SUSSEX MOTH GROUP NEWSLETTER Page 24 SUSSEX MOTH GROUP NEWSLETTER November 2010 Dates of 2011 Indoor Meetings: Thursday 3rd February Monday 18th April (AGM) Tuesday 19th July Gypsy Moth by MichaelBlencowe Wednesday 9th November ALAN PRICE, GATEHOUSE STUDIO/Sussex Wildlife Trust. Sussex Moth Group Committee Chairman Graeme Lyons [email protected] 01273-497506 Secretary Wendy Alexander [email protected] 01424-212894 Main Features inside this issue: Chairman’s report by Graeme Lyons 2 Treasurer Alice Parfitt [email protected] 01903-740212 An ace up my sleeve by Michael Blencowe 4 Recorder Colin Pratt [email protected] 01273-586780 Kent Tubic no longer by Steve Wheatley 5 The mysterious world of bats by Jim Barrett 6 Newsletter Editor Penny Green [email protected] 01273-497521 The hunt for day-flying moths by Heather Martin 8 Kingstanding moth trap by Dennis Dey 9 I’m so glad to see that articles in previous newsletters are inspiring people to get out mothing Raspberry ripple by Michael Blencowe 10 in new places, or looking for day-flying moths for example. Check out Graeme Lyon’s article on Treasures of the far east by Steve Wheatley 12 page 14, you may even like to start exploring other species that are found in your moth traps! By-catch by Graeme Lyons As always, this newsletter is only as good as the articles and pictures that you send in, and I’m 14 very grateful to the writers who have contributed to this excellent autumn issue - thank you! Eridge Rocks moth trap by Alice Parfitt 17 Come along to the indoor meetings over the winter, we look forward to seeing you there! Carpet baggers by Michael Blencowe 18 Best wishes, Penny Moth trapping in a Sussex garden by David Webb 20 Mothing in the danger zone by Dave A Green 21 Many thanks to the SxBRC for printing this newsletter. Page 222 SUSSEX MOTH GROUP NEWSLETTER SUSSEXSUSSEX MOTH MOTH GROUP GROUP NE NEWSLETTERWSLETTER Page 233 Chairmans report by Graeme Lyons when it was set up in 2004! For more sightings of all typesnoticeable of natural how historymany officialin Sussex signs see there my With very small numbers of moths visiting the traps we decided to blog http://analternativenaturalhistoryofsussex.blogspot.com/ . were requesting anyone using the ranges Well,head furtherfirst of intoall I’d Sussex like to in saythe ahope great of big netting thank moths you for around allowing some me on board as chairman. I’ve At a recent Butterfly Conservation conference, I caught upto withtry not Richard to disturb Fox and the we wildlife were discuss- and the comeof the areed long and way sedge from beds. the spottyAfter muchteenager searching counting we managedHeart & Darts to in his Mum’s back garden shingle habitat. It is probable that if the twentyspot a couple years ago! of moths, Secondly, however I’d like without to say athe big ability thank toyou chase to Steven after Teale for his hard work in the ing my move to Sussex. He immediately commented on the quality of the Sussex Moth Group MoD did not own this land then the habi- rolethem of over chairman; the shingle Steve (inis still case very we much stepped active on inanything the mothing slightly community in Sussex so I don’t Newsletter, making a particular mention of the enthusiasm, humour and excellent content of the tat there would have been lost long ago. thinkexplosive) he will we ever endured be that farthe away. frustrating experience of trying to production. I can’t stress enough how lucky we are to have such a dynamic group with so many tempt moths to us with our spotlight. After much trying we netted As it is now the moths, their habitat and keen and accomplished authors and naturalists willing to put pen to paper for every edition and Sotwo what Fen canWainscot you expect and sixfrom Reed me Daggeras chairman? (Nb) that I currently we managed don’t have to a garden, so I won’t be writ- their food plants are all left alone to get ingencourage a regular towards ‘chairman’s us away trap’ from section the vegetation. in the newsletter. I’ll try and keep my highlights of the to have Penny Green to pull it all together into such aon professional to their own format. devices. Keep Well, up apartthe good from summer to a paragraph in the chairman’s report. Working full time as an ecologist, I’m in a good work! Enjoy this issue and I look forward to seeing you aroundany moths a bright deciding light toin aalight field onsometime the tar- positionWe drove to backtry and towards write morethe traps about past such a snipertopics asrange conservation and, when projects, wider natural history, soon! gets themselves; they may experience a