2021 - a look back.

What a year 2021 was, who would have thought that everyone would have been so affected by the impact of COVID across the world.  With the recurrence of illness back in March I am just happy to have made 2022! To keep me going I look forward to having the opportunity to be able enjoy some summer sun and associated wildlife, keep setting goals, and achieving them. Having spent 45 years amassing a decent library of Natural History books, many for identification of numerous different family groups, it was with the sole intention of spending my retirement actually putting them to good use.  Too much focus on birds in the early years, moths in more recent years, at the expense of so many other species; a few notable finds of these other species included only the second British record of a harvestman Opilio canestrinii, and Himerta sepulchralis a new parasitic wasp for Yorkshire and rare nationally. So much more to see!

My initial recollection of 2021 was that it was a poor year, a very slow start due to the poor Spring weather, then very limited opportunity for trapping out at my usual local sites during the Summer and Autumn.  I was surprised to find that it was actually my fourth best year in Yorkshire with 379 species of moths, 19 of which were new for me in Yorkshire.  With a great family week away in Cornwall in August, fairly modest catches in a private garden in Gorran Haven contributed to my National total for the year which included 16 Lifer moths.  

The year is well documented on the blog so not wishing to duplicate I will just choose one highlight.  Of the new ones this year perhaps the most rewarding was a tortrix moth trapped at Brafferton, which I am sure I have trapped before but mis-identified, and on now being aware of its occurrence in the County I despatched it to Charlie the CMR who had dissected the only other three previous records.  It came back confirmed as Pammene ignorata, new for VC62. 

Pammene ignorata, 16 Jun 2021, Brafferton, VC62,

I expect to have the time to reminisce on the numerous highlights I have enjoyed over the years and will try and document them here.

An unwelcome first for VC65

I have claimed Tinea pellionella caught in the house on three previous occasions but not taken photos or kept specimens.  I caught this one during the evening of 29 June and eventually managed to get a photo without letting it escape, and this time dispatched the moth to Charlie Fletcher for gen. det. confirmation.  As usual, Charlie got back to me without delay confirming that it was indeed what I suspected and was a first for VC65.  The fact that the common name for this moth is Case-bearing Clothes Moth does make this a rather unwelcome addition to the house list.

12.027 Tinea pellionella Case-bearing Clothes Moth

And so it continues....

What with a very poor start to the year weather-wise and a recurrence of health issues, the first six months of the year have just been on hold.  However, things have started to improve and a visit to Brafferton VC62 on Wednesday 16th June proved to be one of those purple patch nights, despite having to pack up quickly due to forecast dawn rain showers.

I had my usual MV Robinson in the 'camp' area, 160MVB over sheet in the parking bay and trialled two 5w LED bucket traps dotted in the vegetation on the main track.  The two MV produced broadly similar  numbers and species with the two LED's pulling in a small number each (still more than not bothering at all.).

A total of 261 of 71 species, so unexceptional numbers, but there were several good micros among the haul.  The best was a Pammene ignorata which immediately struck me as significant, and was despatched to Charlie who had gen.det. the three previous Yorkshire records, and this one too was confirmed, also as a first for VC62.  

Pammene ignorata

Another moth of interest was a rare moth nationally, and what appears to be only the 2nd record for VC62.  This was an Apomyelois bistriatella which has a preference for heathy areas, although this is not a habitat for which Brafferton in known.  

Apomyelois bistriatella

Apomyelois bistriatella

The next moth of interest was a fine colourful tortrix moth which I eventually narrowed down to a Gypsonoma oppressana, which even Harry said he had never seen such a colourful version.  It was interesting in that I had claimed one from Kilburn, also VC62, back in 2014, a much more typical monochrome specimen, which is also now accepted and becomes a new for VC62 predating a later accepted record.

Gypsonoma oppressana

Gypsonoma oppressana

Gypsonoma oppressana, Kilburn, VC62, 11 Jul 2014

I include a couple of macro moths, not because of their rarity, but just fabulous examples of how beautiful a 'brown' moth can be.

Mottled Beauty

Scallop Shell

Hopefully, further trapping possible in the near future.

A look back at 2017

After four annual totals of new 'lifer' moths ranging between none (2014) and a heady nine (2015) including two identified retrospectively, this year has been quite remarkable.  I managed 35 lifers in 2017 and a further two aggs. any of which would be new; and a further eight species which were new for me in Yorkshire having seen them elsewhere. Much of this big increase in species can be put down to a 'purple-patch' week in late May/early June when a great selection of moths were trapped and then to a concentrated effort in looking for and identifying leaf-mines at the tail end of this year.  

