GMS News Weeks 28-36 Autumn 2012

GMS News

Weeks 28-36

Autumn 2012

Fun at the GMS Annual Conference 2012 – do you recognise anyone?

Contents

Editorial Norman Lowe 2 GMS 2012 Quarter 4 overview, Weeks 28 to 36 Angus Tyner 2 2012 in Scotland Heather Young 9 Puzzle Competition For Those Winter Days and Nights Richard Bigg 10 My Beautiful Year Len Britton 11 Annual Conference 2013 13 News from OPAL, including an offer of free moth kits Dave Grundy 14 Moth recording in the Teme Valley 2012 Danny Arnold 15 Tailpiece Norman Lowe 18

Editorial – Norman Lowe

Firstly, welcome to our two new area co-ordinators. Len Britton [email protected] has taken over from Chris Gibson as Area Co-ordinator for the East of England and Mike Cook at [email protected] takes over from Tom Tams in the North East of England. Thanks to both of them for taking on the roles and also to Chris and Tom for the work they’ve done in the past. And we have vacancies for other GMS roles – see my Tailpiece at the end.

Once more we have a very full newsletter with an amazing variety of content. As usual we have our regular features including an analysis of results for the past quarter from Angus Tyner. We also have some interesting descriptions of moth recording activities from Scotland, the East of England and from the Teme Valley. There’s the latest news from OPAL, including an offer of free moth kits. And on a lighter note we have a moth puzzle for you to while away the long cold nights when there aren’t many moths about. Finally, the autumn newsletter wouldn’t be complete without the invitation to our Annual Conference, being held this year on Sunday March 3rd 2013 from 11am to 4pm, at Antrobus Village Hall near Northwich in Cheshire. It’s a couple of miles off the M56 junction 10, which is the first junction west of junction 20 on the M6.

GMS 2012 Quarter 4 overview, Weeks 28 to 36 – Angus Tyner

Thanks very much for getting forms in and special thanks to the coordinators as well. I’ve have 312 forms for this summary, which is great. Once again, I’ve been caught short of time. I’d love to delve deeper into specific species, but I’ve produced the usual, which is the minimum I’ve set myself and still gives plenty to digest. The final quarter, weeks 28-36, covered September and October. The first 10 days of September were fine. Thereafter there wasn’t much cheer in regard to mothing weather. Both months had plenty of cool nights. It was generally the coolest September since 1994 and the coldest October since 2003 and in some areas 1993. With some exceptions, rainfall and sunshine were about average over the 2 months though at times many of us had quite wet and dull periods.

Numbers of moths throughout the year

It is not my intention to steal thunder from the Annual Report, but I’ve produced graphs for the whole season. These show average temperature, average moths per trap and number of empty traps.

You can see that the graphs show a spring peak in week 4 with very few empty traps. Weeks 6 to 12 were quite poor with cool weather and a peak in empty traps in week 10. Thereafter there was an improvement in the weather and number gradually increased to reach a reasonable level by week 16. There were 2 very good weeks in weeks 24 & 25 and then a big reduction; the last 2 weeks saw a dramatic rise in empty traps with more than half the traps empty.

How do the overall numbers in Q4 compare to previous years?

Back to concentrating on Q4, and overall, apart from the first week or 2 (weeks 28 &29), the weather was not conducive to recording high or even moderate numbers of numbers of moths. The graph shows a dramatic fall in the numbers recorded, down 38% on last year and showing more than 25% fewer numbers compared with 2009 & 2010.

Q4 Top 35 Table

The following table lists the 35 most abundant core species (common to the lists of all regions) and gives the % change versus the 2009-11 mean. As usual, Large Yellow Underwing is the most abundant moth in Q4, but it showed a decrease of 38%, which is the same percentage reduction as in Q3. The table is dominated by large percentage decreases of most of the exclusively autumnal species. There are rises, but mainly of non-autumnal

3 species and some of these may be due to delayed emergence. Straw Dot, Snout and Flame Shoulder showed a decline in Q3. Light Brown Apple Moth and Green Carpet seemed to have very good years and Brimstone Moth also showed a rise in Q3. But it is sorry reading to see drops of more than 50% and even greater than 80% with Yellow-line Quaker dropping to 30th from 8th in the table.

