MONMOUTHSHIRE MOTH & BUTTERFLY GROUP NEWSLETTER No 88 December 2012. A monthly newsletter covering Gwent and Monmouthshire Vice County 35 Editor: Martin Anthoney Review of the Year 2012 And the year started so well……2012 started as 2011 finished, producing one of the warmest and driest winters and early springs on record, with only two or three days of snow in early February. This unseasonal weather produced many very early emergences, with 3 butterflies and 12 macro moths having their earliest ever dates, and a total of 11 butterfly and 41 macro-moth species being seen by the end of March, also a new record. With talk of drought and footpaths firm and easy to walk, little did we know of the deluge that awaited us during the rest of the year. The rot set in during April, with days which were cool with heavy showers or longer periods of rain, frequently clearing to cold, clear nights, poor for both butterflies and moths. It reflected the weather accurately that no new butterfly species were added to the 2012 list during April. A misbehaving Jet Stream ensured that the pattern of well-above-average rainfall and below-average temperatures continued throughout the year, with summer limited to the last twelve days of May, when a short- lived heatwave took temperatures up to 29oC, and a few clusters of two to three warm days during late July and early August. With the wettest summer in Britain for 100 years followed by widespread flooding in the autumn, it is no surprise 2012 was a poor year for butterflies and moths. Despite frequent strong winds, conditions were rarely favourable for immigrants to supplement our home-grown lepidoptera , though an influx during the weekend of 18th-21st August brought welcome additions to the species list and a boost to the numbers of some common species. By early December, 381 species of macromoth have been recorded for Gwent in 2012 compared to 436 in 2011. The corresponding butterfly figures are 33 species for 2012 compared to 37 species in 2011. The most apt word I have heard to describe the 2012 lepidoptera year is “rotten”. Certainly, I have been recording butterflies and moths for fifty years now and I cannot recall a poorer year. Still, it is nearly over now and we can only hope for a better 2013. The worry, though, is what cumulative adverse effects is our sequence of poor summers having on lepidoptera? Butterflies January and February produced a number of sightings of Red Admiral and Small Tortoiseshell, and by the end of March the butterfly count had risen to eleven species. The less said about April the better, with no new additions. The first Grizzled and Dingy Skippers appeared in the second week of May, but numbers increased only slowly to reach a peak in the mini-heatwave at the end of May. The same warm spell also saw numbers peak at reasonable levels for Marsh Fritillary, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary and Small Heath, but few Green Hairstreak were reported and Common Blue was scarce throughout the year. Over the summer months numbers of most species were low, and not helped by the Forestry Commission cutting many miles of forest ride verges at the height of the Meadow Brown/ Ringlet/ Skipper season, decimating the butterfly population using them. A mere two White Admiral records heightens the fears of losing this fine butterfly from the county, but Silver-washed Fritillary had a reasonable season despite the weather. 1 Late July and August provided a few crumbs of comfort. The discovery of two more Essex Skipper colonies at the new Gwent Wildlife Trust reserve, Barecroft Common, and near Llandegfedd Reservoir shows this species is continuing its slow expansion since it was first found in the county in 2000. Essex Skipper A few Painted Ladies were sighted in the south and east of the county following the immigration at the end of August, but more spectacular was the abundance of Small Tortoiseshell, with counts of over sixty per hundred metres in parts of the coastal belt. In contrast, Peacocks were few and far between. Late August and early September also produced several second generation records of Brown Argus in sheltered sites near the coast. Butterflies decreased through October and virtually disappeared by November and December – hardly a surprise in view of the weather. Next spring cannot come soon enough……. Moths Similar to the butterflies, many of the spring species appeared in the first three months of 2012. The highlights were probably two more Small Brindled Beauties, which reappeared in 2011 after an absence of thirty years, and Dotted Chestnut which seems to be increasing its range. In April, Severn estuary from Gloucester to Cardiff. Interestingly, we were unable to find any larvae on clumps of the foodplant around Monmouth. 