On the 4th June 2015 a female
Alder Kitten came to MV light at Park House, Wyre Forest. Potted for a few hours I noticed she had laid a few eggs on the inside of the pot. A couple of weeks later the tiny first instar dark 'kitten' larva hatched and several of these developed through several more instars on alder and birch leaves. 4 eventually went down to pupate in soft compost. A very fresh adult moth appeared on the inside of my garage window on the evening of the 4th June 2016. The compost tub lid was loose and it was assumed this had emerged rather than escaping from the previous night's trap result. No others followed. Alder Kitten has never been seen in a light trap at Warndon.
Later on the night of the 4th June a small dark dumpy micro with broad wing tips and faint creamy yellow hairs on the back of the head/neck was potted off an egg tray. I gave it to Oliver Wadsworth for further scrutiny and the moth was confirmed as
Lampronia fuscatella (which I had strongly suspected) and was only the 6th VC37 record. Although there is a 20 year old Silver Birch in the garden, two of the previous county records were adults in nearby Trench Wood in 1977 and 1988 and the 4th June was a warm night with a slight easterly breeze. The image below was taken by Oliver.
An Alder Moth came to light on 31st May was only the second record at Warndon
You are probably correct about the origins of the Alder Kitten, however, in May I recorded my first Alder Kitten in the garden after 12 years so you never know ................
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