GMS News weeks 1-9, 2010

GMS NEWS Weeks 1-9 Late Winter/Spring 2010

Contents

“So what’s new for Spring 2010 – Dave Grundy pp. 2-8 First quarter in Scotland – Heather Young pp. 8-9 East Midlands Overview – Roger Freestone pp. 10-12 South-east Round-up – Malcolm Bridge p. 12 Yorkshire’s Flying Carpets part one – David Baker pp 13-14 Emperor – Steve Whitehouse ( Birdguides ) pp. 15-16 Yellow-line Quaker p. 17 Short pieces by Steve Priestley and Dave Grundy – pp. 17-19 Adverts for Atropos and Focus Optics – pp. 20-21

Photo of Herald moth by Tom Tams

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So, What’s the News from Spring 2010? - Dave Grundy

Clouded Drab – numbers recorded almost doubled from 2009 to 2010!

We’ve had records back from an excellent total of 261 gardens to date – well done to everyone who sent them in. This is a small increase on the 257 gardens that returned records this time last year. We knew that the GMS couldn’t continue to increase exponentially every year continuously, so this is a very healthy stabilisation of records with a small increase. Reports to the GMS chatsite for March suggested a continuation of the very cold winter and in very low numbers or in the case of my Birmingham backyard scoring no moths at all for the first time in 8 years of GMS! But, then things improved in April with reports of record catches of Chestnut moths in Scotland and good numbers of Orthosias (Quakers and Hebrew Character). However, were these just making up for the lack of moths in March? So, let’s have a look at the GMS statistics to see which was true for GMS gardens. We will start as usual by looking at the top 30 commonest species in 2010 across GMS gardens:

Britain & Ireland Spring GMS Totals Top Thirty Species Name Total Moths Average / Average / Comments Position 2010 garden 2010 garden 2009 1 Hebrew Character 13566 51.98 32.49 2 Common Quaker 10752 41.20 30.61 3 Small Quaker 6219 23.83 16.57 4 Clouded Drab 4730 18.12 9.47 5 Early Grey 1782 6.83 6.13

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6 Twin-spotted Quaker 1041 3.99 2.46 7 Chestnut 908 3.48 1.23 8 Red Chestnut 399 3.00 1.09 133 gdns 9 March Moth 546 2.09 1.50 10 Early Thorn 413 1.58 2.76 11 Brindled Beauty 392 1.50 1.52 12 Beauty 383 1.47 1.83 13 Dotted Border 345 1.32 0.69 14 Powdered Quaker 329 1.26 0.65 15 Emmelina monodactyla 64 1.08 1.57 59 gdns 16 Double-striped Pug 270 1.03 1.10 17 Satellite 261 1.00 0.44 18 Shoulder Stripe 215 0.82 0.83 19 Shuttle-shaped Dart 125 0.48 0.93 20 Muslin Moth 119 0.46 0.90 21 Streamer 104 0.40 0.97 22 Twenty-plume Moth 96 0.37 0.44 23 Nut- Tussock 44 0.32 0.93 137 gdns 24 Grey Shoulder-knot 70 0.27 0.25 25 Flame Shoulder 67 0.26 0.89 26 Brimstone Moth 62 0.24 0.89 27 Light Brown Apple Moth 57 0.22 0.43 28 Lunar Marbled Brown 50 0.19 0.25 29 Dark Chestnut 49 0.19 0.09 30 Herald 42 0.16 0.15

Nothing 350 1.34 1.00 (The Comments column shows species that are not on the recording form for all GMS areas and the number of gardens that their average is measured from – so Red Chestnut records are only from a smaller sample of 133 gardens, Emmelina monodactyla from 59 gardens and Nut-tree Tussock from 137 gardens. Figures for 2009 are shown for comparison and for ease of reading, species declining form 2009 to 2010 are shown in red in the 2010 column)

Interestingly there were exactly 15 species that increased from 2009 to 2010 and 15 that decreased, so does that mean that figures are on average the same? The actual picture is more complicated than that.

In 2009 the average garden recorded no moths at all for exactly one of the nine weeks. This rate increased in 2010 to 1.34 weeks on average, with most of this increase being due to the cold March with empty traps in some gardens for some weeks. So based on this figure we can probably say that 2010 spring was slightly worse for GMS gardens than 2009. 2010 figures were very similar to 2008 when we recorded an average of 1.35 empty traps.

