News eggstra!

So the sun was shining and some exercise was called for. A trip from home to Little Stretton and back over the top was called for and a look at the Alder and/or Hazel catkins for the signs of larvae was of course one of the objectives.

Nothing doing was the result, except on one hazel bush there was an old leaf and some "spiders web" type fluff.

The contents of this revealed no spiders, but an empty larval case and a lot of very small moth eggs.

So, how do you find out what sort of eggs these might be? I happen to have a photocopy of the "Entomologist's Log Book" by Alfred George Scorer, dated 1913.

This lists, in alphabetic order, moths and food plants and gives all manner of information concerning moths. So, starting with the foodplant (in this case Hazel, under Corylus) there is a list of moths whose larva feed thereon. Then you can go through them one by one (there are 28 listed) or make an inspired guess. Then you can go to to the website www.ukleps.org and see if you are right.

As it happens, my first guess seems correct - see if you agree. The vapourer moth.

Here is a photo of the eggs found today. You can compare them (as I did) to those on the site!

One more for the Strettons list too!


Vapourer (eggs on Hazel)