My 'lifers' were as follows:

Code	Taxon	Vernacular	Records
	Stigmella alnetella/glutinosae	Stigmella alnetella/glutinosae ag.	1
	Stigmella anomalella/centifoliella/spinosissimae	Stigmella species agg. (on Rose)	1
4.007	Stigmella luteella	a moth	1
4.015	Stigmella anomalella	Rose Leaf Miner	1
4.030	Stigmella hybnerella	a moth	1
4.035	Stigmella salicis	a moth	2
4.038	Stigmella obliquella	a moth	1
4.078	Ectoedemia septembrella	a moth	1
4.089	Ectoedemia albifasciella	a moth	1
4.090	Ectoedemia subbimaculella	a moth	3
4.097	Ectoedemia rubivora	a moth	3
4.099	Ectoedemia occultella	a moth	1
4.100	Ectoedemia minimella	a moth	1
8.005	Phylloporia bistrigella	a moth	1
10.003	Coptotriche marginea	a moth	4
15.014	Gracillaria syringella	a moth	1
15.022	Callisto denticulella	a moth	1
15.039	Phyllonorycter quercifoliella	a moth	1
15.040	Phyllonorycter messaniella	a moth	1
15.043	Phyllonorycter oxyacanthae	a moth	1
15.049	Phyllonorycter spinicolella	a moth	1
15.053	Phyllonorycter leucographella	Firethorn Leaf Miner	4
15.083	Phyllonorycter trifasciella	a moth	1
35.109	Scrobipalpa acuminatella	a moth	1
35.123	Scrobipalpa costella	a moth	1
35.148	Carpatolechia fugitivella	a moth	1
39.002	Blastodacna atra	Apple Pith Moth	1
40.009	Mompha sturnipennella	a moth	1
49.206	Ancylis upupana	a moth	2
49.238	Epinotia cruciana	Willow Tortrix	1
49.252	Epinotia tedella	a moth	1
49.307	Rhyacionia pinivorana	Spotted Shoot Moth	1
49.372	Pammene populana	a moth	1
49.375	Pammene regiana	a moth	1
70.068	Mesoleuca albicillata	Beautiful Carpet	1
70.181	Eupithecia valerianata	Valerian Pug	1
73.179	Tiliacea citrago	Orange Sallow	1

 

Of these the Apple Pith Moth looked a good candidate but probably not be acceptable from just a photo, and the Mompha sturnipennella was a dreadful phone photo, identified by Phil Sterling no less but may not pass muster, and the Pammene populana was gen.detted but not found to be conclusive as this or any other species...., so may have to rub these out!

possible Apple Pith Moth

Pammene populana? still to be determined...

One surprise was a moth found under the security lights at work in Roecliffe: over 60 species have been identified at the site on my walks around the building.  I noticed a very orange moth high up on the wall near one of the lights; after finding a ladder and potting it I was pleased to identify it as an Orange Sallow.  The photo taken with my phone hence the less than ideal image but at least not a record likely to be controversial.

Orange Sallow

Most of the leaf-mine moths are covered in earlier posts this autumn but did include a retrospective couple of firsts for VC62 proving the value of keeping photos on file. This form of recording has proved very fruitful and poses a challenge to continue this in 2018.  Two for the price of one in the following photo from my 2010 files....

14.010 Bucculatrix ulmella (left), 10.001 Tischeria ekebladella (right), Pilmoor,  17 Oct 2010

As for moths recorded elsewhere, mainly Dorset, but recorded as new in Yorkshire were:

Code

Taxon

Vernacular

Records

45.044	Emmelina monodactyla	Common Plume	5
49.069	Acleris sparsana	a moth	1
49.248	Epinotia tenerana	Nut Bud Moth	2
63.006	Pyrausta aurata	a moth	1
66.007	Lasiocampa quercus f. callunae	Northern Eggar	1
70.024	Scopula imitaria	Small Blood-vein	2
72.069	Laspeyria flexula	Beautiful Hook-tip	2
72.084	Euclidia mi	Mother Shipton	1

Of these, inexplicably, Common Plume was recorded for the first time although to be fair I do not recall catching many plumes at all.  The callunae form of Oak Eggar, the Northern Eggar, was from the North York Moors where it is the more common form.  Two southern species recently arrived to Yorkshire were the Small Blood-vein and Beautiful Hook-tip.  Mother Shipton is a fairly uncommon grassland species and Pyrausta aurata was obviously looking for mint in Morrisons car-park and good to catch up with both in Yorkshire.

Small Blood-vein, another phone-photoed moth attracted to the works security lights

I am already looking forward to recording moths next year and hope for a few more 'purple patch' trapping events and targeted leaf-mine seeking, so here is to a fruitful New Year.

Update 2 on the Kilburn micros

Harry Beaumont has gen.det. the four micros I sent and offered a speedy response.  The good news is that the Ancylis upupana is confirmed and two others were identified as Epinotia tetraquetrana and Bactra lancealana both males.  

