Wings like Angles - and a lovely Lozzy

Final update on Project 3B

Here she is! My Angle Shades moth emerged on Wednesday (22 May), a week and a half earlier than I expected, certainly because I kept the pupa inside for the latter part of its development.

I released her back in the garden that night.

(I say "her". I can't actually sex moths so I'm just guessing...)

I haven't been keeping my Flickr account up to date recently so no links on the photos. Next up...

Update on Project 36A

Yes, the first Lozotaenia forsterana had popped out the same morning. I've kept it back until its companion emerges, then I'll release both of them in the garden. Or see if they'll breed.

In the 22 degree heat of my room, this one only took 10 days to complete its pupal stage. So as a comparison...

Update on Project 3B

...I collected a 2cm larva from the ivy on the garden wall, and am keeping it outdoors to see how long it pupates for in more normal conditions.

I found six other larvae on the ivy, with quite a range of sizes. One of them was only about 8mm, so their emergence is going to be quite well-staggered.

Update on Projects 37A and 38A

Neither of the mystery micro pupae have emerged yet.

Update on Project 7D

I can't find the Light Brown Apple Moth larva on the apple sapling, just two empty leaf spinnings. Another mystery...

Rearing project updates, mid-May

With northerly winds bringing the region back to weather more fitting of March, I haven't been putting the light trap out. But it's been very busy on the larval rearing front - I have three new projects to report, updates on the others and, sadly, final bulletins on the Brimstone Moth and Coxcomb Prominent. There's almost too much to talk about!

Update on Project 3B (Angle Shades)

Nothing to report except I've moved the jar of soil with the pupa indoors and put a lid on it to keep moisture in.

New Project 7D

Epiphyas postvittana ~ Light Brown Apple Moth

This now well-established Aussie immigrant to the UK is breeding in my garden for the fourth time since I started recording, and, for the third time, on one of my apple saplings. I found one larva on the healthier sapling yesterday (14 May). It's a micro-moth, continuously brooded, and feeds on plenty of things other than apple (rosemary, for instance). I will be leaving this one on the plant rather than bringing it indoors.

This photo is from the first brood of LBAMs I found (Project 7A), in August 2010.

The larva exposed from its spinning

Final update on Project 29A (Brimstone Moth)

The pupa has not been moving for quite a while now, so unfortunately it looks like I've lost it. It probably got dessicated when I put it in the shelter and left the lid of the jar off. I'll keep it for a while just in case.

[Update 19 May: Good thing I did - it ain't dead!]

The pupa, 9 May

The tiny, intricate cremaster

Final update on Project 31A (Coxcomb Prominent)

When I put the pupa back in damp conditions the green gunge appeared again, so I'm pretty sure it's gone too. A real shame. :'(

Update on Project 36A (Lozotaenia forsterana)

Both larvae have now pupated! Typical dark red-brown pupae, but with very fancy moves. When disturbed, rather than giving a short, lazy wiggle like most macro-moth pupae do, they start shaking violently! Obviously that uses up ATP (#biochemistrybant) so disturbance will have to be kept to a minimum. I'll be ensuring the pupae are kept moist and hopefully both will be successful. Pupa #1 (ie. the elder larva which was the first to pupate and the one doing the shaking) measures at 12mm. I won't disturb the other one.

Large Ivy Tortrix #1, 15 May

I also took a video here.

New Project 36B

Lozotaenia forsterana ~ Large Ivy Tortrix

The Large Ivy Tortrix larvae on the ivy on the back wall of my garden are getting on well - I opened two spinnings yesterday and found quite large larvae inside. I didn't originally call this a project when I reported my discovery of the fifteen larvae on 14 April, but for consistency's sake I've decided to make a "Project" out of any larvae I find in the garden.

Update on Project 37A (Tortrix U#266)

As I mentioned previously, the hawthorn larva had left its leaf tent and was running around the container. Well, it eventually settled down and bored a hole into the green stem and ate its way out to the youngest leaves. After I opened the spinning up, the larva moved into a loose spinning of larger leaves on the same old, smelly bit of hawthorn - despite a lovely fresh bit being provided!

The bore-hole, with frass left by the larva, 9 May

Update on Project 38A (Tortrix U#267)

The hazel larva firmly spun together a leaf and a stipule on 6 May and pupated in that cocoon. Today (15 May) I opened the cocoon very carefully, removing a stipule which formed an end-cap on the cocoon, and tipped the pupa out. It's 5mm long, orange-brown in colour, and was quite determined to wiggle out of my fingers!

I'm very much looking forward to its emergence, which shouldn't take more than a few weeks.

The cocoon, with stipule end-cap peeled back, 15 May

The pupa, 15 May

New Project 39A 

Noctuid - Unidentified #268

At the NI Recorders' Day I received a buddleia cutting from our local BC branch secretary which for the past few weeks has been home to a tiny larva. I originally presumed it was a sawfly, as no UK lepidopteran feeds primarily on buddleia. But on closer inspection I'm satified that it's a caterpillar, and probably an Orthosia species like Hebrew Character or Common Quaker, so I'll keep an eye on it. It's currently 8mm long. It's probably better to leave it on the buddleia for the time being, but when it gets a bit bigger I might see what other plants it will accept. It should be a handsome caterpillar anyway when it gets grown.