Among GMS gardens we had the complete range from those recording some moths every week to those recording none throughout the 9 weeks. It was probably frustrating for our inner city Glasgow recorder who traps from a block of flats and

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recorded no moths for the second year running. But his records are vital to the science of understanding where and why moths fly, by showing us where they are not flying!

The commonest moth we recorded was Hebrew Character for the third year running, with an increase to a total of 13,566 moths seen and an average of 51.98 per garden over the 9 weeks. The average per garden shows a big increase on 2009, which was also a big increase on 2008 (when the average was only 20.06).

The ‘Spring Big 5’ were again the commonest species across our gardens, these are Hebrew Character, Common Quaker, Small Quaker, Clouded Drab and Early Grey. The first three species are usually by far the commonest, but in 2010 Clouded Drab wasn’t far behind. All of the ‘Big 5’ increased well in 2010, with Early Grey having the smallest increase.

What is the picture behind the 15 increasing species then? There are some interesting patterns. Our top 9 species all increased while species lower in the table mostly decreased. The ‘Spring Big 5’ increased and their noctuid close relatives also did. So, Powdered and Twin-spot Quaker also increased, as did Grey Shoulder-knot. While Chestnut, Dark Chestnut and Satellite all had good increases. The only other species to increase were Red Chestnut, Herald and only two Geometrids; March Moth and Dotted Border.

Powdered Quaker - numbers recorded almost doubled from 2009 to 2010!

The declining species were mostly Geometrid and micro-species. Noticeable among these were late spring species such as Muslin, Brindled Beauty, Shuttle-shaped Dart, Nut-tree Tussock, Flame Shoulder, Brimstone and Lunar Marbled Brown. All of these species should feature in our next round-up for GMS early summer. So the true

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picture for these seven species is probably that they are emerging later in 2010 rather than showing an actual decline. We will have to wait for more statistics as the year progresses to find out the true position for them.

A more accurate comparison of spring 2009 and 2010 for GMS gardens suggests that of the top 30; 15 species increased, 8 species decreased and 7 species were probably later emerging due to a cold winter. Therefore we can probably say that 2010 was a good spring for garden moths and especially so for the ‘Spring Big 5’!

What is the longer term picture for the ‘Spring Big 5’, using statistics for West Midlands gardens for the last seven years (2004 to 2010)? (Unfortunately we don’t have enough data yet to make these comparisons for other parts of Britain and Ireland). A comparison of fortunes is shown in the graph below:

70.00

60.00

50.00

40.00

30.00 Average moths per garden

20.00

10.00

0.00 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Year

In the graph above; Hebrew Character is shown in red, Common Quaker in black, Small Quaker in yellow, Clouded Drab in blue and Early Grey in green.

The graph shows that all five species are moving roughly in parallel between years and therefore it is likely that similar factors are affecting population fluctuations. Are these mostly climatic? Summarising, 2007 and 2009 were good years and 2008 was a poor year. Compared with these, 2010 was an exceptionally good year and especially so for Hebrew Character, Common Quaker and Clouded Drab. Small Quaker, which has a different more southerly national distribution was affected less dramatically by spring 2010. Early Grey appears to have shown less dramatic fluctuations throughout. Of course the statistics in the graph above are only for 7 years, so a longer series of data is required to make a better assessment of population cycles – maybe 15 to 20 years of data. It will be exciting to see how this pattern develops over time and as we bring in statistics from other parts of Britain and Ireland.

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So, Which are the Commonest Ten Species in each GMS area?

