Monday, 28 April 2014

Out goes the moth trap...

Im sure you will agree the weather has been a little changeable of late...a few easterlies have blown in making it rather cool...showers and heavier rain have put paid to moth trapping for a week...thankfully the Met Offices ever changing forecast was wrong again.....dry rather than rainy....warmer rather than cooler....and a dry night provided an opportunity for the moth trap to go out..
It wasnt the biggest catch, around 15 in total...but some common species in the trap made their first appearances....


Brimstone Moth

Heart and Dart

Ive seen this species before, though never caught in the numbers of the above species.....
Mullein

Heres another beetle.....I always get these in the trap but a sure sign of the seasons progressing.....

Cockchafer, Melolontha melolontha

The adults eat Oak leaves and pine needles.  This amazing looking beetle will only live for a few weeks after surviving the winter burrowed in the ground.
The larvae will grow and develop under ground, eating roots of plants, for 3 or 4 years and then one autumn they will pupate and the next spring appears the adult we see flying around.....and in the moth trap.  
With a life cycle such as this it is easy to see how years of continuous out of control pesticide use nearly destroyed them!  Thankfully control of these chemicals helped save these as well as many other species.

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