Daytime Recording

Quite a number of my moth records each year come from daytime searches and some examples of what can be found throughout the year are given here, based on my activities during 2015.  Between January and March there was a fairly typical start to the year with numerous sightings of Blue-bordered Carpet eggs while carrying out surveys for the elusive Brown Hairstreak butterfly (it is difficult to see as an adult so the best way to check on how it is doing is to look for eggs on blackthorn in winter - they are remarkably easy to spot when you've got your eye in).  Eggs of other moth species are also found occasionally, usually those of Lackey Malacosoma neustria, Scalloped Oak Crocallis elinguaria, Feathered Thorn Colotois pennaria, Vapourer Orgyia antiqua and Green-brindled Crescent Allophyes oxyacanthae.  Over-wintering caterpillars can sometimes be spotted too, with Drinker the most likely candidate, although on 11th March I was lucky enough to find a part-grown larva of Oak Eggar Lasiocampa quercus in a hedgerow near Bernwood Forest.

Oak Eggar caterpillar, near Bernwood Forest 11th March

Searching for leaf-mines is still possible throughout the winter and during February 2015 I did a tour around various local (evergreen) holm oaks to check for active mines of Ectoedemia heringella.  This moth arrived in the country in the late-1990s and has been slowly working its way northwards.  Its mines were present on virtually every tree I searched in mid-Bucks.

Mines of Ectoedemia heringella on holm oak, Quainton

Sunny days in March and April see the appearance of Orange Underwing Archiearis parthenias and Light Orange Underwing Archiearis notha in most of our local woods but it is not usually possible to ID the species safely without netting examples to check their hind-wing undersides.  They were late appearing in 2015 and I saw my first probable Orange Underwing on 17th March while the first confirmed Light Orange Underwing (in a wood with plenty of aspen but, unusually, no birch) didn't appear until 6th April.  April is also the month to see the adult Emperor Moth Saturnia pavonia and 2015 was quite a good year for the species locally (covered in an earlier post here).

Lots of day-flying moths start appearing in May.  A visit to the disused railway cutting west of Westcott Airfield on the 1st produced Pyrausta purpuralis and Common Heath Ematurga atomaria, while at the disused chalk quarry near Pitstone on the 12th I saw my first examples for the year of Pyrausta aurata, Small Yellow Underwing Panemeria tenebrata and Burnet Companion Euclidia glyphica.  Some of the small long-horn moths start to fly at this time too.  Incurvaria masculella and Adela reaumurella had already appeared during the daytime in the garden at Westcott while a search of lady's smock flowers in Finemere Wood on 13th May produced several examples of Adela rufimitrella.  The tiny Cocksfoot Moth Glyphipterix simpliciella was also present there on flowers of greater stitchwort and later in the month I counted 84 examples of Micropterix calthella in buttercup flowers along the main ride. 

Adela rufimitrella, Finemere Wood 13th May

From mid-May onwards I start visiting low-lying wildflower meadows, especially in the River Ray catchment area, keeping an eye open for Forester Adscita statices.  There are a number of very small colonies of this species locally and my first sighting in 2015 was of a singleton in the Bernwood Meadows BBOWT reserve on 26th May.  Those damp ridge-and-furrow meadows are good for a number of day-flying moth species and others recorded during that visit included Opsibotys fuscalis and Grass Rivulet Perizoma albulata (both in good numbers), Glyphipterix fuscoviridella, Bactra lancealana and, surprisingly, a migrant Bordered Straw Heliothis peltigera (the first of ten I would see during the year).  Similar habitat at Asham Meads was visited on 30th May where three Foresters were found, while other day-flyers in the meadows there included Glyphipterix thrasonella (flying alongside fuscoviridella), Elachista argentella, Celypha lacunana, Crambus lathoniellus and Mother Shipton Callistege mi.  Both Bernwood Meadows and Asham Meads have in the past produced the day-flying Marsh Pug Eupithecia pygmaeata but I didn't see any sign of them there or anywhere else during 2015. 


Forester, Asham Meads 30th May

I find the Forester quite difficult to spot in sunshine (green moths in green fields!) so prefer to search on dull days when they tend to sit around on flowers, making them slightly easier to find.  Ragged robin and orchids seem to be favoured.  Forester was seen at two or three other known local sites during June and July but most unexpected was the discovery of several in meadows near Chalfont St Peter, some considerable distance from any other known colony.

The garden at Westcott produces its fair share of micro-moth day-flyers.  25th May was an example of a good day, when Nemapogon cloacella, Esperia sulphurella and Chrysoesthia drurella were recorded in the sunshine while Bucculatrix thoracella and Mompha epilobiella were flying around inside the shed.  The first example of Anthophila fabriciana was seen on 30th May and thanks to the abundance of nettles locally I recorded it regularly in the garden through until October.  On 9th June at least ten examples of Phyllonorycter leucographella were seen flying around our pyracantha.  On the macro-moth side, the first of many visits by Hummingbird Hawk-moth Macroglossum stellatarum was recorded on 6th June.