Top 10 GMS Species for All Areas – Spring 2010 (a) Channel Isles (5) South West (51) South East (34) Ireland (8) Species Avge./ Species Avge./ Species Avge./ Species Avge./ garden garden garden garden 1 C Quaker 40.60 H Character 50.37 S Quaker 91.44 H Character 106.38 2 H Character 17.60 C Quaker 33.25 C Quaker 65.00 C Quaker 57.63 3 Early Grey 12.60 S Quaker 13.69 H Character 41.97 C Drab 57.25 4 C Drab 5.20 C Drab 7.53 C Drab 13.63 March Moth 13.75 5 Brown H’se 3.80 Early Grey 6.90 T-s Quaker 5.88 Early Grey 11.13 6 Early Thorn 3.60 T-s Quaker 3.22 Early Grey 5.56 T-s Quaker 10.25 7 D-s Pug 3.00 Chestnut 1.59 Chestnut 3.31 P Quaker 3.50 8 Waved Umb 2.00 Red Chestnut 1.53 Satellite 1.59 Early Thorn 2.63 9 Twenty- 1.60 March Moth 1.45 Emmelina 1.50 Oak Beauty 2.50 Plume monodactyla 10= S-s Dart 1.40 Early Thorn 1.37 Oak Beauty 1.38 Dotted 2.38 Border 10= T-s Quaker 1.40 Oak Beauty 1.37 Nothing 0.60 Nothing 1.39 Nothing 1.41 Nothing 0.88

Top 10 GMS Species for All Areas – Spring 2010 (b) Wales (29) West Mids (38) East Midlands (18) East England (25) Species Avge./ Species Avge./ Species Avge./ Species Avge./ garden garden garden garden 1 H Character 70.69 H Character 62.13 C Quaker 27.17 C Quaker 35.64 2 C Quaker 45.52 C Quaker 44.61 H Character 24.17 H Character 35.28 3 C Drab 32.55 S Quaker 21.03 C Drab 14.22 S Quaker 31.68 4 S Quaker 18.41 C Drab 17.16 Early Grey 7.50 C Drab 17.48 5 Early Grey 11.93 Early Grey 6.89 S Quaker 4.11 Early Grey 6.04 6 T-s Quaker 7.69 Chestnut 4.39 D-s Pug 1.39 T-s Quaker 3.52 7 Brindled B 7.14 T-s Quaker 3.74 Early Thorn 1.00 Chestnut 2.44 8 Chestnut 6.52 Early Thorn 2.84 Chestnut 0.89 March Moth 1.88 9 Mott. Grey 4.38 March Moth 1.97 March Moth 0.83 P Quaker 1.40 10 Dotted 4.14 Brindled B 1.79 Dotted 0.72 Oak Beauty 1.28 Border Border

Nothing 0.52 Nothing 1.39 Nothing 1.44 Nothing 1.32

Top 10 GMS Species for All Areas – Spring 2010 (c) North West (21) Yorkshire (8) North East (9) Scotland (15) Species Avge./ Species Avge./ Species Avge./ Species Avge./ garden garden garden garden 1 H Character 63.67 H Character 33.25 H Character 63.00 H Character 54.47 2 C Quaker 44.24 C Quaker 13.63 C Quaker 41.00 C Quaker 34.00 3 C Drab 22.52 C Drab 11.13 C Drab 28.44 C Drab 21.27 4 S Quaker 14.67 Early Grey 5.13 Early Grey 3.78 Chestnut 10.67 5 R Chestnut 7.33 S Quaker 2.38 D-s Pug 3.56 Early T-stri 3.07

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6 Early Grey 5.00 P Quaker 2.00 R Chestnut 3.00 Yellow 2.60 Horned 7 Chestnut 3.95 Chestnut 1.88 S Quaker 2.67 T-s Quaker 2.60 8 T-s Quaker 3.43 Early Thorn 0.88 T-s Quaker 2.56 Satellite 2.33 9 Early Thorn 2.57 R Chestnut 0.88 Twenty Plu 2.00 S Quaker 2.00 10 March Moth 2.29 Twenty Plu 0.75 Chestnut 1.89 Early Grey 1.73

Nothing 1.57 Nothing 2.25 Nothing 2.00 Nothing 1.87 (The figure in brackets is the number of gardens for that area, eg. 34 gardens sent in records for SE England)

March Moth did well in Ireland, Chestnut did well in Scotland

For most areas the top ten species are roughly the same as for the national statistics, but there are interesting variations. The Channel Isles was the only area to have Brown House-moth in the top 10. The SW probably didn’t have any surprises in the top 10, but interestingly had over 50% of Flame Shoulders and nearly 50% of Muslin records (these are both late spring species and probably emerge earlier in the SW than elsewhere). The SE had Small Quaker at number one unlike all other areas and in fact nearly 50% of all Small Quaker records were from the SE. Ireland had Clouded Drab and March Moth higher than for other areas with Clouded Drab nearly snatching second place. Wales probably had the most differences from other areas. Why is this? Mottled Grey was in the top 10 unlike any other areas. Over 50% of all Brindled Beauty records were from Wales and over 33% of all Dotted Borders. Interestingly although outside the top 10, Wales had a very large proportion of the national GMS figures for Oak Beauty, Shoulder Stripe and Streamer (over 25% for all of them). The West Midlands scored over 25% of all Early Thorn records for GMS while Scotland had the highest position for the Chestnut at number 4.