Rearing up his thorax... "rarrr, I'm big, fear me!" - 10 May

So, with seven projects on the go, I'm a very busy mothman!

[Edited to insert dates on photos, 19 May]

Rearing: Angle Shades (Project 3B)

The focus of this blog is twofold I suppose: recording moths and rearing moths. I've got off to a good start with the recording side - so now time I think to do my first proper post about one of my current rearing projects.

I already introduced it in "The story so far" - this is my second Angle Shades caterpillar (Phlogophora meticulosa), which is of course the Moth Of The Blog...

28 MAR 2013 | ON VEGETATION | AT HOME GARDEN, SPRINGMARTIN HVC39 J3074

Angle Shades: 1L (Ye) (GYe)

Angle Shades caterpillar on rose

This is the third Angle Shades caterpillar I've found in my garden - it's a common migrant Noctuid moth. I reared the first one I found (in 2010, on the exact same plant), and I'm doing the same with this one. At the minute it's under a half-eaten rose leaf in a cottage cheese carton on my bedroom windowsill, in the process of moulting its skin. That'll bring it to its penultimate or maybe third-last instar.

Update on Project 3B

I took the caterpillar indoors the following day, by which time it had moved up the plant to a spray of leaves precariously flapping in the breeze:

Angle Shades caterpillar on rose, 29 March 2013

On the windowsill in its cottage cheese carton, it grew and ate quite quickly, as caterpillars do...

Indoors, 29 March

1 April

2 April

Just over a week later, it moulted onto its final instar (jargon buster: caterpillars periodically moult their skin; the periods between moults are the instars)...

Moulted head case, 5 April

It took me a while to remember my tactic with the previous Angle Shades caterpillar (Rosebud, the blog icon) of feeding it elder leaves, to spare mum's roses...!

Nearly full grown, 9 April

On 14 April I found it, with its velvety patterned complexion changed to a plain shiny yellow-green, spinning a loose cocoon of silk and chewed-up leaves in the bottom of the container. Angle Shades number one had done this and pupated and emerged successfully, but I suspected that, like other Noctuid caterpillars, it would much rather prefer some soil.

Turning yellowish as it prepares to pupate, 14 April

So I provided some, and it dove right in!

Diving straight into the earth, 14 April

And that's the last I saw of it. I moved the jar outside to give it normal conditions for pupation.

Based on how long it took Rosebud to go from spinning its cocoon to emergence (49 days) I'm predicting Angie will emerge around 2 June. So until then, I just have to keep the soil moist and wait.

And wait for the Brimstone pupa to emerge. And take care of James's two Lozotaenias. I got some good photos of the older Lozzy today - and a video clip - but that's another post for another day!

Butterfly Conservation NIRD 2013!

The mad, hilarious NI Recorders Day. On Saturday. Not Sunday, early hours of when I wrote this.

[Updated with photos sensible hours of Sunday 7 Apr.]

6 Apr 2013 | Day Obs / On Veg | at Peatlands Park / Annagariff NNR

Stigmella aurella: 4L
Carcina quercana: 1L (Ye)
Epiphyas postvittana: 2 (Y)
Lozotaenia forsterana: 2L (Ye) (Collected to rear - project 36A)

Stigmella aurella larva in mine on bramble (Rubus fruticosus agg.)

Carcina quercana larva in spinning on bramble

Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana)

Lozotaenia forsterana larva on ivy

Year list shoots up to 7!

New Project 36A
Large Ivy Tortrix ~ Lozotaenia forsterana

Hooray! (Credit to James Rainey who found two early-instar larvae sandwiched between two ivy leaves! They are now re-settling down on the separated ivy leaves - in a sandwich carton on my windowsill!!!)

[Update: now an ice cream carton, not that it really makes a difference.]

Ivy leaves with Lozotaenia forsterana larvae and feeding damage

Update on Project 3B

The Angle Shades caterpillar has now moulted and is cramming leaves into its gub to fill out its baggy skin!

Project 31A

Just ended - my Coxcomb Prominent pupa from Murlough has died and gone mouldy! :( Noooo, that story ended before I could start to tell it!

Project 29A

Is in its final stages - my Brimstone Moth pupa from Murlough did a wiggle when handled yesterday and could emerge any day! :) That will be a good story!

This is the madcap world of moth recording and rearing! Spectacular overuse of question marks!! Goodnight!!!

[Update: It was getting late. I meant exclamation marks of course...]

The story so far

British and Irish readers will already know what the story so far this spring is...

Polar bear eating marshmallows in a snowstorm

That picture is intended to represent everything covered in copious amounts of crystalline dihydrogen oxide and blank after blank night in many moth traps, including mine.

