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GMS News

Spring 2019

Weeks 1-9

Contents

Editorial Norman Lowe 1 Overview GMS 2019 1st Quarter Evan Lynn 2 Down my Way (Contd) David Baker 14 Star Wars Super Wedding - answers to last edition’s puzzle Nonconformist 16 Spiral No.2 Nonconformist 17 Tailpiece Norman Lowe 18 Communications & links GMS sponsors

Editorial – Norman Lowe

As I write this, my recent garden trapping has been quite uneventful. In fact until last week I hadn’t had a single hawk-moth of any description so it was good to find a Small Elephant Hawk- moth last Saturday morning. Oddly, the only other hawk I’d seen in Breconshire was Narrow- bordered Bee Hawk-moth, rediscovered in the county for the first time since 1926!

As usual there’s plenty of interest in this edition but we have been especially reliant on just a few stalwart contributors. We start with Evan’s usual roundup in which he turns his spotlight on the catches on two widely separated islands, Alderney and Skye. Not surprisingly he finds big differences! He also takes a look at one of our commonest , Common Quaker, finding that 2019 was a particularly good year for it.

David Baker continuers his series on non-moth occupants of traps, including some with strange- sounding names as the Downlooker Snipefly. And we finish our articles with the puzzle section, this time featuring Moth Spiral No.2.

As you’ll already have read in the GMS Annual report, we had a very successful conference at Bamford Village Institute, Derbyshire on 31 March. As always, we are very dependent on volunteers to organise these events and we are grateful to Sally Soady for taking this on. Since finding volunteers for this has always been a challenge we are very pleased that we have provisional venues for both 2020 (Idle Valley Nature Reserve near Retford) and 2021 (Apperley Village Hall, Gloucestershire). And of course we have our first regional conference at RSPB Leighton Moss on July 6 which is almost fully booked now.

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Overview GMS 2019 1st Quarter – Evan Lynn

This year the emergence of overwintering moths was greatly influenced by events in February when a combination of deep depressions in the Atlantic and dominant high pressures over the continent dragged up unseasonably warm weather from the Azores. March then suddenly changed with the Norse goddess Freya riding her chariot high above the storm clouds. In her wake came Gareth, and Hannah brought April to an end. In between there was varied weather ranging from Arctic cold to Grecian hot. Our beekeeping neighbour says that for the bees at least, the season has moved forward by three weeks this year and in our Vice County (46) we have had several instances of unseasonably early emergences of moths including the Hebrew Character and Engrailed.

Yearly Comparisons Despite the unseasonably warm period in February and the cold and turbulent March the moth numbers did pick up in early April to equal those of last year which was the best year since 2012 (Fig 1).

Fig 1. GMS 2010 - 2019 Q1. Mean Quarterly Moth Numbers

Temperature and Catches

The extreme weather with strong to gale force winds and cold nights resulted in large numbers of empty traps this quarter (Fig 2). Even when the daytime temperatures were pleasant, clear skies brought cold nights especially towards the end of April when the temperatures plummeted.

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Fig 2. GMS 2019 Q1. Average Minimum Temperature and Empty Traps

All regions suffered empty traps to some degree, due possibly to differing exposures to the wind and low night time temperatures. The North East and Ireland were the two regions worst affected (fig 3), so pity those individual recorders who had to cope with four & eight weeks of no catches respectively. Only the more southern regions escaped lightly apart from one recorder in the South East who had five demoralising weeks of empty traps.

Fig 3. GMS 2019 Q1. Percentage Number of Empty Traps in Each Region

Perhaps these depressing results can be explained in Figures 4 & 5 which show the number of air frost days and the average minimum temperatures for this quarter.

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Fig 4. Days of Air Frost for March & April 2019 (with permission of the Met Office)

Fig 5. Mean Minimum Temperatures for March & April 2019 (with permission of the Met Office)

Despite the large number of empty traps there were good numbers of moths overall this quarter with the numbers caught following to a lesser or greater degree the average minimum temperatures as shown in figure 6.

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Fig 6. GMS 2019 Q1. Minimum Night Temperatures and Total Moths Caught

Regional Comparison

In previous reports I have compared the catches and temperatures between two regions. This quarter I have selected the Channel Islands which have only one island in the scheme (Alderney) and the Island of Skye in Scotland; both regions conveniently have two recorders. The catches of core for the two islands (fig 7) are quite different with Skye starting well but dropping back until week 7 but losing out again in week 9. The rolling or moving averages of both islands reflect the variations for each week.