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Shoulder Stripe & Streamer – nearly 50% of all records from Wales

The records for nothing in the trap are interesting to see with Wales and the Channel Isles recording the lowest number of empty traps again, while Scotland, North East and Yorkshire scored the highest number of empty traps as they are further north and east. So, well done to everyone in recording so many moths for us to study. On balance we can probably say that spring 2010 was a better year for GMS gardens than 2009 and definitely better than 2008. The Spring Big 5 and related noctuid species in particular did well with record numbers for the 7 years of the GMS records so far. While late spring species appeared to be late emerging. What will happen with our early summer records – will a cold May be reflected in our early summer records, or will the late May heatwave make up for it and will we get a warm June to increase numbers?

First quarter in Scotland.

Heather Young - GMS co-ordinator, Scotland.

15 sets of Q1 results were returned north of the border, the same number as last year, but not exactly the same gardens. 37 GMS species featured this time, compared to 35 in 2009; 2 were not on the 2009 list (Streamer and Lunar Marbled Brown); 5 were recorded that were not seen during the same time period last year (Small Phoenix, Nut-tree Tussock, Dark Chestnut, Purple Thorn and Scalloped ); and 5 were seen in 2009, but not found on GMS nights this year (White-shouldered House-moth, Red-green Carpet, Autumn Green Carpet, Lesser Swallow Prominent and Angle- Shades). Red-green Carpet was widely recorded in 2009 (ranked 15 in the abundance chart), so perhaps the harsh weather affected the overwintering females rather badly.

The top five species were the same as in 2009, with the Orthosia species dominating proceedings as expected. The Chestnut seems to have enjoyed the severe winter, displacing Early Tooth-striped at Number 4, as did the Satellite, jumping up from 14 to Number 8. Red Chestnut and Brindled Pug drop out of the top ten, making way for the Satellite and Early

The Streamer – a welcome addition to the 8 Scottish list © Ramsay Young GMS News weeks 1-9, 2010

Grey – pugs seem late this year, so Q2 results may paint a different picture.

Average no. per Average no. per Rank in Q1 2009 Species garden Q1 2010 garden Q1 2009 Hebrew Character 54.47 47.47 1 Common Quaker 34.00 42.80 2 Clouded Drab 21.27 15.27 3 Chestnut 10.67 4.87 5 Early Tooth-striped 3.07 7.80 4 Yellow Horned 2.60 2.60 9 Twin-spotted Quaker 2.60 2.80 7 Satellite 2.33 1.07 14 Small Quaker 2.00 2.07 10 Early Grey 1.73 0.53 19

Most people recorded more moths in Q1 this year than last, but the overall average is about the same (145), mainly because our two Killiecrankie contributors, Lewis and John, had far fewer – John assures me it is merely down to a run of poor Fridays, and moths are still plentiful up there. Scott in Glasgow, however, has again failed to score in the first 9 weeks, although he does report, in common with Richard (also in Glasgow), good numbers of clothes moths! Interesting non-GMS species recorded include Scarce Prominent and Lead-coloured Drab for Lewis, and a Chamomile Shark for Anne-Marie in Anstruther (this species has a rather restricted distribution in Scotland, favouring the East coast).

The prize for this quarter though goes to Don in Minishant for a VC75 ‘first’ with his Caloptilia stigmatella, which must also have managed to survive the winter? I stand to be corrected, and there’s also no actual prize, other than this mention in dispatches!

Finally, a warm welcome to those new to GMS in Scotland and elsewhere, and I hope you enjoy the experience and stick with us through 2010 and beyond.

Keep trapping everyone, and let’s see what turns up in Quarter 2.

Heather Young GMS co-ordinator, Scotland.