GMS 2012 4th Quarter – 312 Gardens (core species only) (2009-11 Mean per 2009-11 % increase Species (core list only) Total position) garden mean /decrease 1 (1) Large Yellow Underwing 7511 24 38.8 -38% 2 (2) Setaceous Hebrew Character 5172 16.5 23.2 -29% 3 (5) Light Brown Apple Moth 3842 12.3 10.8 14% 4 (4) Square-spot Rustic 3237 10.3 13.5 -24% 5 (6) Lesser Yellow Underwing 2871 9.2 9 1% 6 (7) Common Marbled Carpet 2619 8.4 7.7 9% 7 (3) Lunar Underwing 1938 6.2 17.1 -64% 8 (13) Silver Y 1557 5 4 23% 9 (23) Brimstone Moth 1181 3.8 2.4 56% 10 (22) Angle Shades 1019 3.3 2.5 29% 11 (26) Snout 929 3 2.3 32% 12 (21) Flounced Rustic 833 2.7 2.7 -2% 13 (10) Black Rustic 822 2.6 5.3 -51% 14 (36) Garden Carpet 700 2.2 1.3 69% 15 (19) Rosy Rustic 686 2.2 3 -27% 16 (11) Blair's Shoulder-knot 659 2.1 4.4 -52% 17 (25) Rusty-dot Pearl 649 2.1 2.3 -8% 18 (31) Garden Rose Tortrix 616 2 1.6 22% 19 (42) Green Carpet 589 1.9 1 80% 20 Copper Underwing agg. 561 1.8 #N/A #N/A 21 (17) November Moth agg. 544 1.7 3.1 -43% 22 (15) Red-green Carpet 540 1.7 3.4 -49% 23 (14) Vine's Rustic 459 1.5 3.7 -60% 24 (16) Green-brindled Crescent 433 1.4 3.2 -56% 25 (30) Willow Beauty 420 1.3 1.6 -17% 26 (9) Beaded Chestnut 394 1.3 5.5 -77% 27 (43) Light Emerald 352 1.1 1 15% 28 (44) Lesser Broad-bordered YU 345 1.1 0.9 17% 29 (46) Centre-barred Sallow 303 1 0.8 22% 30 (8) Yellow-line Quaker 299 1 5.9 -84% 31 (18) Red-line Quaker 295 0.9 3 -69% 32 (50) Straw Dot 284 0.9 0.7 31% 33 (12) Spruce Carpet 281 0.9 4 -78% 34 (41) Small Square-spot 275 0.9 1.1 -17% 35 (51) Flame Shoulder 258 0.8 0.6 32%

It was noticeable that of those species that dropped out of the table this year, many were specialist autumnal species. These included Sallow down 53%, Chestnut down 80%, Pink- barred Sallow down 63%, Feathered Thorn down 75% and Barred Sallow down 73%. Other

4 notable “losers” included Pale Mottled Willow down 75%, Common Wainscot down 85%, Shuttle-shaped Dart down 80% and Turnip Moth down 81%. I’m sounding like a sales advertisement but in reality it’s a sorry tale. For the table I’ve lumped Copper Underwing and Svensson’s Copper Underwing together, but I didn’t have these combined figures at hand for previous years.

Weeks 19-36 (quarter 3 & quarter 4) graphs

This series of graphs give the regional figures for average numbers per garden and total species recorded in each week in each region. I’ve split the 12 regions into 2, between those with 20+ gardens and those with less. The larger the number of gardens, the greater is the species diversity. Also some regions have larger species lists, so a direct comparison cannot be made between regions.

The apparent anomaly in week 28 in North East was due to a count of 396 Light Brown Apple Moths in one garden!

The next pair of graphs show the total number of species recorded in each week for each of the regions. In general the number of species increased up till about Week 24 after which there was a continual decline through to Week 36.

Abundance by region

The next table breaks down this top 35 into regional values. The figures represent the mean number of moths per garden and I’ve highlighted maximum numbers for a species in red and minimum in blue. The abbreviation for the regions are listed here.