Fig 7. GMS 2019 Q1. No. of Core Moths Caught in Skye and Alderney

The minimum temperatures (fig 8) do help to partly explain the differences in the catches; for example, in week 2 temperatures are just recovering in Skye while on Alderney there was no such temperature drop. Similarly, in week 6 lower temperatures reduced catches on both islands. Conversely, the lower drop in temperatures in week 9 had no apparent effect on catches on Alderney.

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Fig 8. GMS 2019 Q1. Minimum Temperatures in Skye and Alderney

Wind can also affect catches with higher speeds reducing flying activity and its direction increasing the possibility of more moths being blown in from the adjacent mainland. The direction and wind speed for each evening this quarter are shown in figure 9. The days that the two traps were set are also shown above the bars which may help to show why catches were higher or lower each week compared to the other island.

Fig 9. GMS 2019 Q1. Evening Wind Speeds and Wind Direction in Skye and Alderney

Skye

Northerly Easterly Southerly Westerly

4 4 8

2 2 3 7 7 8 9 1 1 6 6 3 5 9 5

March April Wk 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Moths 25 1 4 4 28 10 46 82 46

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Alderney

Northerly Easterly Southerly Westerly 33

9 1 1 2 6 2 6 5 4 5 77 9

4 88

March April Wk 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Moths 11 10 23 37 40 24 47 51 63

The variety of species caught on each island is also interesting. Alderney, as to be expected, being south and close to the continent had 31 core species compared with 19 on Skye. In line with this, Alderney attracted a total of 281 moths to the 242 on Skye. It might be interesting to wonder if the difference in numbers was due more to the wind than the temperature since both are windswept islands with Skye receiving more of the wild March weather. As mentioned before, only the core species are included as each region has moths regularly found but which may not occur in the other regions. A list and total numbers of these species are shown in Tables 1a & 1b with the species common to both islands highlighted in green.

Table 1 a. GMS 2019 Q1. No of Core Moth Species caught on Skye Vernacular wk1 wk2 wk3 wk4 wk5 wk6 wk7 wk8 wk9 Total Brown Silver-line 3 11 14 Chestnut 1 1 Clouded Drab 3 1 13 9 8 34 Common Quaker 3 9 1 2 5 20 Dark Sword-grass 1 4 5 Dotted Border 5 5 Dusky Thorn 1 1 Early Grey 2 1 1 1 2 7 Hebrew Character 1 1 2 9 6 18 17 3 57 Mottled Grey 6 1 7 Powdered Quaker 3 9 4 16 Red Chestnut 6 2 1 3 2 8 31 6 59 Red Sword-grass 1 1 2 Satellite 1 1 Silver Y 1 1 Small Quaker 2 2 Small Square-spot 8 8 Spruce Carpet 1 1 Streamer 1 1

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Table 1 b. GMS 2019 Q1. No of Core Moth Species caught on Alderney

Vernacular wk1 wk2 wk3 wk4 wk5 wk6 wk7 wk8 wk9 Total Angle Shades 4 1 1 4 2 1 13 Brimstone Moth 1 1 3 5 Clouded Drab 1 1 1 2 5 Common Plume 1 1 2 Common Quaker 1 3 22 11 5 14 12 11 79 Common Wainscot 1 1 Dotted Border 1 1 1 1 4 Double-striped Pug 1 1 1 1 2 3 6 5 4 24 Early Grey 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 2 16 Early Thorn 1 1 1 3 Flame Shoulder 1 2 1 4 Garden Carpet 1 1 1 3 Hebrew Character 1 2 11 5 15 3 5 5 10 57 Herald 1 1 Least Black Arches 1 1 2 4 Light Brown Apple Moth 1 1 1 3 3 3 12 Many-plume Moth 1 1 Muslin Moth 1 2 3 6 Beauty 1 1 1 3 Pale Pinion 1 1 1 3 Pine Beauty 1 1 1 1 2 6 Red-Green Carpet 1 2 3 Rusty-dot Pearl 1 1 Shuttle-shaped Dart 1 1 1 1 4 Silver Y 1 1 1 3 Small Dusty Wave 1 1 Small Quaker 1 1 1 2 5 Swallow Prominent 1 1 Twin-spotted Quaker 2 2 1 1 1 1 8 V-Pug 1 1 White-shouldered House Moth 1 1 2

