Moth News

Saturday, July 15th 2023

The Species Team at Foxglove collect information about the many and varied species that live in all the different habitats. Sometimes it is such a joy to find that the Daisy is in flower where you would expect it to be, even in the middle of winter. Common Spotted Orchids are literally popping up everywhere and thanks to our strimming volunteers they do not get strimmed.

Our moth list contains over 300 moths and at times we think we are unliklley to get any more to add to it, but amazingly we caught one called Least Carpet. This was photographed in its pot as the identification book indicates that it does not live this far north, although it does say that it was expanding its range to Yorkshire. The photograph was sent to the VC65 recorder Dr C Fletcher, who confirmed its ID and said that he hadn't seen one and not only was it new for Foxglove but also the first record in VC65.

Its larval food plant is Ivy and probably other plants where it eats the dead leaves. It is a beautiful moth.

Another interesting fact this week was that the trap on the back veranda caught five Poplar Hawkmoths but there were none in the trap at the front of the building. Similalry footman moths were caught in the front and not the back. Although the traps are not far apart they do look out onto slightly different habitats. The portable trap is placed at the heath and on the wetland, weather permitting, and at the end of the year it will be interesting to see similarities and differences in the catches.

Another moth caught included this Scallop Shell moth whose larvae feed on Aspen and Sallows. We do not see this moth very often so it was nice to see it.

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