Lekking Green long-horns

14 Thursday May 2026

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Adela reaumurella, British moths, Green long-horn, Green long-horn moths lekking, lek, lekking, Long-horn moth, moth

My Collins Concise Dictionary defines lek, the noun, as ‘a small area in which birds of certain species, notably the black grouse, gather for sexual display and courtship’, and the word can also be used as a verb, hence lekking, the activity of courtship display in that area.

The dictionary only mentions birds and, certainly, we usually think of lekking as something confined to birds, but the act of showing off in order to attract a mate is not confined to avian species; insects and, apparently, some fish, also perform mating displays.

And that’s exactly what these Green long-horn moths (Adela reaumurella) were doing when I spotted them congregating around a particular bush in an area of trees (in fact, I’ve now seen several such displays in various woodland or tree-filled locations). I’m not sure why they choose their particular spot but it seems to be a prominent position towards the top of a shrub or on a branch that sticks out from the rest of a tree, often in sunshine, and they flutter about, settle briefly on a leaf, then flutter again. The lek is a delight to watch.

My first moth of the year

18 Wednesday Feb 2026

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British moths, Early moth, moth, Theria primaria

Those moth-ers who run nightly moth traps have been reporting, on social media and despite the often detrimental weather, that small numbers of moths have begun appearing in their traps during the past couple of weeks. As I don’t trap, I’ve just been keeping an eye out in the places I sometimes see moths, usually on walls near where outside lights are on at night. And, finally, last Thursday, I spotted my first moth of the year, a new species for me, an Early moth (Theria primaria). As you might guess from its name, this is one of the first species to be seen each year, appearing in January and February. Though the UK Moths website says it’s usually found in woodland margins and hedgerows, this one was on the panelling around a building site, though the opposite side of the path is full of trees and scrub.

Larva: Southern wainscot

22 Thursday Jan 2026

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British moth larvae, British moths, moth larva on phragmites sp, moth larva on reed leaf, moth larvae, Southern wainscot, Southern wainscot larva

Firstly, I want to admit that I had no idea I would find this little creature lurking inside a rolled up leaf in the reeds by the River Ely during yesterday’s walk. I had noticed the mottling on some of the leaves and wondered what was causing it – a fungus maybe?

I still don’t know the answer to that question as I was completely distracted when I found the caterpillar, and was totally focused on that instead.

My find hasn’t yet been verified but I think this is the larva of the Southern wainscot moth (Mythimna straminea), which, according to the UK Moths website, overwinters as a larva and typically spends its days hiding in the stems of various Reeds (Phragmites species), emerging at night to feed.

There are only a few records of this moth in the greater Cardiff area but I doubt many people spend time checking the leaves of reeds for its larvae and I also doubt anyone ever runs a moth trap at night in this particular Grangemoor Park location, which explains the lack of records of the adult moth (a beauty you can see on UK Moths) in the immediate area.

J is for Jersey tiger

15 Monday Dec 2025

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British moths, climate change affecting wildlife, Euplagia quadripunctaria, Jersey tiger, Jersey tiger moth, moth

As I wrote on 30 August, after a lull in sightings over the past couple of years, 2025 was A good year for Jersey tigers, and it seems very likely that our changing climate has a lot to do with this year’s notable increase in sightings of this stunning moth.

Location location location

28 Friday Nov 2025

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British moths, Erannis defoliaria, moth, moths attracted to lights, Mottled umber, Operophtera brumata, Winter moth

Over the summer months I discovered how productive the solid fencing around this building site alongside the River Taff was for insect finds. A section of the fence along the access track to the site was where I saw my first Large white butterfly pupae and, subsequently, the parasitic wasps that preyed on them and were, in turn, the victims of other parasitic wasps (see Large whites and parasitism, part 1, 23 June and Large whites and parasitism, part 2, 24 June).

The interesting finds have continued with the changing seasons. Yesterday, when I walked slowly past, though there were several different creatures (including at least one Noble false widow spider), the highlights were moths, drawn to the wall, no doubt, by the lights that illuminate the wall at night. Yesterday’s finds were four Winter moths (Operophtera brumata) and a Mottled umber (Erannis defoliaria).

A female Vapourer

18 Tuesday Nov 2025

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British moths, female Vapourer, flightless female moth, moth, Orgyia antiqua, The Vapourer, Vapourer cocoon, Vapourer eggs

The highlight of my walk last Saturday was finding my first female Vapourer moth (Orgyia antiqua), sitting on her cocoon, presumably newly emerged.

Now, you might look at her and think ‘That doesn’t look like a moth. Where are the wings?’ That’s the amazing thing about a female Vapourer – she’s almost wingless; her wings are so tiny that she’s unable to fly. Once she hatches, the female sits on her cocoon, as this one was, emitting pheromones and waiting for a male to fly by, notice and mate with her. Then, she’ll lay her eggs on the outside of her empty cocoon (as you can see on the other cocoon I found very close to the female, and which I also blogged about earlier this year: Vapourer pupa and eggs, January 2025). As she can’t fly, the female can’t feed, so she will die soon after laying her eggs.

