TV times

Posted by Graeme Lyons , Wednesday 13 August 2014 08:26

We found this gorgeous little micro moth  at Hope Gap at Seaford Head yesterday. Out of the trio of 'mint moths', this one is the scarcest being Pyrausta ostrinalis (Nb). I have only ever seen it in the Burren  on the west coast or Ireland before, so it's great to find a new site for it in Sussex, although it's not quite a new 10km square record. There are only around half a dozen records for this in the SxBRC and we recorded about four of them yesterday. A narrow, slightly concave wing with creamy (not yellow/orange), dark-edged connected dots separates this from the commoner species of Pyrausta. We only saw this species in tightly grazed (you can see you are never far from a rabbit dropping in the above photo) CG2 chalk grassland yesterday.

We also spotted my third record of the scarce dor beetle Trypocopris vernalis (Na), which I have ONLY ever seen in late summer and autumn in this same 10 km square (TV59) but this is a new record for Seaford Head.

0 Response to "TV times"

Post a Comment

Nature Blog Network