Statistics When compared to last year this quarter has brought some surprises with large increases in the numbers of many moths, notably the species including the Common, Small,Twin- spotted Quakers and the Clouded Drab. Other increases included the Brindled Pug, but the Double-striped Pug did not fare so well (Table 2)

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Table 2. GMS Q1 2019 – Top 20 Core Species

Position Top 20 Mean Per Trap 2018 2019 2018 2019 Species Change 331 Gardens 339 Gardens 2 1 Common Quaker 32.3 46.2 13.9 1 2 Hebrew Character 33.9 43.4 9.5 3 3 Clouded Drab 13.8 15.4 1.6 4 4 Small Quaker 8.0 13.2 5.2 5 5 Early Grey 4.9 6.2 1.3 9 6 Twin-spotted Quaker 2.0 3.4 1.4 8 7 Brindled Beauty 2.2 2.3 0.1 19 8 Brindled Pug 0.7 2.0 1.3 13 9 Red Chestnut 1.1 1.9 0.8 6 10 Double-striped Pug 3.1 1.8 -1.2 10 11 Oak Beauty 2.0 1.6 -0.4 12 12 Chestnut 1.6 1.5 -0.2 16 13 Light Brown Apple Moth 1.0 1.3 0.4 7 14 March Moth 2.3 1.3 -0.9 14 15 Powdered Quaker 1.0 1.0 0.0 15 16 Common Plume 1.0 0.9 -0.1 18 17 Dotted Border 0.7 0.9 0.2 0 18 Shuttle-shaped Dart 0.1 0.9 0.8 25 19 Mottled Grey 0.4 0.9 0.4 11 20 Early Thorn 1.7 0.9 -0.9

A more detailed regional comparison is shown in Table 3 where the top 10 moths are compared. As to be expected the early appearing Orthosia species dominate all the regions apart from the Channel Islands where they only occupy two slots.

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Table 3. GMS Q1 2019 – Top 10 Regional Core Species

Scotland (25) Mean North East (27) Mean North West (41) Mean Hebrew Character 65.4 Hebrew Character 45.1 Common Quaker 36.0 Common Quaker 48.0 Common Quaker 26.4 Hebrew Character 34.8 Clouded Drab 19.1 Clouded Drab 19.4 Small Quaker 10.7 Red Chestnut 6.4 Early Grey 6.2 Clouded Drab 9.6 Brown Silver-line 5.1 Small Quaker 5.4 Early Grey 4.8 Early Grey 4.8 Twin-spotted Quaker 3.1 Twin-spotted Quaker 3.9 Twin-spotted Quaker 4.3 Mottled Grey 2.2 Brindled Pug 3.5 Chestnut 4.0 Red Chestnut 1.5 Chestnut 1.7 Mottled Grey 3.8 Chestnut 1.4 Many-plume Moth 1.5 Pine Beauty 2.3 Powdered Quaker 1.4 Shuttle-shaped Dart 1.3 Yorks & Humber (12) Mean Ireland (26) Mean East of England (36) Mean Common Quaker 41.8 Hebrew Character 65.2 Common Quaker 63.7 Hebrew Character 40.2 Common Quaker 23.8 Hebrew Character 25.2 Clouded Drab 15.8 Clouded Drab 20.5 Small Quaker 23.2 Small Quaker 12.9 Early Grey 8.7 Clouded Drab 10.8 Early Grey 4.3 Red Chestnut 5.0 Early Grey 4.2 Twin-spotted Quaker 2.6 Powdered Quaker 2.8 March Moth 2.4 Chestnut 1.1 Twin-spotted Quaker 2.2 Twin-spotted Quaker 2.3 Common Plume 0.8 Small Quaker 1.8 Shuttle-shaped Dart 2.1 Early Thorn 0.8 Double-striped Pug 1.6 Oak Beauty 1.9 Powdered Quaker 0.8 March Moth 1.5 Double-striped Pug 1.1 East Midlands (36) Mean West Midlands (20) Mean Wales (43) Mean Common Quaker 53.4 Common Quaker 73.3 Hebrew Character 66.4 Hebrew Character 28.5 Hebrew Character 42.4 Common Quaker 43.0 Clouded Drab 18.2 Small Quaker 29.0 Clouded Drab 23.9 Small Quaker 18.2 Clouded Drab 15.2 Small Quaker 15.4 Early Grey 4.0 Early Grey 4.5 Early Grey 10.5 Twin-spotted Quaker 2.6 Brindled Pug 3.6 Brindled Beauty 10.4 Shuttle-shaped Dart 2.1 Twin-spotted Quaker 3.3 Twin-spotted Quaker 5.7 Light Brown Apple Moth 1.8 Oak Beauty 1.9 Red Chestnut 5.0 Double-striped Pug 1.8 Light Brown Apple Moth 1.8 Brindled Pug 3.8 Common Plume 1.7 Brindled Beauty 1.7 Oak Beauty 3.7 South East (32) Mean Southwest (39) Mean Channel Islands (2) Mean Common Quaker 48.0 Common Quaker 51.0 Common Quaker 39.5 Hebrew Character 23.0 Hebrew Character 47.1 Hebrew Character 28.5 Small Quaker 18.1 Clouded Drab 10.9 Double-striped Pug 12.0 Clouded Drab 9.0 Early Grey 8.5 Early Grey 8.0 Early Grey 4.9 Small Quaker 8.4 Angle Shades 6.5 Brindled Pug 3.5 Double-striped Pug 3.5 Light Brown Apple Moth 6.0 Twin-spotted Quaker 2.9 Light Brown Apple Moth 3.2 Twin-spotted Quaker 4.0 Oak Beauty 2.8 Brindled Beauty 3.2 Muslin Moth 3.0 Light Brown Apple Moth 2.1 Twin-spotted Quaker 3.1 Pine Beauty 3.0 Brindled Beauty 1.7 Oak Beauty 2.8 Brimstone Moth 2.5

