07 Wednesday Dec 2022
Posted in insects
This tiny moth was a lovely surprise from last week’s wildflower searching. I only managed a couple of quick shots before it flew into the vegetation but they were good enough for my friendly local moth expert to identify this as a Beautiful plume (Amblyptilia acanthadactyla), which George also told me is ‘One of the few plumes that overwinters as an adult’. Beautiful, indeed!
07 Friday Oct 2022
Posted in insects
The migrants just keep coming, and I love to see them because it always seems so amazing to me that a little moth like this, with a wingspan of just 26-32mm, can fly all the way to south Wales from somewhere in Europe.
Meet the Rush veneer (Nomophila noctuella), which the UK Moths website says ‘can often be found in large numbers at coastal watch-points, and tends to occur in the adult stage between May and September’. At least six of these little migrants flew up from the path as I walked through a local field earlier this week.
03 Monday Oct 2022
Tags
British moths, leaf-mining moth, leafmines on narrow-leaved willow, leafmining moth larvae, Phyllocnistis saligna, Phyllocnistis saligna leafmines, Willow bent-wing leafmines
A new month, a new leafmine challenge, and it’s got off to a very successful start for me. But let’s start at the beginning …
Our locally based Senior ecologist with Butterfly Conservation, George, kickstarted the challenge with a couple of tweets and some photos last Friday evening:
Ok #TeamLeafmine here’s another recent S. Wales colonist to look for; an easy one to identify too. Phyllocnistis saligna mines narrow-leaved willows, unusual because it mines both leaves & young stems. 3 recent records by the Taff in North Cardiff, must be out there elsewhere!
Cocoons are formed in a turned over leaf edge, see 3rd photo in original tweet. Quite a few Gwent records from the Levels and Monmouth/Abergavenny, also new to Carmarthenshire in 2021. Must be in & around Cardiff Bay! More info here: http://leafmines.co.uk/html/Lepidoptera/P.saligna.htm
I didn’t have any firm plans for Saturday’s walk so wended my merry way along the edges of the two local rivers, the Ely and the Taff. I soon realised that this challenge will be a little more difficult than previous ones, as narrow-leaved willows were few and far between and, when found, often inaccessible. However, I did manage to find mines in two locations along the River Taff, which has encouraged me to continue my search further up the river very soon. And, though I hope to find more mines, I doubt I’ll find one of the very lovely little adult Phyllocnistis saligna moths, the wonderfully named Willow bent-wings, which you can see on the UK Moths website.
13 Tuesday Sep 2022
I start to put on my jacket before heading out on my daily walk when something flutters on the sleeve. It’s a moth, this moth, and I have no idea how it got there. Did it land on me during yesterday’s walk and spend the night on the jacket that I’d just flung over the back of a chair? Or did it creep in through the gap in a barely open window during the night?
A moth expert on Twitter tells me it’s a Pearly underwing (Peridroma saucia), a moth that doesn’t breed in Britain but migrates here from Europe, most often during September and October. No wonder it’s looking a little faded after such a long flight. I keep it inside during the day and release it after dark, hoping that will help it avoid any hungry birds.
03 Saturday Sep 2022
Posted in insects
Tags
British moth caterpillars, British moths, Calliteara pudibunda, moth larva, Pale tussock moth caterpillar
Is this outrageous, or what? This is the larva of a Pale tussock (Calliteara pudibunda), a moth that is a beautiful creature in itself (you can see the adult on the Butterfly Conservation website) but nothing at all like its incredible caterpillar.
19 Friday Aug 2022
Posted in insects
Apart from Five- and Six-spotted burnets and the various grass moths that flit up as I walk along pathways through meadows, I’ve not seen many day-flying moths recently so these Shaded broad-bars (Scotopteryx chenopodiata) were a nice surprise. They fly during July and August, and can be found throughout Britain, particularly in areas where vetches and clovers – their larval food plants – grow. As you can see, the colours of these moths can be quite variable (the Butterfly Conservation website has more examples).
06 Wednesday Jul 2022
Posted in insects
Though I know death is inevitable for all living creatures, I’m always sad when I find something dead. On a practical level, of course, it’s often an opportunity to look more closely at that creature, which is what happened with this Scarlet tiger moth (Callimorpha dominula) I found on a pavement last week. That scarlet colour is just glorious!
25 Saturday Jun 2022
Posted in insects
Showcasing this Brimstone moth (Opisthograptis luteolata) I found on Thursday seems entirely appropriate today as I was caught out during this morning’s walk by a sudden thunderstorm. One of the lightning strikes was very close by, almost overhead, and there was a very strong smell of brimstone, the archaic name for sulphur.
The moth was resting, perched upside down under a blade of grass. Amazingly, it stayed completely still as I got very close and twisted the grass to get better photos. Very obliging and very beautiful!
17 Friday Jun 2022
Posted in insects
Tags
At the risk of stating the obvious, moths are amazing! And I’ve been lucky to find some gorgeous examples in recent weeks. As I’m running out of image storage space on this blog, the easiest way to share my photos is via a slideshow video. Here, then, is a short tribute to moths, a celebration of their incredible diversity of shapes and sizes, patterns and colours.
06 Monday Jun 2022
Tags
British moths, Coleophora anatipennella, larval cases of moths, leaf-mining moths, moth larval cases, Pistol case-bearer
The UK Moth website explains the name of this rather bland-looking moth: ‘The “Pistol Case-bearers” are so named from the resemblance of their larval cases to an old flintlock pistol in shape.’ And I think you can see that likeness in my photos.
I’d not seen anything like these before so turned to some Twitter experts for help with their identification. Fortunately, Rob Edmunds, of British Leafminers website fame, was able to confirm that these are indeed the larval cases of the Pistol case-bearer moth (Coleophora anatipennella). Their feeding makes tiny holes in the leaves, which you can see in the photos above and below, and these particular ‘pistols’ contain larvae that have over-wintered in their cases, which Rob thinks are now ‘in position pupating on the upper leaf surface’. Nature never ceases to amaze me!
earthstar 
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