NW North West England SC Scotland NE North East England IR Ireland YH Yorkshire & Humberside EE East England WA Wales WM West Midlands EM East Midlands SW South West England CI Channel Islands SE South East England NW SC NE IR YH EE WA WM EM SW CI SE No. of Gardens –Total 312 28 19 7 9 13 28 38 57 23 45 7 38 Large Yellow Underwing 24.0 11.7 44.1 9.2 20.0 38.4 11.9 12.8 19.0 20.6 53.1 33.6 Setaceous Hebr Character 5.9 0.0 0.7 11.7 8.4 51.6 7.7 7.2 13.0 25.6 37.0 19.5 Light Brown Apple Moth 13.4 1.2 81.6 16.8 6.5 6.0 4.9 10.2 10.0 7.5 26.4 15.0 Square-spot Rustic 5.4 15.6 8.7 15.0 2.7 10.5 5.4 6.0 9.2 10.8 35.0 16.2 Lesser Yellow Underwing 7.8 7.7 25.6 4.1 7.6 7.2 4.6 8.5 7.4 8.6 22.1 10.4 Common Marbled Carpet 11.6 4.3 8.0 11.0 5.2 2.6 12.2 7.3 3.0 9.3 4.0 4.9 Lunar Underwing 0.8 0.7 0.3 2.7 2.2 7.7 1.0 5.2 9.0 5.4 10.9 19.6 Silver Y 5.8 2.2 7.3 1.3 4.3 4.0 4.1 4.5 5.5 5.1 13.0 2.7 Brimstone Moth 1.9 0.1 0.4 2.3 0.3 2.6 4.5 5.0 2.9 5.8 13.6 2.4 Angle Shades 3.1 2.0 4.7 2.9 5.9 2.8 2.3 2.6 3.5 2.8 7.6 2.4 Snout 0.3 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.8 3.4 0.8 1.3 0.6 7.4 22.9 4.9 Flounced Rustic 0.4 0.1 1.1 0.1 0.8 3.8 2.2 2.8 1.2 2.5 8.1 6.4 Black Rustic 2.4 1.1 0.0 2.2 0.1 2.1 2.0 2.5 2.0 3.2 15.7 1.8 Garden Carpet 1.9 0.8 3.3 2.8 1.2 1.9 0.8 1.9 3.1 2.5 5.6 2.7 Rosy Rustic 1.8 7.3 7.3 3.9 2.4 0.3 3.3 1.3 0.6 1.6 3.3 0.3 Blair's Shoulder-knot 1.8 0.0 1.3 0.2 1.7 1.6 0.6 3.8 2.8 1.7 6.7 1.5 Rusty-dot Pearl 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.9 78.9 0.1 Garden Rose Tortrix 2.6 0.4 5.9 0.8 4.0 1.2 0.3 2.4 3.0 1.0 3.0 1.2 Green Carpet 1.5 0.0 0.0 2.2 3.6 1.5 1.0 2.7 3.2 2.1 1.1 0.5 Copper Underwing agg. 3.1 0.5 0.3 0.7 0.5 1.3 1.1 1.9 3.4 1.0 0.1 1.3 November Moth agg. 1.9 2.3 0.3 0.9 1.5 2.0 3.0 1.4 1.3 1.0 0.3 1.1 Red-green Carpet 2.6 1.7 1.4 1.9 0.8 0.5 1.4 1.9 0.6 1.0 0.1 2.2 Vine's Rustic 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.4 0.0 0.4 1.3 1.3 13.4 4.1 Green-brindled Crescent 0.6 1.3 0.6 0.7 2.7 1.4 2.2 1.7 0.7 1.0 1.0 1.1 Willow Beauty 1.1 0.1 2.6 0.8 0.8 1.0 0.3 0.9 1.4 1.2 7.4 2.3 Beaded Chestnut 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.1 4.1 2.8 0.3 0.8 1.3 1.5 7.3 1.2 Light Emerald 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.1 0.2 0.3 0.2 1.1 5.4 3.8 Lesser Broad-bordered YU 0.9 1.6 0.4 6.0 0.5 0.4 1.2 1.3 0.2 0.5 0.7 1.0 Centre-barred Sallow 0.5 1.2 1.0 0.3 2.5 1.0 1.1 0.6 1.8 0.6 0.0 1.0 Yellow-line Quaker 1.3 2.7 0.3 0.4 1.2 0.5 1.1 0.8 0.3 0.4 0.3 0.7 Red-line Quaker 1.1 0.6 0.3 0.7 1.8 0.4 1.6 0.7 0.7 0.6 1.4 0.7 Straw Dot 1.3 0.0 0.0 0.8 2.6 0.4 0.6 1.1 1.0 0.8 1.6 0.2 Spruce Carpet 0.5 1.1 1.0 2.0 0.5 0.4 3.6 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.3 Small Square-spot 0.3 0.1 0.4 1.3 0.1 0.1 1.8 0.2 0.1 1.3 6.3 1.3 Flame Shoulder 0.4 0.0 0.0 0.4 0.2 0.5 0.7 0.5 0.1 2.1 8.0 0.2

Regional top 10

The next table contains the regional top 10 including non-core species highlighted in blue.

