Monday 30 April 2012

A close frond of mine: Part II

In a sequel to an earlier post: http://eastkentgardenmoths.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/close-frond-of-mine.html
the Psychoides verhuella mines on Hartstongue duly emerged over the weekend - not the most striking of moths but success nonetheless.

Psychoides verhuella reared ex mine on Hartstongue


And the trapping in the garden has been looking up over the past few days, more on that later.

Dave

Friday 27 April 2012

Adventives are real moths too...discuss

In an update to my preceding post, I have now successfully reared one of the Prays oleae larvae found in mines at Wentworth Garden Centre, South Yorkshire through to adulthood.


Prays oleae pupa and cocoon
P. oleae - pupa and cocoon

Prays oleae reared ex mine on Olive, VC63

P. oleae - reared ex mine on Olive, VC63, emerged 27.iv.2012





Sunday 15 April 2012

Struck gold at the mine....

A brand new species for me this week, albeit very far from Kent.

Found lots of mines of the adventive, olive-feeding species Prays oleae at a garden centre in South Yorkshire.  Which is very fitting as this species was first reported in the UK from a garden centre in Surrey in 2009: garden centres are of course where it is easiest to find olive trees in the UK!

Prays oleae
Prays oleae
Prays oleae larva

Very pleased to add this to the list.

Dave

Tuesday 3 April 2012

Same old, same old, almost...

The garden trap is definitely seeing a lull at the moment with just relatively low numbers of the usual suspects - Early Grey and Small Quaker most numerous, another couple of Eudonia angustea, whilst Clouded Drabs seem to have dried up.

Had a trip yesterday afternoon, to Fowlmead Country Park, which achieved the main purpose of bagging Orange Underwing for the year list, as two were seen at the first mature birch clump within minutes of arrival (they were the only two in an hour long foray).

Had good success with early stage micros too, including Limnaecia phragmitella larvae and plenty of Ectoedemia heringella mines - details and pics on my Kent Micro Moths blog:

http://kentmicromoths.blogspot.co.uk/

Dave