Yes, may I introduce the 25W Blacklight Heath, my humble home-made moth trap, glowing steadfastly yesterday morning after a seventh mothless night out in my back yard/garden in the Springmartin area of west Belfast. It's in its second year of operation and last year pulled in a fair number and variety of species, including this Firethorn Leaf Miner (Phyllonorycter leucographella; a relatively recent arrival to Nornia and as you can see, dwarfed by my cat's hair fibre):

Back to the present, most lepidopterists in the UK running traps in favourable habitats have got something this year, and you can check out their successes in the blog list on the right and at the Back Garden Moths forum (where I spend a lot of time, and where I'll be duplicating the garden moth reports I post here). Still, all agree moth numbers have been down on previous years due to the cold weather.

So have I anything to report from the garden yet? Well as it so happens...

Jan 2013 | Trace records | at home garden, Springmartin HVC39 J3074

Rose Leaf Miner ~ Stigmella anomalella: vacated/failed larval leaf mines on Rose

Stigmella aurella: vacated larval leaf mines on Bramble

Rose Leaf Miner. As you can see there appears to be the remains of a larva
in here, although it could simply be a discoloration of the leaf epidermis

I haven't included a photo of Stigmella aurella leaf mines for the simple reason that those who don't know it will merely have to make a trip to their nearest bramble bush where they will very likely find at least one, and those who do know it will already be sick to the back teeth of seeing it!

I've also seen a few tenanted mines at Glencairn Park (my local "patch") and Jordanstown. 

I successfully reared four S. aurella larvae (in their mines) to pupation stage last year, from which I got a parasite and three tiny moths (one of which escaped somehow, one of which I kept as a specimen as it died before I could get it back to where I got it at Murlough House, and the other I released at the colony in my garden lest it suffer a similar fate). 

That was my first rearing project on this species, which was "Study Species" number 27 of the 30-odd species I've reared over the past three-and-a-half years. That gives you an idea of the work I'll have to do to summarise all the Lepidoptera rearing projects I've done on that "Projects" page I'm planning on doing!

When it comes to biological recording, as I see it, there are basically two kinds of record: live records and trace records. Traces include dead individuals, feeding signs, vacated cocoons etc. Live records go on my year list, trace records don't. That may sound like moon waffle to most people, but I find it a very useful principle to live by.

But before my readership falls asleep, I must move on to my first live garden record of the year...

20 Feb 2013 | Indoors | at home garden, Springmartin HVC39 J3074

Mompha subbistrigella: 1 (Y) (GY)

Mompha subbistrigella

An overwintering Momphid in the window of our family's upstairs loo. Still counts as a garden record by my rules! (Strangely, no White-shouldered House Moths [Endrosis sarcitrella] or Brown House Moths [Hofmannophila pseudospretella] have showed up yet.)

3 Mar 2013 | Day Obs | at Ballintoy VCH39 D0444

Pale Brindled Beauty: 1 (N) (Y)

Pale Brindled Beauty

This, my first macro-moth of the year, was one I'd never seen before, a fantastic furry Noctuid resting on the wall of the youth hostel at Ballintoy. I wrote about it recently on The Caterpillar, before I started this blog.

Also in that post I wrote about my current rearing projects, one of which features the following little fella:

28 Mar 2013 | On vegetation | at home garden, Springmartin HVC39 J3074

Angle Shades: 1L (Ye) (GYe)

Angle Shades caterpillar on rose

This is the third Angle Shades caterpillar I've found in my garden - it's a common migrant Noctuid moth. I reared the first one I found (in 2010, on the exact same plant), and I'm doing the same with this one. At the minute it's under a half-eaten rose leaf in a cottage cheese carton on my bedroom windowsill, in the process of moulting its skin. That'll bring it to its penultimate or maybe third-last instar.

(That, by the way, is project 3B. I'll get round to talking about my projects some day....)

Another moth recording vagary (which, be ye warned, may send you to sleep) is those Ys and Gs and Ns above. Those are my "list" notation. Moth-ers generally keep life lists or garden lists and often year lists, and they use abbreviations when sharing their finds to indicate that a moth is new for a particular list. Most use NFM/NEW, NFG and NFY (new for me/garden/year).

I was pernickety and pointed out to myself that it's possible to see a new species for the first time in a year outside the garden as an early stage then see the adult, again outside the garden, then later find the adult in the garden and what, may I ask, are you supposed to do then?

So I've developed a "simple" system for my notebook using squares and circles and ticks, which I'll adapt for use on this blog...

(Y) New for year for me (adults)
(Ye) New for year for me (early stage)
(GY) New for year for garden (adults)
(GYe) New for year for garden (early stage)
(N) New for me (all stages)
(n) New for me (adult, after early stage)
(GN) New for garden (all stages, and traces provided they haven't blown in)

This is the corner of my life where I'm obsessive-compulsive about things. Just ignore me if it annoys you!

And after this very long post which took two hours to write and which hopefully sets the scene for what I'm hoping to do with the Lepidoptera Log this year, I'll end on a moth please Carol!

Pink-barred Sallow, in Murlough NNR, Oct 2012