North West Mean Scotland Mean North East Mean Large Yellow Underwing 24.0 Square-spot Rustic 15.6 Light Brown Apple Moth 81.6 Light Brown Apple Moth (9) 13.4 Small Wainscot 14.0 Large Yellow Underwing 44.1 Common Marbled Carpet 11.6 Large Yellow Underwing 11.7 Lesser Yellow Underwing 25.6 Lesser Yellow Underwing 7.8 Lesser Yellow Underwing 7.7 Square-spot Rustic (13) 8.7 Set Hebrew Character (2) 5.9 Rosy Rustic 7.3 Common Marbled Carpet 8.0 Silver Y 5.8 Autumnal Rustic (17) 5.0 Rosy Rustic 7.3 Square-spot Rustic 5.4 Common Marbled Carpet 4.3 Silver Y 7.3 Copper Underwing agg(16) 3.1 Yellow-line Quaker (3) 2.7 Garden Rose Tortrix 5.9 Angle Shades (19) 3.1 November Moth agg. 2.3 Angle Shades 4.7 Red-green Carpet 2.6 Silver Y 2.2 Udea lutealis (70) 4.1 Ireland Mean Yorkshire & Humber Mean East England Mean Light Brown Apple Moth(9) 16.8 Large Yellow Underwing 20.0 Set Hebrew Character (4) 51.6 Square-spot Rustic 15.0 Set Hebrew Character 8.4 Large Yellow Underwing 38.4 Set Hebrew Character (1) 11.7 Lesser Yellow Underwing 7.6 Square-spot Rustic 10.5 Common Marbled Carpet 11.0 Light Brown Apple Moth 6.5 Lunar Underwing 7.7 Large Yellow Underwing 9.2 Angle Shades 5.9 Lesser Yellow Underwing 7.2 Lesser BBYU 6.0 Common Marbled Carpet 5.2 Light Brown Apple Moth 6.0 Lesser Yellow Underwing 4.1 Silver Y 4.3 Silver Y 4.0 Rosy Rustic (3) 3.9 Beaded Chestnut (2) 4.1 Flounced Rustic 3.8 Angle Shades (22) 2.9 Garden Rose Tortrix 4.0 Snout 3.4 Garden Carpet (25) 2.8 Green Carpet 3.6 Vine's Rustic 3.4 Wales Mean West Midlands Mean East Midlands Mean Common Marbled Carpet 12.2 Large Yellow Underwing 12.8 Large Yellow Underwing 19.0 Large Yellow Underwing 11.9 Light Brown Apple Moth 10.2 Set Hebrew Character 13.0 Set Hebrew Character 7.7 Lesser Yellow Underwing 8.5 Light Brown Apple Moth 10.0 Square-spot Rustic 5.4 Common Marbled Carpet 7.3 Square-spot Rustic 9.2 Light Brown Apple Moth 4.9 Set Hebrew Character 7.2 Lunar Underwing 9.0 Lesser Yellow Underwing 4.6 Square-spot Rustic 6.0 Lesser Yellow Underwing 7.4 Brimstone Moth (22) 4.5 Lunar Underwing 5.2 Silver Y 5.5 Silver Y 4.1 Brimstone Moth 5.0 Angle Shades (38) 3.5 Spruce Carpet 3.6 Silver Y 4.5 Copper Underwing agg. 3.4 Rosy Rustic 3.3 Blair's Shoulder-knot 3.8 Green Carpet (29) 3.2 South West Mean Channel Islands Mean South East Mean Set Hebrew Character 26.2 Rusty-dot Pearl 78.9 Large Yellow Underwing 33.6 Large Yellow Underwing 21.0 Large Yellow Underwing 53.1 Lunar Underwing 19.6 Square-spot Rustic 11.1 Set Hebrew Character 37.0 Set Hebrew Character 19.5 Common Marbled Carpet 9.6 Crescent Dart 35.4 Square-spot Rustic 16.2 Lesser Yellow Underwing 8.8 Square-spot Rustic 35.0 Light Brown Apple Moth 15.0 Light Brown Apple Moth 7.6 Feathered Ranunculus 33.7 Lesser Yellow Underwing 10.4 Snout (19) 7.5 Light Brown Apple Moth 26.4 Flounced Rustic 6.4 Brimstone Moth 5.9 Snout (25) 22.9 Common Marbled Carpet 4.9 Lunar Underwing 5.5 Lesser Yellow Underwing 22.1 Snout (24) 4.9 Silver Y 5.2 L-album Wainscot 16.9 Vine's Rustic (4) 4.1

Some of the notable absentees from last year are Chestnut, which dropped from 7th to 34th in North West and 2nd to 37th in Scotland, Square-spot Rustic dropping from 3rd to 12th in Yorkshire and Humber, Yellow-line Quaker 7th to 23rd in Yorkshire and Humber, 5th to 26th in Wales and 9th to 36th In South East, Black Rustic down from 3rd to 16th in Wales, Beaded Chestnut from 8th to 31st in West Midlands, Common Wainscot from 8th to 35th in East Midlands and Lunar Underwing from 1st to 16th in Channel Islands. In many cases the actual drop in numbers may be more meaningful and the regional figures for most if not all these species can be found in last year’s Q4 newsletter.

