300 lepidoptera!

So the 300th species of Lepidoptera was recorded at Cullaloe on the 29th, and it was this beautiful Streamer (1 of 2 so it could have been the other one)

This is the 282nd species of moth as there are 18 butterflies on the list. Hopefully by the end of the year we'll also have the 300th moth!

Pussy Willow

The large willow in the car par has been providing lots of entertainment with its profusion of catkins in flower. During the day the hum of honey bees is pretty loud. Maybe someone close has a hive. Bombus terrstris and Andrena Clarkella are the only other bees I've seen at it so far. The golden dung fly Scathophaga stercoraria is also a big fan as well as pollen beetles as-yet-unidentified.

Two species of Egle - anthomyid flies, or flower flies - have been caught so far = E.ciliata and E.minuta.

Last night, though, it was the turn of the nocturnal visitors...

Dotted Border

Common Quaker

Mottled Grey

Hebrew Character

Rhigognostis incarnatella

Even at only 5 degrees it was pretty busy, with the Rhigognostis incarnatella (Scothc Smudge) being new to the reserve and only added to the county list in 2016.

Moths

Overnight actinic 21/02/2019

Satellite (1)
Dotted Border (3)
Pale Brindled Beauty (3)
Mottled Grey (1)
Chestnut (13)

Gold Swift

This nice Gold Swift was fond clinging to the underside of smoe Meadowsweet at lunchtime. The second time this species has been found in almost the same place - a fern feeder

This prompted the discovery of two species missing from the moth list which had definitely been recorded before, the other being Map-winged Swift.

This takes us to 1480 - 20 species away from the 1500 target!

Chocolate Moth

After a disaster with a petrol-deficient generator we abandoned moth trapping early last night after only catching one macro moth - a Water Carpet. Even that was caught with the headtorch. But with open skies and a bright moon we were always up against it anyway. This is the chocolate form of Water Carpet and, as is traditional, it was caught down near the filter beds.

200 lepidoptera!

Two new moth species from an early session last night took the reserve list to 200, including butterflies. Hopefully the 200 moth total will soon be reached. New ones were Mottled Grey and Yellow Horned (also new for NT18). This takes the new species for this year to 57, and the total species to 1363. 137 to go!

Blushing bracket, Rosy Minor

Everything's coming up rosy these days

The blushing bracket, which likes willows, bruises pink and eventually becomes an outrageous red colour

This rosy minor was new for the reserve on 1st September. Pretty little thing.

Mudwort and Canary-shouldered Thorn

Finally with the water levels remaining lowered a bit I wandered around the far side to check for Mudwort (Limosella aquatica). The mud hasn't been exposed for long and there are only a few signs of its presence. Here it is:

Spectacular isn't it? Even more so when the flowers come (you will have to use a search engine of your choice to see for the moment).

More spectacular is this Canary-shouldered Thorn, one of two caught on the 20th

Saturday Night Moths

Dropped the trap off at Cullaloe on Saturday night after a day of rain and picked it up in the morning, producing two new species amongst a small collection - Pebble Prominent and Early Thorn (2nd gen presumably). Whilte new for the year, curiously both Pebble Prominent and Early Thorn were recorded on the same night in May 2010!

Pebble Prominent

Pebble Prominent

Early Thorn

July Highflyer

Lesser YU

Chevron

Small Phoenix

A big weekend!

A big weekend at Cullaloe with Saturday seeing grassland monitoring plus a moth trapping event. Finally the 75th bird species of the year made it onto the list with a Kingfisher fishing near the sluice gate (it was also seen on Sunday).

The grassland site monitoring produced a couple of known species which hadn't been recorded this year - Greater Birdsfoot Trefoil (which I'm never sure how to spell) and Devil's-bit Scabious. False Oat-grass was also added, although I thought I already had!

A couple of hoverflies also made it onto the list from Friday after being keyed out over the weekend, and the moth night, despite being hampered by rain, turned in a monster result with double figures of new species. All that leaves a species total of 561 (list).

Rate of species addition to year list

Grassland monitoring

Unrecorded sedge that requires further investigation

Devil's-bit Scabious

Light Arches moth

Lempke's Gold Spot

Swallow Prominent

Moth Mayhem

A foggy night at Cullaloe on the 19th saw a bumper moth crop including 11 new species for the year. Whole story is here.

Pick of the bunch is this Blue-bordered Carpet, which is also new to the hectad. Below is one of my favourite moths, the Peppered Moth.

Blue-bordered Carpet (erm .. nope - Pretty Pinion)

Peppered Moth