2012 was a poor year for immigration. An early Humming-bird Hawk on 11th March raised hopes, but it was five months before the second and only other sighting of the year. A Bordered Straw at Risca on16th June, White-point on 11th July in Newport and Vestal at Rogerstone on 21st August were the only significant immigrant records. The micro-moths fared as badly as their big(?) brothers. In May a few Eucosma aspidiscana flying in an area with plenty of goldenrod (Solidago) at Slade Wood constituted a new species for VC35. An Acleris specimen photographed at Undy in July was either Acleris kochiella or Acleris logiana, either of which would be new to the county, while in August Assara terebrella at Penallt and Sitochroa palealis at Lamby Tip, Cardiff, provided two new Pyralids for VC35 in just over a week. Martin Anthoney Gwent Distribution Maps Accompanying this newsletter is a file containing the distribution maps for Gwent butterflies. Plotted on a 2km basis, black squares indicate records for 2000 onwards, whereas open squares indicate sites where pre- 2000 records exist but no post-2000 records. Historical records which were too vague to be assigned at the 2km level have been omitted. Corresponding macro-moth records will follow in batches with next year’s newsletters. Martin Anthoney Monmouthshire Moth & Butterfly Group 2012 AGM Report of our AGM held on 16th November 2012 at the Three Salmons Hotel, Usk. It had been eight years since the last AGM! Nine members attended the AGM and there were six apologies. The turnout was slightly better than that for the Police Commissioners elections which took place the day before! The meeting was also competing with the Wales v Samoa rugby match, something we were glad we missed. Martin sends out the Silurian newsletter to 80 people by e-mail and Kevin sends out 6 by post. The National Library of Wales (Aberystwyth) had contacted Martin and he had sent them the complete set of Silurians and added them to the normal e-mail distribution list. Kevin thanked Martin for all his work as County Lepidoptera Recorder and for his excellent production of the Silurian. The meeting gave Martin a round of applause as appreciation. Finance: – Sheila Dupé presented the accounts. Income since 2003 was £1069.63. This included £500 from the Dr Neil Horton legacy, income from 3 paid surveys, donations and £67 in interest. Expenditure was £450 for a Silurian moth larval survey, £223 postage for the newsletter, £50 room hire for the AGM and £10 donation to Glamorgan Moth Recording Group in lieu of David Slade’s speaker’s expenses. The balance is £330.81. Kevin said that although we had a healthy bank balance, we have not done any paid survey work for many years and we needed to look at some income generation. He suggested that we produce some sweat-shirts and T-shirts with the Silurian logo for sale to members. He agreed to look into this and to ask for pre-orders in the Silurian. Election of Officers: – all officers were willing to carry on (unless anybody else wanted to stand!) and they were all re-elected unopposed. 3 Any other business: – Kevin asked if anybody knew of a free or cheaper venue for our next AGM. Magor Marsh was suggested, but Kevin wanted somewhere more central to the county. Goytre Village Hall was suggested. Kevin asked for suggestions for a National Moth Night event and it was agreed to trap at Magor Marsh if this fitted in with the yet-to-be-announced theme for NMN 2013. Fiona asked if there could be more informal moth trapping sessions for members to attend. Problems with this were parking, weather and short notice. Bob Roome suggested Llandegfedd Reservoir as a location. Roger suggested contacting the Local BAP officers to ask for locations. David Slade (SEWBREC), Glamorgan County Lepidoptera Recorder, then gave a talk on The Smaller Moths of South East Wales. Unfortunately, due to software incompatibility problems, David was unable to show his prepared photos and distribution maps. However, he was still able to give a fascinating presentation using photos and maps on Martin’s laptop. He certainly wetted the appetite for searching for several micro moth species in Monmouthshire. There is a link to David’s intended presentation on the Gwent Mothing website http://gwentmothing.blogspot.co.uk There followed a short presentation on Some Distribution Maps of Lepidoptera in Monmouthshire by Martin Anthoney, County Macro-Lepidoptera Recorder for Monmouthshire. Martin’s presentation highlighted the need for some targeted recording in the county to infill some blank squares with few or no records of Lepidoptera. One area which stood out was the River Monnow area in the north-east of the county and the Blackrock area in the south-east.