I spent another few hours on Barden Moor yesterday and found this female Philedonides lunana resting on a Cowberry leaf. It isn't recorded very often in Vice-county 64, presumably due to its early flight period.
The lunana was the last find of the day and the weather was closing in as I descended from Upper Barden Reservoir. I used the UKMoths.org.uk site to identify it, the illustration in Razowski bearing no similarity to my moth.
A Stoat crossed my path as I walked along the eastern edge of Lower Barden Reservoir where the Cowberry grows in abundance.
I was already pleased with myself having located a couple of examples of Phyllonorycter junoniella and a Northern Eggar caterpillar.
I can now categorically state that the multitude of dark larvae spinning the Cowberry here are Olethreutes mygindiana; one of these emerged, yesterday, from a specimen collected earlier.
Wow,I'd do the lottery tonight if I were you Derek, you're turning up some great stuff there.It just shows the potential for these under watched upland sites, apart from mine that is :-(
ReplyDeleteIt does give me hope however that my spinnings might not be a common polyphage after all. All six fed up extremely well and all pupated - the first 10 days ago. Fingers crossed!
No luck with the lottery last night, Charlie, but I did win on the Premium Bonds for the first time ever at the weekend! Only £25 but I live in hope.
ReplyDeleteOn the down side I missed the White-tailed Eagle that flew over Barden on Saturday whilst my eyes were glued to the Cowberry!