Caloptilia stigmatella, a leaf miner on sallows, and poplars © Don Smith

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East Midlands Overview

Roger Freestone, East Midlands GMS Co-ordinator

First of all welcome to the new recorders from the East Midlands who have joined GMS. We now have a total of 26 recorders who have received recording forms for 2010. This is three up on 2009. The split of recorders is shown in Figure 1. Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire are well represented but the other VCs are not so well represented.

Figure 1: Distribution of East Midlands Recorders 2009

Summary of East Midlands Results for Weeks 1 to 9 18 recorders have returned their forms for Weeks 1 to 9 compared to 17 received in 2009- thanks to all! From looking at the data received so far there are some interesting aspects in comparison to the equivalent period in 2009. • The average moth recorded per garden are almost double that of 2009. • Conversely more species were recorded in 2009 than in 2010.

2009 2010 No. Recorders 17 18 No. Moths 826 1591 Ave Moths per Garden 48.6 88.4 No. Species Recorded 48 38 Max Species/Garden 18 17 Min Species/Garden 4 6

Table 1: Summary of Q1 Records

• The total number of “orthosias” recorded in 2010 is over twice the number recorded in 2009 and accounts for the overall difference between the 2009 and 2010 moth record totals. (See Table 2 below): o Over four-fold increase in Small Quaker numbers. o Three-fold increase in Clouded Drab numbers. o Over a two-fold increase in Common Quakers recorded

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2009 Ave/Garden 2010 Ave/Garden % Increase Common Quaker 206 12.1 489 27.2 124% Hebrew Character 248 14.6 435 24.2 66% Clouded Drab 83 4.9 252 14.0 187% Small Quaker 15 0.9 74 4.1 366% Twin-spotted Quaker 8 0.5 11 0.6 30% Powdered Quaker 4 0.2 4 0.2 -6% Total 564 33.2 1265 70.3 112%

Table 2: Comparison of Orthosia Species Recorded

Table 3 shows the comparison of the Top Ten species for Q1 for 2010 and 2009. Records of Double-striped Pug at 25 have dramatically increased in 2010 Q1 compared to only 3 recorded in 2009 (recorded in 7 gardens). Dotted Border was also considerably higher than 2009 (13 compared to 2) and was recorded in 6 gardens.

Double-striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata)

Can we assume the increases in the number of orthosia species, Dotted Border and Double-striped Pug are a direct result of the harsh winter and cold start to the year? It is difficult to compare just two data sets but it will be interesting to see if the overall picture reflects similar changes.

Position 2010 No. 2009 No. 1 Common Quaker 486 Hebrew Character 248 2 Hebrew Character 415 Common Quaker 206 3 Clouded Drab 246 Early Grey 105 4 Early Grey 135 Clouded Drab 83 5 Small Quaker 70 Early Thorn 18 6 Double-striped Pug 25 Small Quaker 15 7 Early Thorn 16 Shuttle-shaped Dart 14 8 Chestnut 16 March Moth 12 9 March Moth 14 Muslin Moth 12 10 Dotted Border 13 Light Brown Apple Moth 9 Table 3: Comparison of Top Ten Species

East Midlands “Golden Gardens” Pamela Carter’s garden in Stamford (VC53) recorded the most moths for Weeks 1 to 9 at 289; Pamela’s garden consistently returns high numbers.

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Dave McGeever of Ravenshead (VC56), a recent recruit to GMS recorded the most species with a count of 17.

I would like to thank all recorders who returned their records so promptly.

Roger Freestone, East Midlands GMS Co-ordinator [email protected]

South-east round-up Malcolm Bridge 2010 weeks 1-9 First XI

Moth Total Av. per garden Position Small Quaker 2529 84.30 1st Common Quaker 1655 55.17 2nd Hebrew Character 1120 34.00 3rd Clouded Drab 336 11.20 4th Twin-spotted Quaker 163 5.43 5th Early Grey 143 4.77 6th Chestnut 67 2.23 7th Common Plume 46 1.53 8th Satellite 40 1.33 9th Double-striped Pug 33 1.10 10th Oak Beauty 31 1.03 11th

