Stigmella lapponica

An adult emerged today from a mine on birch collected at Hartlebury Common on 28th May 2018.

Patrick Clement

Stigmella lapponica

Stigmella lapponica mine.

Common Clothes Moth, Tineola bisselliella

Always mixed emotions when finding Clothes Moths in the house but I was pleased to have a new species regardless. Certainly not a common moth in VC37 these days but it just shows what can be achieved by buying a new and expensive woollen carpet!

Patrick Clement

Elachista stabilella

For the past few years, around this time, I have been searching the rough grasses on the edge of Windmill Hill for Elachista mines in the hope of finding E.stabilella. This is the only site we have for this moth in the county. It had not been recorded since 1999 despite several searches for mines and sweep netting the area at various times. I was beginning to think that it might have died out on the site, so I was very pleased to find 3 mines on my search this year. The larvae looked right according to published descriptions, but it is still something of a shock when the moth you were hoping for emerges from it's pupa.

Not the most exciting looking moth perhaps, but it is good to know that it is still on site. Maybe the next challenge is to find a new site for the species, but we are painfully short of calcareous grassland in the county, so options are limited.

Oliver Wadsworth.

Pheromone Trap result!

Following a tip off that a recorder based in 'Worcs' had photographed a Barred Tooth-striped by a house door on Thursday, announced on social media,  I quickly responded by testing my own ALS Pheromone Trap loaded with a B T-s pheromone bung in my Warndon back garden thinking 'well you never know'.

Pheromone Trap

Imagine my feelings just an hour later when I spotted a geo fluttering about through the opaque bottom holding section. Panic off the moth was an Early Thorn. However this short experiment proves one thing - it works. Later this week I plan to check a few bits of habitat in extreme SW Worcs with the trap and maybe some lights. After contacting the above observer via West Midlands Butterflies Facebook it was found that two Barred Tooth-striped were actually seen in NNW Glos about 5 miles from a known colony at Corse. Perhaps time for observers in Herefords to look at a few places on their side of the boundary.

Early Thorn

Bringsty Common February 28th

Finally had a night warm enough to encourage me to run a garden trap.  Not bad at all for February either with 16 species on offer - 13 macro and 3 micro. Topping the bill Common Quaker with 34, the rest all single figures but included Twin-spotted Quaker (1), Shoulder Stripe (2), Engrailed (2), Dotted Border (6), Pale Brindled Beauty (1), Yellow Horned (2), Oak Beauty (1), Hebrew Character (3), Chestnut (1), Small Quaker (3), Red Chestnut (1), Clouded Drab (1).  I haven't looked at the micros as yet, but one Caloptilia, one Ypsolopha and one Acleris. Following on from the Orange Underwing sightings, the next day I spotted 2 in the garden here and they (or it) was more interested in the Elder tree rather than the Silver Birches next to it. Timed at 1pm and just after 3pm.  Peter Hall

Bringsty turns orange

Today was spent with Ian Draycott walking a route in readiness for a bryophyte group next month on Bringsty Common.  I 've been looking for Orange Underwing since I moved here, unsuccessfully I might add until today when I spotted 2 possibly 3 flying up and around the taller birches.  Rather early, but a lovely sighting. One flew very close to us for quite some seconds before returning to the canopy again. Earliest record ever by about 2 weeks.  Peter Hall

Bird Nest Moths (Updated 21st April, Hofmannophila pseudospretella)

UPDATE 21st April. I have now had 3 Brown House Moths (Hofmannophila pseudospretella) emerge from these larvae.

When I cleaned out our House Sparrow nest boxes last autumn I decided to keep the contents in a plastic bag overwinter to see if any moths emerged this year. The bag was hung in a garden shed and today we noticed several larvae crawling up the sides of the bag obviously looking for suitable pupation sites. There are several species that inhabit bird nests but, looking on the internet, there seems to be a dire shortage of larval images of the likely candidates so I shall have to wait and see if adults emerge, allowing identification.   Patrick Clement