Regional top 10

Finally, here is summary of how many regions each species made it into the top 10 with last year’s number in brackets. Black Rustic (5), Chestnut (2) & Green-brindled Crescent (2) miss out this year. Large Yellow Underwing 12 (12) Red-green Carpet 1 (0) Lesser Yellow Underwing 12 (10) Small Wainscot 1 (1) Light Brown Apple Moth 11 (8) Autumnal Rustic 1 (0) Square-spot Rustic 11 (11) Yellow-line Quaker 1 (5) Setaceous Hebrew Character 10 (10) November Moth agg. 1 (3) Silver Y 9 (4) Udea lutealis 1 (0) Common Marbled Carpet 9 (5) Lesser BBYU 1 (1) Angle Shades 5 (1) Garden Carpet 1 (1) Lunar Underwing 5 (8) Beaded Chestnut 1 (5) Rosy Rustic 4 (3) Spruce Carpet 1 (2) Snout 4 (0) Blair's Shoulder-knot 1 (4) Brimstone Moth 3 (0) Rusty-dot Pearl 1 (1) Copper Underwing agg. 2 (0) Crescent Dart 1 (1) Garden Rose Tortrix 2 (2) Feathered Ranunculus 1 (1) Green Carpet 2 (1) L-album Wainscot 1 (0) Flounced Rustic 2 (2) Vine's Rustic 2 (3)

2012 in Scotland - Heather Young

It has been a generally poor year for moths in Scotland, with the overall average number of individuals down by 24%. A mild winter was followed by a cold, wet summer and early onset of cold weather in the autumn over much of the country.

With 19 sets of results returned to date, preliminary analysis shows that Large Yellow Underwing has bounced back after a poor 2011 and taken over the Number One spot from Dark Arches which dropped back to third behind True Lover’s Knot (abundant enough in one garden in South Uist to keep it in the top three overall).

Species with overwintering adults, such as Satellite, Chestnut and Herald, did poorly, as did the common early spring species – Common Quaker, Clouded Drab and Hebrew Character. Summer moths mostly fared a little better, with a few exceptions such as Heart & Dart. Late season moths like the November moth group, Yellow-line Quaker and the autumn carpets all showed a decline in numbers over the previous two years.

As winter sets in here, I can think of many species I have seen in previous years that have failed to appear in my garden in 2012, particularly in the autumn – no Merveille du Jour, Feathered Thorn or December Moth for me – let’s hope 2013 brings a bumper harvest!

Many thanks to all the Scotland members who have already sent in their records – if you have completed the 2012 scheme and not yet sent them in please do so by the end of December for inclusion in the Annual Report.

Some of us are continuing to trap weekly throughout the winter, although so far it has not taken very long to tally the trap contents in my garden! I look forward to welcoming you all back in March for GMS 2013, and if you know anyone who may be interested in taking part next time, please encourage them to get in touch.

A Puzzle Competition For Those Wet And Windy Days and Nights - Richard Bigg

Here’s a puzzle for those readers who’d like something different over Christmas. The blanks in the letter below can be filled with the names of European moths or butterflies to make sense. There are 41 names in total. All lepidoptera are spelt correctly, but some liberties have been taken occasionally with other spellings!

Editor’s note I’ve tried this and got them all but two. Remember they are all vernacular, not scientific, names and are either the names of British moths or British/European butterflies. And some of the British ones aren’t exactly common, though all are on the British list. As Richard says, some liberties have been taken with spellings and you might cringe at one or two! The solution will be included in the Spring 2013 edition, so you have plenty of time to get it right. If all else fails, let me know and I might be able to give you the odd clue.

Dearest ------

Following my holiday in ------, - - - -er said I had a ------complexion and my ------’s ------ed by the sun had a ------. We spent much of our time on the ------ing about playing ------. - -ica, ------ed to start with, soon acquired a ------tan. Now back in T------ting the memories of ------r and die, it is back to the ------life. My first problem occurred when my ------ered out on the way to work. A ------came to my aid; his huge ------short work of the mass of cobwebs and leaves which ------ed the air intake. On my way again I had to take sharp avoiding action to miss an ------, and suffered her ------ella as a consequence. What a b------e that could have given me. Arriving in the office I attacked the ------pile of paper in the in-tray. The ------came over (my boss is trying to grow a beard!) as he ------my mind was not on the job. I explained that I was a ------following my break in the s- -. ------ly my mind was still on gorg------water and ------sand. By lunch time since I felt like a - - - - -, - -ica agreed to join me. ------ked how I was feeling back at work and evidently, like me, she had ------ely anything but dream of our holiday. What a black spot, what be- - - - -f our jolly mood of yesterday? However, raising ourselves out o------, - - -iously we planned to ------elong. Our thoughts showed I su- - - - -, - - - -ar intention of escaping the ------streets of the city and returning to the sun. We agreed we would in------l our savings booking a holiday, and this became our nex------. We pre- - - -ow perusing sun- - - - -verts and dreaming of ------esterdays to spending our evenings out.