Ominously, there were tiny parasitic wasps hanging around the female, presumably waiting to inject her eggs, so some of those eggs may not produce caterpillars come the spring.

Parasite of Bedellia somnulentella

27 Monday Oct 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, plants

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Bedellia somnulentella larva, British moths, British parasitic wasps, parasite of Bedellia somnulentella, parasitic wasp, wasp that parasitises Bedellia somnulentella, wasp that parasitises moth larvae

The two Field bindweed leaves I brought home from my coastal walk nearly two weeks ago, on the 14th, are the leaves that just keep on giving. As well as the three moth pupae I found on them – the reason I brought them home in the first place (see my blog Bedellia somnulentella revisited, 20 October), there was another pupa that looked to me to be that of a wasp, probably one that had parasitised another B. somnulentella larva.

That tiny wasp has now hatched. As is often the case with these miniscule creatures, I have no way of determining which exact species of parasitic wasp it is, and I do realise that the whole concept of a wasp larva eating a moth larva from the inside while it’s still alive is a bit gory (perhaps I should’ve posted this on Halloween!), but I find it fascinating, both the process of parasitism and also bringing the occasional things home to see what emerges. The little wasp, a male, has been released to live its best life.

Bedellia somnulentella revisited

20 Monday Oct 2025

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Bedellia somnulentella, Bedellia somnulentella pupa, British leafmines, British moths, leaf-mining moth larvae, leafmines on Field bindweed, moth pupae on Field bindweed

Back in September, in my blog Leafmines: Bedellia somnulentella, I covered the mines of a moth whose larvae have some unusual habits, spinning hammocks outside their mines to rest and pupate in. Now that I’m aware of them, I’ve been seeing these mines almost everywhere I see Field bindweed. And, during last Tuesday’s walk, when I saw the plant and turned over a few leaves, I spotted two leaves that had a total of three pupae suspended beneath. I decided to bring them home so that I could, hopefully, see what the adult moth looked like.

In the intervening six days, another larva has pupated – I hadn’t even realised there was another larva in the leaves but, on Thursday, as the leaves began to dry and shrivel, it appeared, climbed up the side of the jar, spun a hammock under the lid, and pupated.

Then, yesterday, when the wild, wet, windy weather meant I spent a day at home – a rarity for me, two of the adult moths hatched from their pupae. I couldn’t get any decent images through the glass so decided to risk opening the jar to grab a few quick photos.

And today I released them into the wild. All going well, there should be two more moths to come.

Leafmines: Chrysoesthia sexgutella

06 Monday Oct 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects, plants

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British leafminers, British moths, leaf-mining moth larvae, leafmines, leafmines on Goosefoot, leafmines on Orache

Last Wednesday evening I got a message from local moth expert George that another local moth-er had found the leafmines of the moth Chrysoesthia drurella, a new find for the county of Glamorgan, in a suburb on the opposite side of Cardiff to where I live. As he knows I’m a keen seeker of leafmines, George just wanted to let me know to keep an eye out for them when I’m out walking.

The moth larvae mine the leaves of Orache (Atriplex sp.) and Goosefoot (Chenopodium sp.), neither of which plants I’m familiar with so that was my first hurdle, being able to recognise the plants and knowing where to find them. Out came my plant books! Sometime later I was fairly confident I’d recognise the plants, though not be able to distinguish one from the other; fortunately, in this case that didn’t matter.

Thursday dawned and, after dealing with some necessary chores, I headed out for a walk, deciding to detour to a local beach in the hope of finding the correct plants. I was in luck, and the plants had mines on their leaves, though they didn’t look like how they should for the moth larvae I was seeking. So, finding a mine that still had a larva in it, I plucked it off the plant and brought it home to take a closer look at it, as the larva’s markings would tell me one way or the other whether I’d found C. drurella. I hadn’t!

However, I had found a closely related species, Chrysoesthia sexgutella, which mines the leaves of the same plants and was a new find for me. This moth breeds twice each year, with the first brood adults flying in May/June and the second on the wing in August. You can see what the adult moth looks like on the UK Moths website. And my search for the rarer Chrysoesthia drurella continues.

Leafmines: Acrolepia autumnitella

29 Monday Sep 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects, plants

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Acrolepia autumnitella, Bittersweet, British leafminers, British moths, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths, leafmines on Bittersweet, Solanum dulcamara

I don’t think I’ve seen leafmines on this plant before – this is Bittersweet (Solanum dulcamara), and the mines can also be found on other members of this plant genus, Tomato (S. lycopersicum) and Potato (S. tuberosum), as well as on Deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna).

The miners here are the larvae of the moth Acrolepia autumnitella, a very pretty little chestnut-coloured creature, which is shown on the UK Moths website. As you can see in my images, the larvae create quite large blotch mines, and these can be found twice a year, in June and September. I haven’t yet found a pupa but I will keep looking because the silk cocoon that surrounds the pupa looks rather lovely, as a photo on the British Leafminers website shows.