RXwildlife Sightings

There seems to have been quite a bit of migrant activity over the last few days, with several species of immigrant turning up in my moth trap. The majority of these seem to be the (largish) micro Rush Veneer, with quite a few White-point (which probably also breeds on this part of the south coast), Dark Sword-grass and Silver Y. Highlight however was the attractive micro Marbled Yellow Pearl (Evergestis extimalis) another scarce resident more usually found as a migrant in southern Britain.

Marbled Yellow Pearl

Desite the cold weather overnight, the good run on migrant moths continued this morning with The Vestal (Rhodometra sacraria). This species breeds in southern Europe and North Africa, and turns up irregularly in Britain as a migrant, sometimes in large numbers (the last one at Lime Kiln was in 2006).

Vestal (Rhodometra sacraria)

Highlight this morning was the migrant micro Cydia amplana (though our recording software comes up with the wonderful English name of Vagrant Piercer). This is another one of those species that has turned up in Britain fairly recently, with the first record in Devon in 1990. Most records have been from south-west England, and as far as I can see this is the first for Rye Harbour, though it did turn up in Icklesham about the same time of year in 2006. The larvae feed inside various nuts such as walnut, hazelnut and acorns and can be something of a pest under certain circumstances.

Vagrant Piercer (Cydia amplana)

Given that it is turning into a good year for interesting migrants I have been running the moth trap fairly regularly over the last week. Highlights have included yet another Sussex Emerald, a Gem, and a Tree-lichen Beauty (trapped at ‘Green Acres’ on the ridge near Watch Cottage). I have also been turning up several Oak Eggar, including a couple of fantastic rich brown males, and a Honeysuckle Moth, a micro which I haven’t seen before but which also turned up at ‘Green Acres’. Also of interest this week were a Brown-banded Carder Bee (Bombus humilis) at Castle Water, and my first Moss Carder Bee (B. muscorum) feeding on an ornamental shrub at Lime Kiln Cottage.

Male Oak Eggar
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I’d seen several Convolvulus Hawkmoths in other people’s traps but never caught one myself, so this 2-inch long monster, dwarfing everything else, was a very welcome sight in my trap in Rye this morning. It’s an immigrant mainly to southern and eastern coastal counties and more often in autumn, the numbers varying a lot from year to year. I’ll release it at dusk, so if anyone wants to see it please phone me today – my number’s in the book!

A surprise in my moth trap in Rye this morning was this Waved Black, a new species for me. Despite appearances it’s actually a noctuid, in the same subfamily as the common Straw Dot but classed nationally scarce. Waring’s field guide says ”The earliest records were from slime moulds on rotting wood in docks and cellars in London. The main food is fungi growing on rotting trees, particularly birches and pines …”. The two main areas of distribution are now the Severn valley and the south-east, though everywhere very local, and a few immigrants have also been recorded on the Channel coast. As if this wasn’t enough, my first Satin Lutestring for the garden provided the icing on the cake.

The Orache Moth used to be a resident in the east of England until 1915 but is now a rare immigrant. The rather tatty specimen above was caught near Staplecross on the night of the 19th July, but to show what they can look like I have also shown a fresh specimen which was caught in SW France earlier this year. Read the rest of this entry »

This is developing into a good year for migrants on the south coast, with Rye Harbour no exception. The Sussex Emerald a few days ago was a probably a migrant, and today we had another with the capture of a Splendid Brocade (Lacanobia splendens). This is a species which comes from central and southern Europe and turns up occasionally on our shores. This year Phil Jones has had a few at Icklesham and it has been trapped at Portland and a few other south coast sites so having one turn up here was not completely unexpected.

Splendid Brocade

This male Sussex Emerald was in my moth trap yesteday morning, but as it is quite rare I held off mentioning it until I could have the id confirmed by an expert (my thanks to Colin Pratt the Sussex county recorder for moths) First found in Britain at Beachy Head in Sussex in 1902 (hence the name), these days it is confined as a breeding species to Dungeness (though apparently it occasionally turns up as a migrant), the larvae feeding on Wild Carrot, Yarrow and other low-growing plants. It is very similar to Common Emerald, but can be told from this species by the presence of two lobes on the hind-wing (just visble at the extreme left of the left hand wing in the picture below) rather than just one.

Sussex Emerald

Micros seem to be providing the main interest in the Lime Kiln moth trap at the moment, and this morning was no exception, with several little gems turning up. Best of the bunch was probably a Starry Pearl (Cynaeda dentalis), one of a suite of rare shingle species which feed on Viper’s Bugloss (Bordered Ermel is another). Also present another Rosy-striped Knot-horn (probably a stray from the colony on Camber dunes), Salt-marsh Grass Veneer and Long-legged Tabby (one of the commonest moths in the trap at the moment). Macro highlight was probably a Pale Grass Eggar, a light form of Grass Eggar confined to shingle in the south-east.

Starry Pearl
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