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Check out this amazing micro moth!
Posted by Graeme Lyons , Saturday, 29 May 2010 08:24
On Friday the 29th May I had a very long day's entomology starting at Friston Forest at about 10.00 am through to Eridge Rocks at about 11.30 pm. In this part of the blog I will just deal with the Friston Forest session. We set up a series of timed invertebrate surveys in the project area to show the effects of the grazing there. One specialist concentrates on flies, bees, ants and wasps, another looks at beetles and I do moths, butterflies and dragonflies. The sites will be visited once a month from April to September. There are five defined areas that we search for 45 minutes each visit and these areas reflect different micro-habitats and management within the wood. At the end of the year, the list for each area will be compiled and the assemblage of invertebrates analysed by resource needs. I recorded this nationally scarce (Nb) micro moth known as the Orange Conch Commophila aeneana. The larvae feed on the roots of ragwort. It is probably the most impressive tortrix I have ever seen, the strange, raised black-and-blue scales give the impression the moth is extruding droplets of oil. I saw lots of Grizzled Skippers and Dingy Skippers. Grizzled was the most abundant and frequent butterfly! We recorded the Nb soldier beetle Rhagonycha lutea and I saw the tiny longhorn beetle Tetrops praeusta. Towards the end of the survey, we disturbed this young Badger which we first thought was injured. It had clearly not had much contact with humans as it was very tame and then it suddenly ran off, nothing wrong with it at all. I have never seen a Badger in the day, a great photo opportunity!
According to Colin Pratt's data base, this is only the fifth ever East Sussex record of this moth known from only three sites. Awesome!