Category: Lepidoptera

I’ve been making a concerted effort in 2022 to see more of the quite limited number of butterflies we have native in the UK (I’m up to 36 so far, second season of trying harder). Have now added Eurasian White Admiral to the list thanks to a visit to Brampton Wood not far up the road in Cambridgeshire.

Brampton isn’t too far from Monk’s Wood, which I visited in May to see the newly emerged Black Hairstreak for the first time. It must be noted that there are hundreds and hundreds, perhaps thousands of Black Hairstreak at Monks Wood but perhaps an order of magnitude fewer there than at Brampton. Brampton is the second oldest woodland after Monks in Cambridgeshire but has vast acreages of blackthorn, the larval footplant of that species.

Saw lots of Black Hairstreak, Satyrium pruni, at Brampton Wood, several dozen, perhaps. It’s a rather rare butterfly restricted to a clay-soiled corridor from Oxon through Northants and into Cambs the larvae of which feed only on well-established blackthorn and the adults of which rarely venture a few metres from where they emerge from their pupae.

Given the surveys carried out by wardens there on five small patches of blackthorn and the several hundred acres of blackthorn not surveyed it is likely that there are several hundred thousand of this incredibly rare butterfly on this site.

Lots of Silver-washed Fritillary, Argynnis paphia, at Brampton Wood too.

This is a male of the moth species Nemophora metallica. I’ve written about them on the blog several times over the last couple of years.

Those “horns” are the male’s antennae. They can be up to three times as long as the moth’s forewings. The female’s antennae are half the length. The species loves a bit of Field Scabious (Knautia arvensis) it being the larval foodplant. The dayflying Brassy Longhorn is found in the South of England and across East Anglia generally where Field Scabious grows. They are on the wing in June and July.

Thankfully, last year I managed to persuade the Environment Agency not to prematurely mow the patch along the Cottenham Lode where this species seemed to be thriving these past couple of summers. I hope the EA sticks to its promise again this year, so these little beasties have a better chance of reproducing and the scabious of setting seed. The next step is to persuade the EA to halt all spring/summer mowing of the banks of the lodes so that other invertebrate and botanical species might get more than a foothold. Obviously, the Agency has to consider water flow as the lodes are drainage ditches that criss-cross the Fens. That said, there is no obvious need to remove vegetation so brutally as they often do in the spring/summer if at all.

I’ve taken a number of trips to Devil’s Dyke, Cambridgeshire in the last couple of years, tramping back and forth along the chalky ridge looking for butterflies. In the summer time, when the weather is fine you can almost reach right up and touch them. Saw my first Dark Green Fritillaries and Chalkhill Blues there in 2021 and my first Adonis Blue in 2022 (an unofficially introduced species).

9th June I walked (150 minutes from 10am) from the car park at the Newmarket July Racecourse section to the A14 break and kept a tally of the Lepidoptera I saw, posted data to Cambs&Essex page:

Butterflies

Marbled White 54 (actually one of the “Browns” – Satyrinae
Small Tortoiseshell 7
Dark Green Fritillary 16
Green Hairstreak 3
Common Blue 5
Meadow Brown 10
Large Skipper 5
Small Heath 8
Red Admiral 3
Large White 1
Brimstone 3

Moths

I have been photographing and reading about moths in detail only since late July 2018, I reported on my first year of mothing here. In that time, I have seen well over 400 and photographed as many. They are such a diverse group of insects with marvellous patterns. They come in all shapes and sizes and as I have mentioned before, the butterflies are simply a grouping within the moths, Lepidoptera. Their many names are something of a wonder too.

Some moths have more than a passing resemblance in terms of shape and habit. Take the Mother Shipton an the Burnet Companion. Now, I’ve seen these in wildflower meadows quite a lot so far this year. The Mother Shipton famously has patterning on its forewing that is reminiscent of a caricature of the legendary 16th Century witch Mother Shipton (purportedly a woman named Ursula Southeil, although it was only many decades after her death that the legend of her fortune-telling and ugliness were invented.

Now, in the mothing books, Mother Shipton is often placed on the same page as Burnet Companion. They are very similar in shape, size, and habit but with a rather different scaly patterning of their wings. You would imagine that taxonomically and genetically they have to be closely related, and presumably they are. And, indeed, Mother Shipton’s scientific name is Euclidia mi (Clerck, 1759) and Burnet Companion is Euclidia glyphica (Linnaeus, 1758). So, they are in the same genus, although originally Mother Shipton was in a different genus Calistege…which seemed odd, given how obviously similar it is to Burnet Companion.

Incidentally, the Burnet Companion is so-called because it frequents the same environment as the Burnet moths (Zygaena species) although strangely its flying times are reported as not overlapping as much you might imagine so “companion” is perhaps a little misplaced as a name.

Pretty much all of my curated moth photos are in a cluster of galleries over on my Imaging Storm website, under the banner Mothematics.

The Adonis Blue butterfly – Lysandra bellargus was present along Devil’s Dyke in double figures when I visited this week. Last year, there were much rarer reports of sightings, so it’s presumably established something of a colony here.

However, all is not as it seems. This species was not recorded at this site until very recently. Indeed, when the naturalists were first systematically recording species 200 years ago, it was definitely not listed as one of the natives in its natural habitat by Leonard Jenyns in this area. It’s usually found on chalky downs in the south of England. Devil’s Dyke itself, it should be noted, is not a natural feature, it’s of human construction.