The slight disappointment and one I thought would be less of a problem was the Pammene populana. Harry kindly commented "The Pammene turned out to be more of a problem. The moth looks OK for P. populana but the male genitalia were not entirely consistent with that species. These small dark Pammene species are not easy and both Charlie and I struggle with them sometimes. I have slide mounted the gen. and will compare it with my slides of other species as I get time. One of the problems is that the characteristics between species appear to vary depending which book one uses." Oh well...still hope then.  Many thanks as always to Harry!

Copper Underwings

That time of the year again and I have had a small number of Copper Underwings sp.  I am aware of many of the stated differences between Copper Underwing and Svensson's Copper Underwing but am also aware that some of these features are not reliable and Les Hill is studying the species pair in some detail.  Having found one in the house dead which was the well-marked one from Brimham a couple of weeks ago, and escaped while photographing it in the hall at home, I spent some time checking over the individual.

The main features to check are as follows:

1/  Check the palps to see if pale (CU) or dark with distinct pale tips (SCU)

2/  The extent of the copper on the underside of the hind wing - restricted to terminal band (CU) or extending up towards the base (SCU)

3/  General colouration and contrast - very contrasting (CU), or not so (SCU) indeed Svensson's has been known as 'drab' Copper Underwing

4/  The two major points on the crossband - draw a line joining the two and extend to the outerwing - if directed towards the back of the wing (CU) and if slightly forward towards the base (SCU)

5/  The black and white markings on the sides of the abdomen - contrasting and well-marked in CU, less so in SCU


Of course some of these features are subjective and open to interpretation, others appear more clear-cut.  When applying these checks to this individual it throws up some interesting points.

1/  The palps.  In this individual they are clearly dark with pale tips indicating Svensson's.

2/  The extent of the copper on the underside of the hind-wing - limited, indicating Copper Underwing. (In the photo there is some shadow and a faint suggestion of darker copper extending towards the base but in reality and good light this is not so).

3/  General colouration - strikingly contrasting, suggesting Copper Underwing.

4/  The two point tips. joined by line and extended to wing edge - backwards suggests Copper and forwards Svensson's. On this one forwards indicating Svensson's.

 

5/  Abdomen markings - contrasting black and white suggesting Copper Underwing.

All in all, five features, three suggesting Copper Underwing and two suggesting Svensson's Copper Underwing.  I know many observers use the palps as the main (only?) feature to distinguish the two, but this one individual shows that it is not as straight forward as one would think.  I think this one is going to have to have its bits done to confirm, something I have done very little of but really should on this occasion, especially as it is already dead.  Watch this space....

Another micro confirmed.

An update on a micro species seen at Staveley.

There were about ten of what appeared to be Syncopacma sp., half of which had a bowed crossline, the rest had a straight crossline.  I sent a specimen of each to Harry to determine, and I heard back today that the two (one straight and one bowed) were both males and the same species Syncopacma cinctella.   These appear to be only the 2nd VC64 record and 4th confirmed County record of this species.  Older records were probably of the recently split species S. larseniella which appears to be the more common and widespread species in the UK but only three old records in Yorkshire.  

Some good news and some bad news....

On Thursday/Friday last week I found a small brown moth on my bedroom ceiling which looked interesting. It looked most like an Ephestia elutella and I sent a photo to Charlie and Harry, and the specimen to Harry for determination.  I have just heard back that it is indeed a female Ephestia elutella and it looks like a new to VC65.

Ephestia elutella

Ephestia elutella

The bad news is that I have had two more, which means I have an infestation......

Yes it is a Svensson's!

I had a go at my first gen.det. today on the Copper Underwing featured in my post of 17th September on:

http://grampybustard.blogspot.com/2011/09/first-night-mothing-for-week.html

All of the external features had suggested a Svensson's rather than the regular Copper Underwing, and this was confirmed by a detailed dissection of the genitalia.  It was a male, and the features clearly matched those in the photos in British and Irish moths: an illustrated guide to selected difficult species (covering the use of genitalia characters and other features) by Townsend, Clifton and Goodey. 

I had a go in preparing a couple of other macromoths just for practice, and can honestly say I am more than pleased with the microscope I purchased.  It is all very well doing these bigger ones, but I can see doing the little jobbies as a bit of a challenge.

I've got one Ear.....

....and yes Andy before you say anything it is a Large one.  Having caught an Ear agg. in south-west Ireland, I collected the specimen to bring back home for the Yorkshire county moth Recorder to do a gen.det. (genitalia dissection) on it.  Charlie had requested Yorkshire specimens to be sent to him to get a better idea of which Ear species are here in the county - Yorkshire has all four British species.  So, after 10 minutes preparation the genitalia were exposed to show a male Large Ear; a new site record according to the Moths of Ireland.  A couple of other specimens sent through the post turned out to be another Large Ear, and the other a male Crinan Ear.  I attach a photo of the live moth out of interest.

Large Ear