Newsletter no. 8 Winter 2002/2003

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1507 AND RISING … MOTHS RECENTLY ADDED TO THE COUNTY LIST

Amongst these were two species new to Hertfordshire. Coleophora saxicola was amongst those taken by Charles Watson, in the August 2000 sample from his garden in Bishops Stortford. This raised the county moth list to 1500 species, at long last. The other new species was the tortrix Phtheochroa sodaliana - taken at Ashwell Quarry on 8th June (not identified in time for the report on that trip in the last newsletter). 1501 species and counting!

Mines of the micro moth Stigmella tiliae on the leaves of street limes at Much Hadham, collected by Charles Watson, raised the total to 1502 species. Stigmella tiliae is not as rare as the map in Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland (MBGBI) indicates; it is in Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire so its presence in Herts is not surprising really. MBGBI volume 1 is so out of date now (1976) that the maps are really quite useless and should not be relied upon at all.

On a leaf-miner recording trip by myself and Charles Watson to Patmore Heath on 14th October 2002, I found longitudinally rolled edges of birch leaves on regenerating birch scrub in the acid grassland. These contained the larvae of Caloptilia populetorum - 1503 species.

Still with leaf-miners, the leaf-miner trip to Balls Wood on 26th October 2002 has already been mentioned above. It produced one mine of Stigmella ulmariae yet another new county record - 1504 species.
John Murray's actinic trap in his garden at Marshall's Heath continues to produce some very interesting records - very possibly because he usually gets up at first light to check the catch before returning to bed. A large number of micros collected by John over the year were identified at the recent annual exhibition of the British Entomological and Natural History Society. Amongst these, Parectopa ononidis is another new, confirmed species for Hertfordshire - 1505. Of course, not everything can be identified without recourse to closer examination. Several other candidate new species for the county required dissection for proper naming. Of these, Elachista apicipunctella and the pyralid Euzophera cinerosella were dissected by me and are correctly named. So, as I prepare this newsletter in late November 2002, the Hertfordshire (VC 20) moth list now stands at 1507 species.

OTHER "GOOD" RECORDS SINCE THE LAST NEWSLETTER

Several of John Murray's records update the county list, with Nemapogon ruricolella (last recorded in the VCH from pre 1900), Pseudatemelia flavifrontella (last recorded in 1968), Scrobipalpa acuminatella (1987), Elachista gleichenella (1890), Gelechia scotinella (1971) and Scrobipalpa atriplicella (1970).

Amongst the micros identified for me by Steve Palmer are several of interest, notably Ethmia dodecella from my own garden on 18th July 2002 (last recorded in Hertfordshire in 1970), Ocnerostoma piniariella on 29th June 2001, also in my garden in Bishops Stortford and last recorded in the county in the year 1890.

Elsewhere, Alan Bernard caught a female Garden Tiger (Arctia caja) at Long Marston on 27th July after a 2 year absence. Garden Tigers have all but vanished from the county as a result of the unduly mild winters in the south-east of England and I need you to give me dates, numbers and, if possible, sexes, of all records. As an aside, it appears that the Small Tortoiseshell butterfly (Aglais urticae) is doing a similar vanishing act - I am sure that John Murray would be very pleased to get all records of that species, including counts.

Andrew Palmer captured Yponomeuta plumbella in his Bishops Stortford garden during July 2002 - the first county record for this species since 1901. Interestingly, I also caught one in a different part of Bishops Stortford on 7th August. I wonder why this species should suddenly appear at two separate places?

The adjacent two gardens of Jim Fish and Julian Reeves in Bishops Stortford produced a Gem (Orthonama obstipata) during August 2002. Jim's and Julian's combined garden total now stands at 403 macros - I do hope you are going to start sending me the micros, chaps!

My own garden total rose again on 9th August with the capture of a Twin-spotted Wainscot. This brings my garden total up to 336 macros and 331 micros - a grand total of 564 species but still some way behind.

During July 2002 Alan Bolitho's garden list for Cuffley rested at 299 species of macro moth! Happily, during the first week of August he added Varied Coronet and September Thorn - his garden total is now 301 species, making it another of the better recorded sites in the county.
If we are talking numbers - then several of you who have started recording in your gardens as recently as this year are doing really rather well. It has been an abysmal year, with moth numbers in general very low and many species not appearing at all, so anyone who has reach 150 species can pour themselves and extra pre-X**s whisky (I have promised not to mention the "C" word until 24th December at the earliest). At Croxley Common Moor, near Rickmansworth, on 3rd August 2002 a single Ypsolopha horridella appeared at the sheet - the first for Herts since 1969. A few days later, at Ponders End on 6th August, Andrew Middleton caught the pyralid Evergestis extimalis.

Bill and Pearl Page found several (18) Old Lady moths roosting under a bridge in Shenley Lane, London Colney in July. The road bridge is over the river Colne, near the British Legion Club. The moth is noted for its habit of aestivation (the summer version of hibernation) and it is quite nice to find aggregations such as this.

AND IN MIDDLESEX …

The Small Ranunculus (Hecatera dysodea) was considered extinct in Britain since 1909, until its rediscovery on Stone Marshes in the River Thames in Kent during 1997. The larvae feed on Prickly Lettuce and Great Lettuce and are extremely cryptic. It was inevitable that the moth should spread out along the Thames into, and perhaps through, Middlesex, and so it has done. Chris Court had a one in his garden trap at Hayes, Middlesex on 27th July 2002. Further away from the Thames, Ray Softly had two - one on each of 29th June and 6th July 2002. The Small Ranunculus is surely the most likely candidate for the next macro new for Hertfordshire? Keep an eye open for it in 2003, especially in the valleys of the Lea, Stort and Colne.

The unrelated (apart from being a noctuids) Feathered Ranunculus (Eumichtis lichenea) is a very rare visitor to Hertfordshire- Liz Goodyear captured a male in her garden trap at Ware on the night of 10th October. As far as we can tell all records of this species in Hertfordshire relate to immigrants from elsewhere - though the possibility of it becoming established at least as a transitory resident cannot be completely ruled out.

Finally, in this section of the newsletter, mention should be made of the plume moth Amblyptilia acanthadactyla. Historically, this has been a genuinely rare species in Hertfordshire (that is - not under-recorded like so many other species, but genuinely absent). There are three historical records for the county - at Cheshunt in 1901(W. C. Boyd in the Victoria County History), at Hitchin in 1934 (A. H. Foster) and at Borehamwood in 1969 (E. S. Bradford). During 2001 a few records of this species were made at scattered localities and during 2002 there were rather more. Ray Softly also records it in Middlesex at Hampstead during 2002 (previous Middlesex records are from Chiswick (1902) and Ruislip (1957) then Ruislip again in 2000 (Martin Harvey) and in Buckingham Palace Garden (2000). It is evident that this species is recorded across all of Herts and Middlesex; the question remains whether these are immigrants or if they represent a colonisation of the two counties from outside.