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The minimum and maximum moth numbers both within and between regions over the nine- week period vary considerably, yet with some similarities, possibly reflecting location, type of trap and/or the individual micro climates. The number of gardens per region ranges between 2 and 43 while the trapping effort (moth trap nights) is remarkably consistent (Table 4). It is also commendably high suggesting that our GMS records are truly representative of the moths of UK & Ireland. The third table shows the preferred night for trapping. Although Friday is the official night three nights either side are acceptable as everyone hopefully has a life apart from mothing.

Table 4. GMS Q1 2019 – Regional Statistics Region Gardens Moths Moths Moths Moth Trap Nights Possible Actual Percent Total Mean Min Max 225 210 93 SC 25 4569 183 20 1171 243 231 95 NE 27 3187 118 11 526 108 105 97 Y&H 12 1545 129 33 321 369 343 93 NW 41 5078 124 2 586 234 215 92 IRL 26 3973 153 3 676 324 309 95 EE 36 5472 152 20 590 324 315 97 EM 36 5276 147 4 489 387 365 94 WA 43 9690 225 48 590 180 165 92 WM 20 3866 193 23 915 288 269 93 SE 32 4240 133 3 476 351 340 97 SW 39 6751 173 25 635 18 18 100 CI 2 306 153 85 221

Night? Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun Mon Days 47 66 251 1806 353 200 115 Percent 2 2 9 64 12 7 4

Common Quaker

A recorder in the East Midlands noticed the Common Quaker had made a dramatic comeback compared to last year and wanted to know if it had fared as well in other areas. Certainly, looking at Table 2 the Common Quaker has done well.

The Common Quaker or Orthosia (straight line) cerasi (cherry bark) derives its general name from the drab dress of the Quakers at that time. That at least is the common perception, but another angle is put forward by Peter Marren in his new book (Emperors, Admirals and Chimney Sweepers). He says that it could possibly honour the many Quakers of that period who were passionately interested in natural history as well as human welfare.

The Common Quaker has one generation and over-winters as a pupa emerging in spring to nectar on the of the . The adult moth shows some degree of polymorphism with considerable variation in brown colour and extent of markings.

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Fig 10. GMS Q1 2019 – Common Quaker

Weekly numbers of Common Quakers caught this quarter are shown in figure 11

Fig 11. GMS 2019 Q1. Common Quaker Numbers 2019

A large increase in the number of moths doesn’t appear overnight. There must have been a large population base the year before together with a good survival rate of the over-wintering pupae.

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The gradual increase in average numbers over the last few years is shown in figure 12 with this year showing a large increase, second only to that from 2010 to 2011.

Fig 12. GMS 2019 Q1. Common Quaker Numbers 2010 - 2019

Allocating these average numbers between regions, figure 13 shows a definite increase for most regions this year.

