Time and Tide ....

It has all been happening, except for me finding time to do the blog, but better late than never (I hope).

We had a report the day after I did my last post that there were Grizzled Skippers at Coppice Leasowes, so we dodged the showers and went to see. No Skippers in sight and the only "brown job" flying was actually a Burnet Companion moth. By chance, I looked at the hedgerow planted alongside the stream near where we had parked the car and there were dozens of Spindle Ermine caterpillars, in untidy larval spinnings munching away there.

Burnet Companion

Spindle Ermine larvae

 With the steady improvement in the weather, trap catches have improved and there have been several new species present - far too many to include all their photos, so here is a selection;

The first is a Lobster Moth. Not named because of its colours, but because of the way its caterpillar sits. Have a look on the internet and see if you can find one!


Lobster Moth

The Flame

This one is called the Flame, which curls its wings tightly round its body. Can you see why it is called that? 





The next is an Alder Moth, look out for its caterpillar which has yellow patches on a black background and it has several long black hairs too. most unusual.


On the home front, there was a crop of micro-moths hatched out from the larvae off the Hart's-tongue ferns from the garden. Surprisingly these were not P. filicivora like the previous ones, but P. verhuella, meaning that both species were living side by side n the same plant. I was also very pleased to find that the Mullein plants we begged from a friend's garden have indeed got Mullein moth larvae feeding on them.

Alder Moth

Mullein

Have a look on your own plants and see if you have got any.