I went to visit The Laund Oak, near Bolton Abbey, this morning, a tree which is more than 800 years old!I was lucky to find the sun shining and a Chiffchaff sang nearby as I watched a Common Buzzard fly over the adjacent hillside.
The south facing bole of the tree is covered in a myriad of lichens, closer inspection of which revealed a couple of grazing case-bearing moth larvae.
Narycia duplicella is, no doubt, under-recorded in Yorkshire and this site may be one of the most westerly records so far.
A case is shown in the lower left-hand corner of the bottom picture here, the middle picture illustrating podetia of one of the Cladonia genus of lichen.
Well found Derek - I still haven't motivated myself to look for these so far this year.
ReplyDeleteAre you going to rear them through?
Hi Charlie, Yes, I have a couple of larvae to rear. I did this a few years ago and they are quite easy.
ReplyDeleteIf you get a chance the South-east side of the trunk is the most productive and, fortuitously, they seem to always be at about head-height.
You can get some funny looks off passers-by though!
Thanks Derek,I'll give it a go when I find a suitable site.
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