Francis Hickenbottom’s Nature Notes.
Whilst in Pembrokeshire recently, I tried out my new moth trap at Llandigige. Previously,
I had used a home-made trap which has a ‘black bulb’ but the new moth trap uses a
mercury vapour lamp. Because of the changeable weather, the trap was placed in an
outbuilding, in front of a large, open door. It was left out twice and the weather
was particularly poor on the second night, when it was windy and there was some rain.
I started moth-trapping last summer and still catch new species each time I leave
out a trap. At Llandigige we caught some of the larger and quite colourful species,
a number of which I haven’t caught before. Whether this was to do with luck and timing,
I don’t know. It may have been a result of the use of a mercury vapour lamp and I
wonder whether the larger slot on my new moth trap may have helped larger moths to
fall in. The trap is of the Skinner design.
An interesting species seen was the buff-tip, which looks like a piece of birch twig
which has been snapped off. The general colour is mottled grey but there is a pale
patch at the end of each wing which mimics the colour of newly exposed wood. Coxcomb
prominent looked like a fallen leaf and even toppled over in the manner of a leaf
when the plastic pot in which it was kept for observation was tilted. I also caught
some colourful garden tiger moths for the first time and some spectacle moths, which
have striking spectacle-shaped markings which are visible when viewed from the front.
For the first time, I caught some elephant hawk moths. These are large and colourful
moths and are interesting because their flight is like that of a humming bird. Their
caterpillars are also interesting both because of their size and because of their
appearance in two colour forms: green and brown. The pictures shown on this page
were produced when I found some caterpillars in my garden a few years ago, feeding
on rosebay willow-herb. Both the green form and the brown form were present and must
have hatched from the same batch of eggs.
For a list of the moth species caught and identified at Llandigige, click here.
