Impending milestones

After a brief but successful moth foray at Cullaloe last night another three species of moth were added to the reserve list (so that made 5 in all yesterday). With that the year list rose to 472, leaving only 28 species required to reach the year's target.

That isn't the only milestone approaching though. With the effort to gather old data from other recorders (notably moth data) and this year's exertions the reserve total for all time now stands at 987, subject to review of course.This means that in the process of reaching 500 I will probably see the reserve total reach 1000. Of course I'm sure double that is easily possible, but it's a start!

Of that 987 species I have photographed 471 species - ok, maybe 460-something with some photos thrown in for good luck from other kind contributors. This means that almost half of the known diversity of the reserve is catalogued with visual records, all the better for future reviewers to be able to confirm, or possibly re-assign/delete, the records.

There are 11 days left in June, including this one (the 20th). I have three micro-moths in pots for ID, and I now need only 2.5 species per day. I'm feeling optimistic!

Light Emerald

Mottled Beauty

Udea olivalis