Interesting to hear Kate Bradbury saying that the pollen and nectar from native flowers is not so crucuial. It is the foliage which is vital for many insects (like moths) as many are specialist on just one plant for laying eggs or larvae - like nettles or milk parsey or bramble.
Holly - the leaves are eaten by caterpillars of the holly blue butterfly, along
with those of various moths, including the yellow-barred brindle,
double-striped pug and the holly tortrix. Yeay for holly!
I got four moths the other night. One new one I thought was a pale November Moth, but as i didn't dissect the genitalia, it has to go down as a November moth agg.
It turns out that you can get good bonuses for changing bank accounts again so I'm one second hand lens richer today. It's a bit cold and dark but I've had a quick play and it's looking good so far. Very dark at full magnification though so my usual LED lamp is struggling a bit. Below is a comparison between my old lens and the new one at the same distance with a regulation size dead vine weevil as the subject. I'm focusing on the toothed leg segment. I could take a slightly closer photo with the old lens but I'd still need to crop most of the photo to show the detail. Plenty of time to practice before the next mothing season though.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I found a Juniper carpet moth on the inside of the kitchen window this morning. I was beginning to think I was not going to see all the late moths as they don't seem to like my actinic light.
I noticed a rash of records for the Crimson Speckled on iNaturalist at the end of the month. The closest to here was Bristol so maybe one day it will brave a trip into the Welsh hills. The link below says there are only about 200 records for the UK but this must have gone up quite a bit this year. We're due more warm southerlies next week to maybe there will be more again.
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