Five years and finally a public mothing

UPDATE: I helped out at a public moth event and bioblitz this morning at the wonderfully serene Coton Orchard, 2-3km west of central Cambridge. It’s a century-old orchard with great soil and a lot of biodiversity, Anna Gazeley told me at the event. It is, unfortunately threatened by what can only be described as a wholly inappropriate, costly, and ten-years out-of-date transport-infrastructure project for Cambridge. All in the name of sustaining Cambridge’s purported 15-minute city ethos.
Privet Hawk-moth on privet stem
Anyway, there was a good crowd of people of all ages who turned up quite early on a Saturday morning to see the grand unveiling of the moth traps. There were a lot of species, Privet Hawk-moth, Elephant Hawk-moth, Lunar-spotted Pinion, Plain Golden Y, Bordered Straw, lots of micros, and many, many more from three actinic and one mercury vapour bulb trap.
Mothing at Coton Orchard
I, and the proper moth experts there (Adrian Matthews, Ben Greig, Jim Cox, Lois Clarke, and others), talked to members of the public who were curious about various aspects of the moths, especially the names of different species.
Elephant Hawk-moth closeup
I kept an eye on what was being revealed in each trap and was quite surprised, but encouraged, to see that there were no species I hadn’t noted in our garden over the last five years apart with the exception of Dark Umber. I’m sure there are rarities at the orchard and, of course, there were lots of Apple Ermin...

Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - June 30, 2023 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Lepidoptera Source Type: blogs