All my love - - -ma

My Beautiful Year – Len Britton

Mother of Pearl – a micro-moth that most people can identify. Photo Len Britton

Well, having gone through 36 weeks of trapping and recording how was the year for you? Lower numbers than expected? Fewer species than normal? For me it was my best year ever, more species than ever before and highest numbers ever. However, perhaps I should explain that it was my very first recording year. Therefore I have been basking in the glory that I have had 86 species through my humble Southend back garden this year some that I thought I would never see when I bought my “Concise Guide to Moths”. Some have been spectacular such as the mimics of the calibre of Buff Tip though I have been equally delighted by much smaller moths, including the micro-moths Mother of Pearl and Pyrausta aurata. In fact I have been fascinated by everything.

I first became interested in moths in September 2010. Whilst on a golfing holiday in Northumberland I woke up one morning to find about twenty identical insects on the veranda of our lodge. I had never seen such an insect before, purple of eye and yellow of hue but unfortunately didn’t take a photograph. A couple of weeks later during a particularly dull day at work I surfed the internet to try and find this mystical creature. A couple of days and moth forums later I could firmly identify it as a Canary Shouldered Thorn. However so struck was I by this moth that I purchased a cheap Gooden light on EBay in 2011 and spent a few nights with it not catching a lot but still enjoying the “thrill of the hunt”. My best capture during this period was a Large Yellow Underwing. I knew it was something special when I saw the flash of orange coming to the light but thought initially that I had picked up the wrong moth when I had a brown moth in the tube! Little did I know that this was going to be a mainstay of my trappings during 2012. Next I made contact with a couple of “moth-ers” in my area and went on a trap event with them but whilst I was delighted with the beauty of a Brimstone or the quaintness of a Drinker this didn’t impress them much! They were too busy ticking off their lists “train collector” style and mumbling something about a prominent!

Latticed Heath – a day-flying moth so not on GMS lists. Photo Len Britton

In 2012 I and my Gooden joined GMS after an article I saw in “British Wildlife”. However after 3 weeks of recording the Gooden went to “moth light heaven” and I had to purchase a MV Skinner. My first five weeks were blank. Things slowly built up however but on 29 June

Bingo! I was visited by two Elephant Hawk Moths. I also quickly chalked up a Poplar Hawk and a Privet Hawk. However, just as satisfying were my trappings of moths such as the Buff Tip, Brimstone, Pyrausta aurata, Latticed Heath, Mother of Pearl and common moths such as Angle Shades. In fact everything was very exciting and new and I even had my first prominent. However, it was on 11 August I had my best ever find. For in amongst the egg boxes was a yellow insect with purple eyes, a Canary Shouldered Thorn, the moth that had started me off on this journey, in my back garden! This was too exciting for words and I felt somehow that I had come full circle.

During my first year Dr Chris Gibson (East of England Co-ordinator) helped me immensely with identification of moths. When Chris announced that he was thinking about stepping down as Co-ordinator (curiously during another golfing holiday of mine) I said that I would help in any way I could with GMS and in October I took over from him as EoE Co-ordinator. “Mothing” has become a family interest with my wife and mother and mother in law insisting on seeing the catches on Saturday mornings (however no one has yet actually volunteered to help me put the trap out in inclement weather!). I am looking forward to new adventures during the winter recording season (well one has to live in hope!) and to begin the whole thing once again in the summer!

Elephant Hawk. Photo Len Britton

Annual Conference 3rd March 2013 sponsored by MapMate

The GMS Annual Conference will be on Sunday March 3rd 2013 from 11am to 4pm, at Antrobus Village Hall near Northwich in Cheshire. Please book now if you want to come along by getting in touch direct with Dave Grundy at [email protected] or via your area coordinator as soon as possible.

Our conference will again be sponsored by MapMate and for this we are very grateful. If you don’t already know about MapMate and you are looking for a way of storing your moth records or any other wildlife data on your computer then give MapMate a try at www.mapmate.co.uk

Anglian Lepidopterist Supplies will again bring a stall to the event, selling moth traps etc. Please contact them beforehand if you want to order something special (remember that it will save you the postage if you collect it at the conference!). We will also have Atropos Books back again selling moth books and subscriptions to their excellent magazine - again order items in advance if you want anything special.

Because last year’s Annual Conference was held in Gloucestershire, we wanted to go further north for 2013, so that more northerly GMS-ers can get there more easily. The venue is a couple of miles off the M56 junction 10, which is the first junction west of junction 20 on the M6 but we will send directions to everyone who books, nearer the time. Feel free to bring friends and family too, but we will be limited to around 100 bookings for the hall.