Fig 13. GMS 2019 Q1. Regional Common Quaker Numbers 2010 – 2019

SC NE Y&H NW IRL EE EM WA WM SE SW CI 2010 39 42 48 44 38 32 28 26 38 65 35 41 2011 66 29 107 48 65 40 32 37 70 79 67 56 2012 20 11 20 28 24 25 17 15 33 49 32 36 2013 8 3 4 8 5 6 3 5 4 8 7 22 2014 24 15 33 36 41 48 19 27 27 28 41 111 2015 14 18 36 33 18 28 19 25 22 26 35 111 2016 7 11 17 26 13 27 12 22 25 21 26 62 2017 39 42 48 44 38 32 28 26 38 65 35 41 2018 22 17 22 36 19 37 29 67 53 37 37 38 2019 48 27 42 37 26 67 58 43 73 72 51 40

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Down my Way (Contd) - David Baker

Flies and others

I find many flies in the trap during a full season, the majority being small, uninteresting looking and these are simply ignored. However, there are some which seem worth photographing and investigating, subject to them settling long enough for that purpose. We moth-ers have a reasonable proportion of the 2,500 species of British to identify and I have seen some 700 or so species. But what about trying to sort out over 7,000 species of Diptera, (two winged), many of which are even smaller than most of our micros. Needless to say, I have picked out the largest and/or most striking to attempt to identify. My images mainly follow the order as set in “A Comprehensive Guide to of Britain and Ireland” by Paul Brock.

First in line are Craneflies and I have two species on record, these being Tipula paludosa (European Cranefly) and Tipula maxima Giant Cranefly) below.

Giant Cranefly Tipula maxima (f) European Cranefly Tipula paludosa (m)

Missing out the Gnats, Mosquitos and Midges I now come to the oddly named Snipeflies and Horseflies. The first of them being the Downlooker Snipefly, usually found in its characteristic pose resting on tree trunks between May and August. and certainly not on egg-boxes.

Down-looker Snipefly Rhagio scolopaceus Twin-lobed Deerfly Chrysos relictus

Thankfully I do not see the nasty, biting, Clegs at home but this Twin-lobed Deerfly is of the same family (Tabanidae) i.e. Horseflies. A widespread , although scarcer in the North, it is usually found in wetter woods and marshes throughout summer. My garden, however, seems a long way from their usual home!

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Not surprisingly, following the horses come the Soldiers. The next image is of the Black-horned Gem, one of the Soldier-flies with such an unusual name when set amongst Generals, Majors, Colonels etc. It is found in wooded areas including parks and gardens throughout Europe. The bright green colouring is very striking.

The most common of the British Bee-flies is the Dark-edged Bee-fly usually flying from March to June. It is a parasitic fly which preys on several species of mining bees in coastal areas, woodland rides and garden areas.

Black-horned Gem Microchrysa polita Dark-edged Bee -fly Bombylius major

Leaping past the Dance, Long-legged and Flat-footed Flies we reach the Hoverflies and I am sure that many of us find these busy flying insects in our gardens throughout the summer. There are almost 300 species of Hoverfly in Britain and I have limited my selection to three, hopefully correctly identified. They can be reasonably docile at around seven o’clock in the morning allowing reasonable photographing opportunities.

The fourth in my image group is, I believe, Dexiosoma caninum, a parasitic fly in the Tachinidae, whose larvae feed on beetles. All four are noted as being widespread and common throughout Britain and therefore, surely, must have been in many of our moth traps.

Hoverfly Helophilus pendulus Hoverfly Scaeva pyrastri

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Rhingia campestris Dexiosoma caninum

I shall now miss out the remaining groups such as Stilt-legged, Thick-headed, (why does that ring a bell?) and many more oddly named ones including fleas and go to our next group, the Hymenoptera. (To be continued)

Star Wars Super Wedding - answers to last edition’s puzzle

Star Wars Super Wedding

With Ernie, a week ago today, on our yearly Welsh holiday in Caddru I’d found a confused old pedlar emerging from an unusual Star Wars wedding at a large medieval house. It was set within many acres, centrally located near a two acre pool and as there were no cafes too nearby the food was provided by the local deli caterers.

Tom, the pedlar, whose Ma originally came from Dunbar was prone to spin ruthless tall tales, although he is usually a real star, worthy of attention, said he’d found a wasp in a cheese sauce, butter burning on the stove and several small owls looking for ferrets boldly searching for scraps before he had run away from the site. However, I did hear Tom saying that the menu, printed in red, large letters was in Italian and the staff, who worked like slaves, talked in gibberish. The chef said that the tough grey chicken makes an unclear rotten, rubberised, broth eroding the pans, whilst the mackerel warps the cutlery.