Chrysoesthia drurella, Westcott 25th May

Chimney Sweeper Odezia atrata is another moth which I search for annually from late-May onwards.  It was a little late this year and my first sightings of 2015 were on 3rd June, with five seen at Pilch Fields near Great Horwood and ten more at a road-side site near Steeple Claydon on the way back home.  Apart from the Ivinghoe area, Chimney Sweeper colonies in Bucks are found exclusively in the northern third of the county.  That day Pilch Fields also produced Cochylimorpha straminea and Aphelia paleana while Dichrorampha sequana was recorded at the Steeple Claydon site.  

Chimney Sweeper, Pilch Fields 3rd June

3rd June was actually quite a busy day because during the afternoon, while carrying out a couple of butterfly transects in the Chilterns, I found Micropterix aruncella at Aston Clinton Ragpits then Stephensia brunnichella and Mompha miscella at Coombe Hill.  The day was rounded off with another visit to the disused railway cutting west of Westcott Airfield where moths seen included Adela fibulella (a tiny long-horn, this time associated with germander speedwell), Aethes piercei and Lathronympha strigana as well as Lesser Treble-bar Aplocera efformata and Cinnabar Tyria jacobaeae.

Micropterix aruncella, Aston Clinton Ragpits 3rd June

Stephensia brunnichella, Coombe Hill 3rd June

On 8th June I happened upon a Coleophorid case on elm in a hedgerow at Shipton Lee and it was taken home to rear through.  The larva within must already have pupated because the adult emerged three weeks later and on dissection proved to be Coleophora badiipennella, for which there are very few previous records in the county.  The second half of June is normally the time to start thinking about Hornet Moth Sesia apiformis.  I didn't see an adult at all in 2015 but fresh exuviae are good enough for a record and I found them at the bases of black poplars at a couple of sites in the village here on 21st June while the one below was found near Grendon Underwood on 29th June.

Hornet Moth pupal case, Grendon Underwood 29th June

Several attempts with the appropriate pheromone lure produced no sign of adult Hornet Moth in the garden or at any of the other sites visited but that may have been because I don't try early enough in the day (the moths seem to emerge quite early in the morning).  Pheromone lures for the other common clearwings were as usual tried at Westcott but the only taker this year was a Currant Clearwing Synanthedon tipuliformis on 29th June, one of four species already known from the garden.  The easiest of this group to find is Six-belted Clearwing Bembecia ichneumoniformis whose larvae feed on the roots of bird's-foot trefoil and there are quite a few local sites for it.  A trip out with the lure on 30th June produced 20 examples between three sites near Calvert, while subsequent attempts along the Westcott disused railway cutting and at Woodham (a new site) also proved successful.

Six-belted Clearwing, disused railway near Westcott 2nd Aug

During a walk on 4th July along the River Thame at Chearsley a Scarlet Tiger Callimorpha dominula flew past.  This species is active by night as well and I got two more to light in Bernwood Forest that same evening.  Although it is fairly widespread in the southern half of the county the moth is as yet not often encountered in the north.  I didn't seem to be in the right place at the right time for the two common burnet moths this year but examples of both Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet Zygaena lonicerae and Six-spot Burnet Zygaena filipendulae were recorded at Pilch Fields on 16th July.  The locally much rarer Five-spot Burnet Zygaena trifolii, which flies earlier in the season, may well have been lost from its one confirmed site in Bucks, adjacent to the Calvert land-fill, because a visit there on 26th May found no sign of the moth, its habitat having been churned up by heavy vehicles.  A find nearby of the smart yellow and blue tortrix Commophila aeneana was a small consolation prize.

Searching dark mullein plants for caterpillars of Striped Lychnis Shargacucullia lychnitis took place at various sites in the Chilterns during the second half of July.  They were found in the expected places although in lower numbers than in the past.  Day-flying moths recorded during these searches included Nemophora metallica (in some numbers on scabious flowers, more than 40 of them at one site in the Hughenden Valley), Pammene regiana (several on umbellifers), Oncocera semirubella (one at Hughenden on 30th July), Shaded Broad-bar Scotopteryx chenopodiata, Yellow Shell Camptogramma bilineata, Dusky Sallow Eremobia ochroleuca and Silver Y Autographa gamma. 


Striped Lychnis larvae, Bradenham 23rd July

Nemophora metallica, Bradenham 23rd July

Oncocera semirubella, Hughenden 30th July

Within the last four years Oncocera semirubella has gone from being virtually unknown in Bucks to being relatively common in suitable chalk grassland habitat along the length of the Chilterns.  The Ivinghoe hills have become a particular stronghold.

Having found an example of the rather dull micro-moth Apodia bifractella on fleabane in a field at Arncott, Oxon on 12th August, I was prompted to go looking for it in Bucks because at the time there was only one previous record of it for the county.  Three days later I found four individuals at Greatmoor on the second batch of fleabane flowers searched, so the chances are that it is simply very under-recorded here.

Apodia bifractella, Greatmoor 15th August

Apart from regular sightings of Anthophila fabriciana and Vapourer Orgyia antiqua, few adult moths were recorded in the daytime from September onwards and activity turned once more to leaf-mine collection - and searching for Brown Hairstreak eggs.