A nice daytime micro

Following Sam's plea for people to look out for day-flying micros, I obliged today with a splendid Hysterophora maculosana flying around bluebells, the larval foodplant, at Llanmelin Hillfort. This is a great site for micro-moths though I didn't see much else today apart from a few Micropterix tunbergella and a larval case of Psyche casta.

I was there to count Drab Loopers, and had 16 of those on the timed count compared with 6 a week ago. Hopefully numbers will increase further over the next week or two. A Grizzled Skipper was a welcome sighting too.

At Slade Wood I didn't see any Drab Loopers but was pleased to net the leaf beetle Clytra quadripunctata flying near some wood ant nests (the larvae develop in the nests). It's quite a scarce beetle and this is the only site at which I've encountered it.