Although not before sterling efforts had been made to transfer nine, ten or occasionally a dozen tables in the superb room, Leah, the Princess, and Darth Vader came over to rashly slap petals on the pastry which, they thought, leaves sexy marks using a dirty grey fork. Although I find this utensil very useful, that really is not at issue here as the decorated crust I came across made me look for a nearby alcoholic drink. Ernie, meanwhile, looking for Tom, had left his room with Niel, lummux that he is, running like the devil, or nearly so, shouting “wait a mo, Charlie, tell them Alfred Gold spotted the bold lad yesterday”.

All in all, a funny spectacle in winter, which I find very strange, recalling it now.

Answers in order Normal:- Ni, Early, Druid, Confused, Gem, Crescent, Festoon, Delicate, Maori, Dun-bar, Star- wort, Spinach, Butterbur, Mallow, Heart, Vestal, Grey Chi, Brother, Forester, Fern, Broom, Sand Dart, Cameo, Ash, Lappet, Essex Y, Grey, Silver Y, Tissue, Rustic, Drinker, Mocha, Gold Spot, Old Lady, Spectacle, Winter, Stranger

Reversed:-Puss, Dot, Emerald, Dew, Looper, Turnip, Lobster, Alder, Latin, Burnet, Sprawler, Coronet, Clay, Mullein, Olive, Flame.

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Moth Spiral No.2 By Nonconformist

Complete the spiral with either part, or in 2 cases both parts, of the vernacular name of moths from the British list. They overlap each other by at least one letter, maybe more.

1.The ban is removed to leave the cowardly portion of our beautiful moth. 2.We can find over two dozen species linked by a cow stain. 3.Channel scout takes his tea onto the northern moors to look for this species. (2 words). 4. Brassically speaking, this is all that is left when the large fish has swum away. 5.The circular pub with its mid-placed service-counter is all that is left when the source of cricket bats goes missing... (2 words) 6...... but it still needs bits of cured dishes to make up this coloured, almost brown species. 7.A wide obstruction, small canine, or even a twelve inch enthusiast would follow this to be out of the sun.

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8.The capital location of this tiny summer sub-species. 9.Could a local countryman chasing after a shed get to find the location of this grassland species? 10.I would take no great mice with me to look for this striking migrant..... 11.... but when found, would expect it to deal with this before joining the disembodied souls. 12.I took the smallest amount of detail from the tale as told to me. 13If this moth could fly around Christmas it would only be a mere star not a constellation. 14.Some days this could be a marvel in foreign climes. 15.Charles serves several species with much smaller portions. 16.Surely this group of angels wouldn’t possibly harm pies...... 17....or even let Seamus line his pockets with this material? 18.As a final clue I will try a daring lie, but still leave the Meerschaum behind.

Tailpiece

As I often do, I finish with a plea for more articles. Although there’s plenty of material in this issue, it results from just a very few contributors, and I’d really like to hear from as many of our readers as possible with your views, articles, snippets or anything else. Contact me at the usual [email protected].

Communications & Links.

GMS Website - http://www.gardenmoths.org.uk/ - the Communications section gives information on the regional coordinators; the Downloads section provides access to Identification Guides, Annual Reports and Newsletters, as well as all the regional recording forms and instructions.

Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/GardenMothScheme - we now have over 1100 ‘Likes’!

Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/438806469608527/ - currently with more than 2200 Members (not all active GMS participants) – open membership – all recording forms, instructions and micro-moth identification guides are available in the Files section

GMS Sponsors

Atropos Books Online book store and publication of Atropos, the journal for butterfly, moth and dragonfly enthusiasts. Special offers available on the website. www.atroposbooks.co.uk The Boat House, Church Cove, Lizard, Cornwall, TR12 7PH 01326 290287 [email protected]

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MapMate is a biological recording system designed for enthusiasts to record, map, analyse and share their natural history sightings. It was originally developed for moth recording and has now expanded to include most of the UK fauna and flora. It is being used by some 20,000 individuals and institutions in the UK including very large groups like the RSPB and the Botanical Society of the British Isles. www.mapmate.co.uk

MapMate continues to support the GMS by providing software and support for the GMS database, and for that we are very grateful.

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