It is likely that Adonis Blue has been deliberately and unofficially released by members of the public in the area and has begun to become established as it has also done in Therfield near Royston. The ones fluttering by Devil’s Dyke at the moment are perhaps second or third generation adults. It’s the correct habitat for the species, just not in the natural place.

UPDATE: I mentioned this larval nest to the County Moth Recorder, Bill Mansfield, and as he was not too far from the site in question, he took a look. It’s on a type of cherry tree, he found, so he’s narrowed down the moth species, to Bird Cherry Ermine, Yponemeuta evonymella. He points out that the tree is largely defoliated at this point and the web mostly now covering evergreen fir trees.

Friends often come to me with their lepidopteral and avian queries, it’s often a bird they’ve seen that they imagine is some great rarity, a mega, but often turns out to be something common, a Long-tailed Tit mistaken for a Great Grey Shrike for instance. One friend spots lots of moths in his farm-facing garden and on his allotment and jokingly emails me as MothMania…I can usually put him straight.

Another friend’s sixth-former offspring was perturbed to see what she thought was a huge spider’s web on the way to college, it shook her up a little. The friend asked me to take a look at the photo, I immediately thought – not spiders, moth larval nest! But, I didn’t know which species.

From the photos I’ve seen, I initially thought it to be the caterpillars of the Small Eggar moth, but that’s quite rare and present in the UK in specific, sporadic colonies. Other moths that make nests like this on bushes and trees would be The Lackey and the Brown-tail of which I’ve talked here in the past. It would be worrying if it were the invasive Oak Processionary Moth too, but thankfully it’s not that.

Over on Facebook, friend and fellow Cottenham moth-er Martin Fowlie suggested one of the ermine moths (Yponomeuta species) and that is what we’re settling on for the ID. Can’t be more specific without additional details at this point.

Photos kindly shared by Ken Bateup who posted on the Cambridgeshire Moths Facebook group.

Let me introduce Mother Shipton. This is the moth Euclidia mi. It’s a day-flying moth, darts between resting places quite quickly during May and June. It’s a fairly common species, but I’d only ever seen it briefly once before and didn’t get a decent shot of the upper side of its wings. This one was feeding on hawthorn alongside some Common Heath moths on Devil’s Dyke in Cambridgeshire. The larvae feed on trifolium, clover, and some grasses.

Oh, one more thing, some people might call it a Mother Shipton butterfly because it flies during the day, but all butterflies are moths by definition.

The vernacular name alludes to the renowned 16th Century soothsayer and alleged witch Mother Shipton (aka Ursula Southeil (ca. 1488–1561) of Knaresborough in North Yorkshire, England.

The markings on the moth’s forewings are said to resemble a fa fanciful and cartoonish impression of Mother Shipton’s profile featuring a beady eye, prominent nose and chin, and toothless maw. Judge for yourself.

Also seen on Devil’s Dyke: Green Hairstreak (21x), Brimstone butterfly, Orange Tip, Blue  (possibly Adonis, given time of year as opposed to Chalkhill, which emerges much later)

Other people’s hobbies are weird, aren’t they? Bird watching, trainspotting, stamp collecting…what’s that all about. But, some are particularly strange, at least until you find yourself introduced, intrigued, interested, and then heavily invested in that particular hobby.

Take mothing, it’s like birding, but with moths. What could be weirder? Many people think of moths as pests, dull grey and brown fluttery things that fly around lights at night and eating clothes and carpets. But, nothing could be farther from the truth. There are indeed some moths that are grey or brown and just two species whose larvae (caterpillars) eat textiles. However, there are about 2500 species in the UK alone and something like 150,000 species around the world and they come in all shapes and sizes, colours and patterns, many that outdo their lepidopteral cousins, the butterflies, for glamour and flamboyance.

Moth-er extraordinaire James Lowen who first went from intrigue to interest to investment when he first set eyes on the magnificent and enormous Poplar Hawk-moth has travelled far and wide to see some of those tens of thousands of species of moth. Now, in “British Moths – A gateway guide“, he reveals some of that intrigue and interest in the hope of enticing his reader into sharing his investment in the world of moths. And, what a world it is from the aforementioned Poplar Hawk-moth to the Angles Shades from the Emperor to Mother Shipton. The names are as diverse and distinctive as the shapes and patterns of this richly diverse group of insects.

In the pages of this handily spiral-bound book, Lowen introduces to what might be our first 350 or so ticks (as it were) on a novice moth-er’s list. Each described in crisp detail with an equally crisp photo. Labels highlight the highlights of each moth’s features, patterns on its wings, their antennae, even the males’ pheromone-releasing tail, its so-called hair pencil.

There is much to learn, but you will learn fast if you take a seasonal tour through Lowen’s lovely introduction to what some of us already see as the most fascinating of hobbies. Many of us see make use of our hobby as citizen scientists reporting sightings to the professionals and the county moth recorders and such.

Be warned though…your trainspotting and stamp-collecting friends will think you’re weird. Let them! Maybe even invest in a copy of Lowen’s book for them, intrigue them, interest them, get them invested in this fascinating hobby. Don’t let moths flutter by without taking a closer look.