entomologicalwe got there, surveythings weretechniques looking etc. up. I’ve Although also built the up temperature quite a list of contacts over the years so I certain amount of ‘human intervention’! willwas trystill and cool get moths some guestwere speakersstarting toin fromcome further to the afield traps too. in good PigmyThe Footman Magic subsp. Carpetpallifrons result by Sam Bayley and Colin Pratt numbers and we set about sorting through and identifying the by Photo My low point of the year has been slipping a disk in my back which three months on is giving me various species, many of which we had not encountered before. The Midrips and The Wicks are a fantastic and hidden part of Sussex hosting many of the unusual grief even as I write this article. This year has been a struggle. I ran some traps for the Friends of In the spring newsletter we showed a couple of photos of an Reed Dagger moth species that the Dungeness area is so famous for. The very fact that this area is not easily BenfieldGraeme LyonsCountry had Park recommended earlier this ayear few andspecies could do nothing but watch as half a dozen senior unidentified macro moth. It’s time to put you out of your mis- accessible has helped the habitat many of these moths require to flourish, and who knows what Everitt Jacob citizensfor us to unloaded keep a look the generatorsout for and and one traps of these, and carried them up the hill. Fingers crossed that this ery…... Synaphe punctalis (Nb), was already in evidence other species are lurking in this most easterly of Sussex sites! Sussex has lost the breeding moth business will all be sorted out by my next field season. Sam says: in some numbers. The micro moth we were species named after it, with Lewes Wave and Brighton Wainscot long since departed. Although Sus- really hoping to see though wasMy a highlightbeautiful of the year was a joint record with Penny Green sexThe Emerald moth that does was occasionally pictured in turn the upSpring in Sussex Newsletter as a wanderer, was a real there just could be a small popula- nd species called Cynaeda dentalis, whoseof Marsh caterpil- Dagger at Woods Mill on the 22 July. This moth tionhead hanging spinner on andat the had Midrips myself, just Colin waiting Pratt to beand discovered……... Mark Parsons lars feed internally in the stems ofwent Viper’s extinct Bu- in the UK in 1933 and this moth is only the third giving uncertain thoughts ranging from Common Carpet, Bal- gloss. In the UK this RDB3 species isin confinedthe UK since to then, the second record being caught at Pa- sam Carpet or a strange form of Red Twin-spot Carpet. Finally, after much to-ing and fro-ing, I th the coasts of southern England, andgham as Harbourwe got on the 19 July 2010! Another joint record of sent the moth to Colin to look at in the flesh and the resultant finding was something else, in fact towards midnight the first of five noteturned (with up atMike Edwards) was the Raspberry Clearwing at it was a Barred Rivulet. the lights. With their striking zig-Fristonzag markings Forest which will feature in an article by Michael Blen- highlighted by the MV bulbs theycowe instantly in this be- issue of the newsletter. Possibly my favourite find I wasn't really convinced by Colin as I couldn't find reference to any Barred Rivulet looking like this on the net or books, until Martin Honey contacted me after seeing the newsletter second- came one of our favourite moths! this year was a micro, the Notable A Orange Conch Commo- phila aeneana, again at Friston hand from someone else who directed me to a website that showed it perfectly. I will never Another species we hoped to seeForest was the during Red an invertebrate Cynaeda dentalis doubt you again Colin!! Data Book classified Pigmy Footman,survey although where I was focusing on what we didn't expect was to record anything like the numbers we found. Fifty-four of the nomi- Colin says: Marsh Dagger Lepidoptera. When we have nate sub-species were attracted towritten the traps the along survey with up Ithree will write of the yellow sub-species pallifrons, Difficulties over identifications stem from the fact that a moth photograph does not always look anwhich article in Britain about is itknown in the only next from newsletter the coastal as shingleit is a fairlyaround simple Dungeness. like real life and different forms occur in different parts of the UK. Identifying moths from photo- graphs is far more difficult than from a specimen, as they bring to the fore markings that are not methodologyAs the night wore that oncould the be species repeated count on creptany site.