Our main speaker this year will be Russel Hobson of Butterfly Conservation Wales who will talk about their moth work across Wales. Adam Bates from Birmingham University and OPAL will report on further findings from their research on the GMS database. Dave Grundy will give a general round-up of GMS results for 2012 and previous years. Charlie Fletcher from Yorkshire will use Yorkshire moths as examples to talk about why our moth populations fluctuate. And our final speaker will be Graham Jones the Lancashire County Macro-moth Recorder talking about the Moths of Lancashire. The Conference Programme can be found at the end of this newsletter.

For those of you who have been to previous GMS conferences then please note that unfortunately the home made food and snacks we enjoyed in the past won’t be available – it just got to be too much hard work for our army of volunteers (thanks again to Val Weston for all the brilliant work she did coordinating this over the years). So, although tea, coffee and biscuits will be available, you will need to bring your own packed lunch. We hope you will understand and that you will still be keen to come along.

For those who don’t make it to the GMS Annual Conference the GMS Annual Report for 2012 should be coming out in April 2013 and will include information from the 2012 round-up of all your results as heard at the Annual Conference.

News from OPAL, including an offer of free moth kits – Dave Grundy

I've just heard from Jon Sadler that OPAL is about to wind up as an organisation due to the end of its funding. OPAL has given us some fantastic support over the years, including the funding of leaflets, displays, ID guides and free beginner's moth kits. Also through them Birmingham University have done a lot of good research on our database. This research work will continue into the future and in particular another two serious scientific articles are being worked on now.

There is a small pot of money left in the OPAL budget which they propose to spend on GMS Beginners Moth Kits. This will be the third time and they have already given out 20 kits to recorders who wouldn't have been in GMS otherwise! This time they have enough money to sponsor 6 more kits, but I am afraid that I think the funding body that funds them say the money needs to be spent in England. If you have a particularly good cause outside England then get in touch and I will see if we can twist the rules slightly! This is aimed at people who are new to moth-trapping and to GMS, so anyone already in GMS or anyone who already has a moth trap should not apply. In order to keep hold of the moth kit they will need to

14 promise to carry out a full summer season of GMS recording in 2013. If they can't manage to complete the year's recording then they will need to hand back the kit and we will pass it on to someone who can, but if they do complete the year of recording then the kit becomes their property. The kit includes a field guide, pots and moth trap and people can choose a 125W MV Skinner trap or a 15W actinic trap - whichever they prefer. The 15W actinic trap is slightly cheaper, so it comes with a few more pots to make up the difference. All kits will be supplied direct from our sponsor, ALS.

So, do you know of anyone new that you can attract to GMS recording to record in the 2013 summer GMS scheme starting in March next year? If so then let me know who they are and where they are from. Kits will be given out partly on a first come first served basis, but also on the basis of greatest need for GMS (ie where we currently have the least moth trappers at the moment). I will put names down on a list and let you all know in due course who is to receive them. Finally, feel free to get back in touch if you don't understand any of this - or if you need more details.

Moth Recording in the Teme Valley 2012 - Danny Arnold, Teme Valley Wildlife Group

Birchfield is an 18 acre smallholding located in the Teme Valley in the NW corner of Worcestershire, and a place that I am fortunate enough to call home. Not used for making a living, and having lived here for 14 years, the small holding has become a personal mini wildlife reserve. Almost every night when I’m here throughout the year, I run at least one moth trap in a fixed location, which is supplemented at least once a week, by four further traps, in four other fixed locations, for nine months of the year, on GMS nights. So, having run typically circa 450 – 500 moth light traps per year for the past five years or so, I guess it could quite legitimately be termed, a “constant effort” site, at least, for moth data.

And the spectacular setting of the Teme Valley is proving to be one of Worcestershire’s moth ‘hot spots’, owing much to the exceptional quality and diversity of habitat found in the area. Much of the habitat is pristine, arising in part, from the difficulty in the terrain associated with farming the land. On the Valley floor and on the Valley sides, farmsteads and cottages tend to be isolated, fields small and often undulating, a legacy of moraines produced from the receding glaciers of the last ice age. This has tended to restrict arable crops in favour of livestock farming, typically sheep. As such, good hedges are required to contain livestock, which of course, makes for good connectivity corridors for all sorts of wildlife throughout the Valley.

With a good number of springs and water courses coming off the higher ground, dingles have been hewn into the Valley slopes at irregular intervals. These are often deep and relatively inaccessible places resulting in farms fencing off these areas in a bid to keep livestock out. Often left to their own devices, these dingles are relatively unmanaged and somewhat neglected tracts of land that evolve almost ad-hoc, further adding to the biodiversity found in the area. Over the years, they have become very important mini ecosystems in their own right, supporting a wide range of often, quite specialised, flora and fauna.

