11th May

In and around Dewstow

A wander around the Dewstow area for a couple of hours produced some interesting results on the lepidoptera front.
Firstly I saw 14 butterflies covering 6 species. Having been to this particular site consistently for a few years now it's what I would expect to find but it's pleasing that both Grizzled Skipper and Brown Argus appear to be stable in this environment at the moment.  

Next I decided to tap around some hedges and to my surprise out came not one, but 2 Mocha moths within close proximity of each other. I already had one in a pot before the second one flew out, so a second was very welcome.

After checking my records through I have not encountered it at this site before.

Quite a few Treble-bar moths were ever present as well.

Wandering further a field and concentrating on Birch trees mainly, further discoveries were made, such as this Orange Footman partially clinging to a birch twig and leaf in the shade. Unusual to find one during the daylight hours I thought?

I took me quite some time to come up with anything operating within birch leaves but it was well worth it. A single larvae of Eriocrania semipurpurella (Early Purple) was found first. This before 4 mines of Eriocrania cicatricella (Washed Purple) turned up all together on the same small tree further down the track. This is highly likely to be a new site for this micro.

Ericrania cicatricella leaf mine

 You can see the two pale, curved larvae lying within the blotch mine on this birch leaf near the bottom edge. Often 2-4 larvae occupy the same leaf.

Finally further minutes looking around Birch trees brought about this caterpillar. Taking several photographs and looking it up, I've discovered the colourful 'Inchworm' caterpillar belongs to the Macro moth, Mottled Umber.

Mottled Umber 'inchworm'

A total of two of these were found fairly close by to each other, both on Birch.