Newsletter no. 4 December 2000Winter meeting 2000/2001I am pleased to announce that our annual winter meeting will be held at the Hertford Environment Centre, Lonsdale Road, Stevenage on Saturday 10th February 2001, from 11 am to 5 pm. Full details and a location map are provided in an insert issued with this newsletter. Stevenage is an easily accessed location by road (the main A.1 trunk road junction 7 or 8) or by train and is about as good as anywhere in the county for everyone to get to. The centre is adjacent to a school and both are accessed from Lonsdale Road via a driveway which meets the road at 8-figure grid reference TL 2465 2500. The train station is 2250 metres walk away; buses are apparently difficult and those who prefer not to walk are advised take a taxi. There is adequate car parking.Illustrated talks will be given by Dr Paul Waring (who writes the regular moth column in British Wildlife magazine), on the subject of The National Moth Network and how you can help and by David Wilson (who photographed the colour plates in Skinner) on Photographing Moths. I (Colin Plant) will also give a short progress report on the state of moth recording in Hertfordshire (in my role as County Recorder — as appointed by the Herts Natural History Society), and Andrew Wood will also make an equally short presentation in his role as Butterfly Conservation (Herts & Middx Branch) Moth Officer. Representatives of Butterfly Conservation, Herts Natural History Society, Herts & Middx Wildlife Trust, London Natural History Society and the National Trust are invited to bring poster displays (ring me to discuss the space available). Throughout the day, Anglian Lepidopterists’ Supplies (Jon Clifton) will be manning a sales counter selling moth traps, generators, spare bulbs and all those other bits of equipment you always meant to buy, but never got around to. For advance view of his price list, write to ALS, P O Box 232, Northwich Delivery Office, CW3 3FG, or list visit his web site from our links page Most of the afternoon will be spent looking at exhibits (which are invited – photos, specimens, books, whatever), specimens and photos requiring identification, and chatting. I hope to bring specimens of difficult to separate species for examination and discussion. We may also be able to demonstrate methods of preparing and examining moth genitalia for identification purposes. If logistically possible, I will bring my computer containing the county moth database. The thrust of the day will be entirely informal! Tea and coffee is included on arrival, at lunchtime and mid-afternoon. However, you need to bring your own lunch The speakers are both, very generously, giving their time free of charge, but we will obviously have to cover their costs of travelling to the meeting (estimated at £10 to £15 each). The hire of the rooms is costing me £100 (inclusive of three lots of teas and coffees). Accordingly, there will be a small charge on the day and this will simply be the total cost of about £130, divided by number of adults present. Since I hope for at least 50 people that means the cost per person will be under £3. I consider this reasonable, especially since we are a non-subscription group and get everything else for free. Of course, if anyone knows of a potential sponsor, please feel free to approach him or her on behalf of the group. I look forward to seeing you there — do bring a friend!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .County moth highlights since the last newsletterAmongst the macro moths, most remarkable was Jim Reid’s capture of the Mere Wainscot Chortodesfluxa and the Satin Beauty Deileptenia ribeata at Scales Park in the north-east of the county. There is only one previous Hertfordshire record of Mere Wainscot — from Hitchin (one at light in 1903 – A. H. Foster). The caterpillar feeds internally in stems of Wood Small-reed (Calamagrostis epigejos) and is nationally scarce. There are only three recent Herts records of Satin Beauty, whose caterpillars feed on Yew and various Pinaceae — Digswell (1988, Tom Gladwin), Rothamsted Estate, Harpenden (1992, Adrian Riley) and Panshanger Park (1997, Tom Gladwin). On the adjacent disused airfield, Jim also found the Four-spotted (Tyta luctuosa) — a Red Data Book species which is already known from the adjacent area of north-west Essex.Amongst many species reported by Stephen Palmer, all confirmed by examination of genitalia, is a record of the micro Gelechia senticetella taken at light on 31 July 2000 in his mother's garden in Datchworth. This species was added to the British list from Essex in 1988 and Stephen's record is the first for Hertfordshire. Stephen also records Nemapogon clematella, Caloptilia alchimiella and Cnephasia pasuiana - none of which are otherwise reported from Hertfordshire since the list published in the Victoria County History of Hertfordshire in 1901, Cydia funebrana, last recorded in Foster's county list published in 1937, and Zeiraphera diniana, last noted in the county during 1969. A trip to the Herts & Middx Wildlife Trust’s nature reserve at Danemead (Broxbourne Woods complex) on 16th June produced the tortrix moth Pammene albuginana, which I have only recently managed to identify from its genitalia. This is another nationally scarce species and is associated with galls of Hymenoptera on oak trees. A single, vacated mine at the base of a leaf of Sweet Chestnut, growing by the entrance gate to a private dwelling and garden at Chorleywood Common on 3rd October turned out to be made by the minute species Stigmella samiatella. Although new to Herts, this species may be more widespread than is realised as there are considerable problems separating its mine (normally on Sweet Chestnut, but sometimes on Oak) from that of the apparently common Stigmella ruficapitella (which normally mines oak, but occasionally mines Sweet Chestnut). Indeed, it may be that past records of the common species are partly in error for samiatella as both species mine leaves on both trees. The adults can be separated by the absence of androconial scales on the hind-wing of male samiatella. In Newsletter 3, I referred to possible leaf rolls of Caloptilia falconipennella. Dr John Langmaid has, since then, informed me that the rolls made by Caloptilia elongella can be equally large and that separation of the two really requires breeding-out of the adult. Since my rolls contained parasites, this is not possible, but there is always next year! The county list now stands at 1462 species. There is no reason why, with a little effort, the number of moths recorded for Hertfordshire should not rise to 1500 in the not too distant future.
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