Dave Grundy wrote in the GMS News for weeks 1-9 2009 that “The ‘Spring Big 5’ were again the commonest species across our gardens; these are Hebrew Character, Common Quaker, Small Quaker, Clouded Drab and Early Grey. The first three species are by far the commonest. Occasionally Twin-spotted Quaker can be nearly common enough to qualify in a ‘Spring Big 6’, but it was a long way behind in 2009. Early Thorn had an excellent spring moving up from an average of 1.26 per garden to 2.76 per garden.” This national pattern was closely followed in the South-east region in 2010 although Early Thorn’s total of 29 yielded a garden average of less than one ( 0.97 ) Two thirds of the huge Small Quaker total was achieved by just three gardens with a garden in Tenterden, Kent ( H & M Newman ) posting a count of 979 Small Quakers. Two Surrey gardens completed this trio with Paul Wheeler counting 399 Small Quakers in his Chobham garden and Rosalind Hutchinson 312 in her Cobham garden. For those of you unfamiliar with Surrey’s geography, Chobham is part of the West Surrey heathlands and adjacent to Chobham Common NNR whilst Cobham, on London Clay, is where Chelsea AFC train and, in several cases live.

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YORKSHIRE’S FLYING CARPETS – part one

David Baker

This is no flight of fancy! There are 44 British species of moth carrying the name ”Carpet”, 32 of them are on the Yorkshire list and I have been fortunate enough to have found 20 in my own moth trap over the last eleven years. But why “Carpets”? Was it thought that their larvae caused damage to carpets in a similar way to clothes moths or is it that the wing markings resembled the patterns on the brightly coloured carpets being brought into the country in the eighteenth century? I prefer the second version. However, I can find no reference to this fact in any of my books on the subject. The earliest written reference to “Carpet” I can find is in 1894 and even though paintings of 1762 illustrate the moths by their vernacular names the texts have now been so modernised that any possible previous written references are removed.

The most likely find around the home and garden would be the Garden Carpet. It rests on garden walls and fences almost anytime between mid-April and October and there can be three overlapping generations in this species. A small greyish and black moth does not sound colourful, but surely even this most common of moths is a good-looker!

Garden Carpet Common Carpet 2 more widespread moths with long flight periods are the Common and Silver- ground Carpets. Both are regular day-fliers and can be disturbed from their resting places in rough vegetation and woodland scrub on bright days from May to August. Both appear similarly light coloured when flushed, but with care they can be followed to a new resting place and identified. They are also regular visitors to my garden moth-trap throughout the summer months.

Silver-ground Carpet Blue-bordered Carpet

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The attractively well-named Blue-bordered Carpet is more elusive, it being a moth of damper woodlands with a particular liking for red campion, but it also is attracted to light and is a welcome garden visitor most years, although I have only caught it over a short 5 week period late June through July.

Common Marbled Carpet Common Marbled Carpet

From my records the Common Marbled Carpet has probably the longest overlapping flight period of all the carpets but this is discounting the odd ones which hibernate during the winter. Its most usual form with me has a large expanse of light brown scales on each wing, although I do catch good numbers of the darker version as shown alongside the open-patched one. The adult flies in early summer (from mid- May), with a second generation in early autumn. My latest being mid October. It is attracted to bright lighting and settles on walls, windows and fences. I had hoped to catch the very similar Dark Marbled Carpet at home but have not yet found one I can be clearly confident in identification. However, last summer on a field trip this striking cryptic example (below left) was photographed on a large lichen-covered rock in the Yorkshire Dales.

To be continued David Baker

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The piece below, written by Steve Whitehouse ( photos by Patrick Clement ) is taken from the Birdguides website with the author’s kind permission. This website presents an excellent series of moth pieces throughout the year.