The ecology of dingles in the area is complex and scantily documented. They are unique in that they cover a full spectrum of changing habitat, turning from dried up gullies in the height of summer, to damp, mossy, shaded ravines, trickling with spring water, to raging torrents of water during a flash floods, carrying vast quantities of scouring silt laden water down into the waiting outflow on the River Teme below.

It is this tremendous diversity of habitat within the Teme Valley which, over the past five years or so, has produced almost 800 species of moth, including seven “first records for Worcestershire”. And indeed, every year sees new species added to the ever increasing area list that covers the predominantly SO66 Ordnance Survey tetrad.

The latest ‘first record for Worcestershire’ fell to newcomer Ken Willetts living on the Highwood at Eastham. Not even having completed his first ever year of moth trapping, his new “addiction” (his wife’s words, not mine!) to the world of moths had him sweep netting his garden flowers for even the smallest quarry. One such specimen caught his attention owing to its striking colouration. Ken forwarded me a photograph of the specimen which I presumed to be a possible new record for Worcestershire, 902 Chrysoclista lathamella. This was later confirmed as such by County Moth recorder, Tony Simpson.

902 Chrysoclista lathamella Photos : Ken Willetts

891 Mompha sturnipennella Photo : Danny Arnold

Other relative rarities turning up in the Teme Valley this year have been 887 Mompha lacteella, (confirmed by dissection) 463 Ypsolopha vittella and 1272 Pammene aurana all taken by Ken Willetts, confirmed Tony Simpson. Also, 469 Eidophasia messingiella, 891

Mompha sturnipennella, 280 Caloptilia cuculipennella and 515 Coleophora albitarsella have all turned up for the Author, all being confirmed by dissection. Also of note is the seemingly increasing occurrence of 289 Caloptilia falconipennella. Unknown in Worcs pre 2009, it is now appearing with increased regularity in the moth traps of the Teme Valley. The larva of this species is an Alder feeder, so again, with plenty of Alder in the Teme Valley, local habitat profile fits well with this species’ presence.

But even with these encouraging signs of hitherto non recorded moth species in the Teme Valley, on the moth front generally the summer of 2012 has been a poor one. Both moth numbers and species numbers recorded are down reflecting the general status nationally. Looking at the macro moth data from my site here at Birchfield over the summer months from the past five years, Graphs 1 and 2 below clearly outline just how poor a year it has been.

Graph 1 shows the number of spring and summer macro moth species trapped each month this year (2012), against the average number of species trapped over the past four years for the same monthly periods. This clearly shows a marked decline in the number of macro species being seen and recorded this year from the Teme Valley. For most months, macro species numbers recorded, would appear to be down around 50% per month, based on monthly average numbers over the previous four years. And if the figures are further drilled down into, but not shown here, there is even an apparent general downward trend almost every year, indicating this is a continuing trend with 2012 being the worst year in a set of five.

Graph 1

Similar occurrences are also apparent with macro moth numbers trapped as is seen from Graph 2. There is clearly a significant decline in the volume of moths around as seen from the perspective of the past five years. Obviously a five year period is only a tiny reflection of a much bigger picture, but underlying trends seem at this point undeniable. Lepidoptera populations are in trouble.

Graph 2

The inspiring rewards in effort of finding new species in the Teme Valley area, is somewhat contrasted by the downward trend in general species recorded and numbers. There are no easy answers or quick fixes to the issues. We believe we ‘manage’ our 18 acres with our sights set firmly on wildlife prosperity but, even with that focus, we appear to be falling short. Mini studies such as this, with concentrated monitoring and data production from a site such as this clearly helps to demonstrate trends in the Teme Valley area moth populations and may possibly reflect trends further afield on an even greater scale.

But the good news is, we are finding new species for the Teme Valley every year and in some cases, these are new species for the County. And as Chairman of the Teme Valley Wildlife Group and indeed as a holiday cottage owner (complete with on-site moth trap for visitors to use!), we are always interested in seeing moth records of visitors who come on holiday in the Teme Valley area. All the records generated, both by people who live in the area and by visitors, help to build the bigger picture as to the current status of the moths in our Valley.

Tailpiece – Norman Lowe

We are always looking out for volunteers to help with all aspects of GMS work, so please let me know if you’d like to help in any way. The big news is though that Dave Grundy has decided to step back from his role of overall co-ordinator and we are looking for someone to take this on. Please contact me at [email protected] if you’d like to take this on or would like more information on what it would entail.

And as usual, do let me know if you’ve found this newsletter interesting or have any views on anything. And remember to send your records for Weeks 1 to 36 to your Area Co-ordinator as soon as possible and in any case by the end of December. Otherwise all the hard work you’ve put in won’t be recorded in the GMS scheme.

Happy Christmas and a joyful New Year to you.

Garden Moth Scheme Annual Conference 2013