Miner Forty-Niner

Whilst it may be a little behind last year, I am once again on the cusp of 50 species for the year.

The majority of the list is of course made up of early stage micros and miners plus the customary January 1st tick of Raspberry Clearwing galls and larvae.




The usual suspects are also putting in an appearance at the garden trap, with numbers rising steadily over recent days, including Grey Shoulder-knot, Dotted Border, Oak Beauty and Clouded Drab








...and apologies for the dodgy reference to a Scooby Doo villain, couldn't resist given that it's leaf miners that have contributed most significantly to the year total to date...



Ectoedemia heringella tenanted mines

Blogging again - from the Raspberry patch

Hopefully back for a while now, work has been manic and reduced any free time and as such no time to blog.

To start the catching up, a few images from the thriving Raspberry Clearwing colony that is just yards from my garden. This female was successfully reared from a larva plus also managed to assemble a male to her later on.

Solid start to the year

Mainly thanks to fruitful early stage searches (predominantly for micros) the year list is already just above 30 species, not bad for late January.

The highlight by a country mile being the Yarrow-feeding larvae of Aethes margaritana; not much to look at now but the adult completes a real ugly duckling story.





Some of the rest include:

Raspberry Clearwing larvae - good to see the local colony thriving, although under the threat of development!
Pammene regiana - cocoons under Sycamore bark
Limnaecia phragmitella in Typha seed heads
Metzneria metzneriella larvae in Knapweed seed heads
M. lappella larvae in burdock seed heads
Angle Shades and Brimstone Moth larvae
Female Early Moth
Luffia ferchaultella cases in several locations
Cases of Coleophora gryphipennella masquerading as thorns on Dog Rose

The only other adult moths have been Ypsolopha mucronella, Agonopterix heracliana, Dark Chestnut, Mottled Umber and Emmelina monodactyla.

Slim pickings plus macro early stages

The weather, and the fact it is still only early February, conspires to restrict what adult moth activity there might be and as a result, records to the garden trap are few and far between.

Daytime early stage searches have been pretty successful as far as micros go, as per my latest post on my sister blog:  http://kentmicromoths.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/early-stages-carcina-quercana_7.html

But I also managed to find this Brimstone Moth larva by torchlight (I was actually searching blackthorn for female Early Moth, to no avail as yet this year).





The only other macro ('honorary' status at least) early stage find of note has been more larvae, galls and emergence holes of Raspberry Clearwing.

Dave