The spectacular Emperor Moth is Britain's only resident member of the Saturniidae family. Only some of the Hawk-moths are larger in size and the Emperor's markings give it an almost tropical appearance. It is reasonably common over much of Britain, occupying moorland, heathland and open country. Sexual dimorphism is great within this species: the males have bright orange hindwings and fly during the daytime in search of the greyer and slightly larger females, which only fly at night. Both sexes possess single large 'eye spots' on each wing and are on the wing in April and May. The fully grown caterpillar is green with black hoops containing yellow wart- like spots, and feeds on a variety of such as Blackthorn, , Bramble, Hawthorn, heathers and sallows. Some of the earlier instar stages of the larvae are dark with deep orange markings. Adult females will come to light, especially MV, so planning a moth-trapping session on a larger section of heath near you on a calm, moderately warm night from mid-April may yield results. A female was trapped at Kinver Edge NT, Staffordshire, last Saturday (10th April), so they are already on the wing. Mated females sometimes lay eggs on the cardboard egg trays soon after arriving in the trap, which is usually not long after dusk. These eggs can, if you have the desire and patience, be kept in a dry place, still attached to the egg tray until they hatch. The small caterpillars can then be placed into a specifically constructed breeding cage, an empty aquarium or large closed plastic container and fed through on any of the recognised foodplants. The larvae will feed up between late May and August, and a constant supply of fresh slightly dampened foodplant is needed; they also need to be cleaned out regularly. Substantial static material must be in place when they are getting large, both for support and to enable them to pupate in their woven cocoon on the stems, near the base of a plant above the ground level. The following spring, adults will emerge during April or May depending on the temperature at which you have stored the pupae.

Patrick Clement

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The adults should be released at the place of capture, which will hopefully more than compensate for the eggs being laid in the 'wrong place' the year before.

It is also possible to survey other habitats nearby where perhaps Emperor Moths have not been previously been recorded. If, when your adults are emerging, you quickly separate a virgin female from any of the males, she can be used as a lure to see if males are present on another site. To do this the female needs to be placed on her own, in an assembling cage. You can either make one yourself using small plastic hoops for the frame and fine netting or gauze for the cover. Patrick Clement got lucky in Halesowen, West Midlands and spotted exactly what was required in a local 'pound shop'. Finally all you need is a warm, fairly calm and sunny day at some potential habitat in your area and off you go. Afternoon is best and the method is simply hanging the assembling cage, with the female inside, about a metre off the ground, near gorse or heather and wait. If there are any males in the vicinity, they will soon sense the female pheromone and fly to and hopefully land on the outside of the cage. To be fair, it is best to release the female near where you obtained the original breeding stock. Males fly very rapidly and it is best not to try and net them in flight as you may damage the .

The author, Mike Southall and the Rev. John Cox holding assembling cage (Photo: Patrick Clement)

During the last month many moth enthusiasts have recorded seeing good numbers of Orange Underwing moths in flight around on commons and heaths right across the UK. Some lucky people have reported seeing them land on bracken and

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even the ground. They appear to have had a good season despite the wet days in late March and early April.

Steve Whitehouse Friday 16th April 2010

The information in this article was believed correct at the time of writing. BirdGuides Ltd accepts no responsibility for errors, or for any consequences of acting on information in the article. The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily shared by BirdGuides Ltd.

Yellow-line Quaker – that well known autumn flying species?

According to Waring, Townsend & Lewington, Yellow-line Quaker in Britain and Ireland flies in September to November with feeding in April to June on various woody species in woodland, heaths and hedgerows etc. However recent verified records from GMS participants Peter and Pauline Heathcote at Gravesend in Kent and Alan Mullis at West Bergholt, Essex have recorded Yellow-line Quaker in GMS moth traps in March and April in the last two years. This may be part of a pattern of spring records starting for this species in the south and east of England. Will global warming lead to it occurring in spring in other parts of Britain further north and west, or will this habit start to happen for other autumn-flying species? Only time will tell about what will happen here, but GMS recording will definitely help us to find out. It is your records that are helping us to push back the frontiers of science in this way!

Discipline - Steve Priestley

I have put away my whips and bondage gear and now discipline myself with regular GMS moth trapping. I only developed an interest in moths last summer and started trapping in August. I didn't have the iron will to trap during the winter but since the

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beginning of March I have put out my trap every Friday, come rain or moonlight. None of the "oh it's cold tonight" or "it looks like heavy rain" - get out there and do it. My old dad would have been proud of me. It's the discipline you see - good for the soul. Now this is where Dave is my ideal role model. Every week I read that "oh it was a poor night last night - only 100 moths". Yikes - if I see 100 moths it's only when I close my eyes. When Dave shows us his trapping area and tells of his meagre returns I say thank you Dave for the discipline you show to do it and it encourages me to go and do it too. Now where's my hair shirt?

