clumps of Reed Canary-grass on Tag Loop and to stage a couple of selfies. I thought as we all will be seeing a lot less of each other for the next few months it might be a good idea to post the odd photo of us going about our mothing activities as a nice way to keep in touch. 

Three tenanted Elachista mines were found and taken to rear through. Now I no longer have access to the library PCs I can't post high res pictures, so you'll have to make do with these screen grabs using my iPhone. 

Rishworth - The night of the Orthosias!

A good night last night providing the temperature with some nice smart Twin Spotted Quakers.

Moth Trapping Session 30th March 2020
Trap brought in at 22;00

List of Species
Common Quaker x4
Small Quaker x3
Twin-Spot Quaker x2
Hebrew Character x1

                                                          Hebrew Character above

                                                           Twin Spot Above and Below

More March Dagger...

This top one is one of the very pale males and in the local wood they are pretty scarce.most are the melanic form...I also caught a female last night and she laid some eggs , reckon they should hatch out about the 20th April ( below pic)....

Rishworth - Nothing doing

Nowt on Friday or tonight

March Dagger / Diurnia fagella

Another couple of photos of female March Dagger from last nights tree search, only 7 males and 1 female but it was bitterly cold........Looks like its a very good year for Oak Beauty with more reports from the last few days 3 on 2 different nights at Luddenden and a total of 11 so far this spring......and 1 over the hill at Thornton

Stainland.

I have my first moth of the season. I'm fairly sure it's a Grey Shoulder Knot. (It's actually an Early Grey, thanks Andy) .I looked at my past shots of Early Greys, it's didn't quite look like any of them. It's about 3/4 of an inch nose to tail. I'm quite happy to be corrected.

Anne and I also saw one Small Tortoiseshell, whist we were out walking, it was the only butterfly we saw, I'd have expected more. It's still a little on the cold side however.

Early Grey.