GMS AGM sponsored by Mapmate – 2011 Dave Grundy

I know that it feels that it’s a long way away, but you need to now make a note in your diaries for GMS AGM 2011. If you’ve ever been to an AGM before then you will not be able to stay away and if you haven’t been before then make sure you book for next year. It will be on Sunday 6th March 2011 and we are hoping to be at a venue in Leicestershire (to be arranged). So make sure you’ve booked the date in your diary. Excellent speakers, excellent stalls and excellent catering by GMS volunteers. And a new departure for 2011 is that the event will be sponsored by Mapmate. If you want a system to record all your moth records on your computer then try using Mapmate www.mapmate.co.uk

GMS Moth Tips 1 & 2

Thanks to a collaboration with Birmingham University and OPAL, GMS has started producing a series of training leaflets aimed at helping GMS recorders. In due course all of these training leaflets will be available to you all electronically via the GMS website. GMS Moth Tips 1 is a guide to choice of moth traps, field guides, pots and websites that you need to get started in looking at moths. GMS Moth Tips 2 is a guide to identification of the macro-moth families found in Britain and Ireland. These two leaflets have now been completed and will be widely available very soon. The series of GMS Moth Tips leaflets will continue into the future. Next in the series will be to concentrate on how to identify problem species pairs that you find in your back gardens. So, if you can think of species pairs or groups that you would like help with then get back to the newsletter editors and let us know your suggestions for problem groups.

GMS – Help Required

As you all know the GMS is a recording scheme for volunteer recorders to trap in their own back gardens and record valuable data about our common moth species. The GMS has no paid staff and relies on volunteers to coordinate all the work. All of this coordination has been split into areas of Britain and Ireland to organise recording on a regional or country basis. This sharing of the work has enabled a smooth coordination of our scheme. The fact that the GMS is coordinated by volunteers is one of its strengths and means that the scheme isn’t subject to the whims of funding bodies that might decide to fund the project one year, but not the next. However, as the GMS becomes more successful then more and more coordination is needed to

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keep the scheme running smoothly. Your area coordinators and myself as GMS coordinator are therefore sometimes finding the workload quite large. So are there any ways that you can maybe help us all out? Please get in touch with the newsletter editors or your area coordinator if you can offer us help in any way? Ways that you could maybe help us with are with data analysis and handling, coordinating the website and chatsite, newsletter articles, AGM help, publicity help with leaflets, posters, events etc, and anything else you can think of. If you think you can help then please get in touch with the newsletter editors.

GMS – Free Beginner’s Moth Kits – Stop Press

Those of you who have been in the GMS for a while will remember that two years ago we offered free beginner’s moth kits to people thinking of joining in with GMS recording. We have just heard the wonderful news that thanks again to generous funding from OPAL we are able to offer the same support with funding these kits over the coming winter. This time the funding is unfortunately only available for new recorders from England. So, if any of you know of potential sponsors who could offer a similar sponsorship for Scotland, Ireland or Wales – then please let us know. We will give further details on this offer in future issues of GMS News. There will be 10 kits available on a first come first served basis. The kit will include a free Skinner moth trap (mercury vapour or actinic – you choose), Waring & Townsend field guide and moth pots provided by Anglian Lepidopterist Supplies and Atropos. These will be offered to potential moth recorders who don’t already own a trap and who are thinking of starting to look at moths. The only thing that new recorders need to do in return for a free beginner’s kit is to offer to take part in the GMS for the coming year (2011). So if you have any friends who might be interested in this offer then tell them to get in touch with the editors.

Dave Grundy

Atropos has recently joined our list of GMS sponsors. For those of you who are not aware of this excellent publication, Atropos appears three times a year and is filled with topical feature articles, news, field tips and superb photographs for butterfly, moth and dragonfly enthusiasts. The journal caters for both the beginner and the expert and is essential reading for anyone interested in moths. As a special bonus to GMS participants, for a limited period Atropos is offering a reduced first year subscription rate for people who have not subscribed to the journal before. The normal subscription rate is £21 but until 31 August 2010 this is available at £17 for new GMS subscribers. This offer is only available by post from Atropos, 36 Tinker Lane, Meltham, Holmfirth, HD9 4EX, quoting offer Atro/GMS. Further details of the journal may be found at www.atropos.info

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