A SICKLESMERE GARDEN

Anglezarke is situated on the A134 road at Sicklesmere. It is on the eastern outskirts of a housing estate and is surrounded by farmland. On the eastern side of the house is the disused and dismantled Bury St Edmunds to Lavenham railway line, which is now used as a nature walk. The old railway line, farmland and nearby gardens provide a wide range of flora and habitat.

The Clouded Magpie ~ Abraxas sylvata

I have been using a moth trap in the garden since 1994. Initially I ran a Heath trap with a 25w actinic lamp. In 1996 I moved on to a Robinson trap with a 125 mv lamp and continue to use it at the present time.
My interest in moths was kindled by a 28 year friendship with Suffolk's premier moth man, Rafe Eley of Nowton. As he only lives some two miles away I make regular calls on Rafe for help with identification of various members of the animal kingdom. Since being bitten by the bug of mothing I have been fortunate to have had the help of Rafe; without him there is no telling what I would have recorded. Time and again my identification has proved faulty and has been corrected by him. I am no different to most naturalists and I sometimes wonder about the identification of species by others who are not as fortunate as I have been and do not have the valuable assistance of an experienced moth man. I have witnessed them myself. They take a moth they have never seen before, consult Skinner, make an instant indentification and record even the most difficult to identify species as a certain record. I do urge anyone who does not have the help of an experienced naturalist to seek assistance before recording some of the more difficult species. Fortunately, as time has gone by, I am slowly becoming more adept at identification.

I have been using a moth trap in the garden since 1994. Initially I ran a Heath trap with a 25w actinic lamp. In 1996 I moved on to a Robinson trap with a 125 mv lamp and continue to use it at the present time.
My interest in moths was kindled by a 28 year friendship with Suffolk's premier moth man, Rafe Eley of Nowton. As he only lives some two miles away I make regular calls on Rafe for help with identification of various members of the animal kingdom. Since being bitten by the bug of mothing I have been fortunate to have had the help of Rafe; without him there is no telling what I would have recorded. Time and again my identification has proved faulty and has been corrected by him. I am no different to most naturalists and I sometimes wonder about the identification of species by others who are not as fortunate as I have been and do not have the valuable assistance of an experienced moth man. I have witnessed them myself. They take a moth they have never seen before, consult Skinner, make an instant indentification and record even the most difficult to identify species as a certain record. I do urge anyone who does not have the help of an experienced naturalist to seek assistance before recording some of the more difficult species. Fortunately, as time has gone by, I am slowly becoming more adept at identification.

On the morning of 29 June 1995, I inspected the moth trap. As I searched through the egg boxes to uncover my catch my attention was immediately drawn to a hawk-moth. I knew that I had never seen this species before. I quickly boxed it and then it was a question of comparing it with Plate 19 of Moths of the British Isles by Bernard Skinner. It was apparent that it was a Bedtstraw Hawk-moth, Hyles gallii, an immigrant with a range from Western Europe to Japan. I was anxious to verify my identification, but Rafe was on holiday in Scotland and I waited impatiently for his return. I passed the time by photographing the moth from several angles. Upon his return Rafe immediately identified the moth as a female Bedstraw Hawk-moth. This moth eventually laid a total of 193 eggs. A large proportion of these hatched and the caterpillars were fed on Willowherb, Epilobium spp, from which a good number of adults were obtained.

The following year was to provide me with another thrill. The morning of 27 July, 1996 started with the temperature up to 64oF at 8am. As I searched the catch for any new records for the garden, I became aware of a very small geometer, which I was certain I had seen before. Sure enough the moth was a Least Carpet, Idaea vulpinaria atrosignaria, normally a moth of north Kent, south Essex, the London area, Surrey and East Sussex. I had recorded the moth at Levington Marina on 25 July, 1994, this being the first record for Suffolk for over 10 years. Morley (1937) refers to two specimens on record, one at Felixstowe and the other at Stowmarket in about 1858. The other records all being at Walberswick in 1971, 1973 and 1983. Since 1994 it has been recorded at Aldringham, Felixstowe, Nowton, Scole and again at Sicklesmere on 27/28.7.96. (4 moths). It would appear that this moth is now breeding within the County.

Some of the more unusual moths recorded at this site are:

The Netted Pug ~ Eupithecia venosata

These are just a few of the 376 from the garden list I have amassed in the four years I have been recording. I hope to do a regular report from my Sicklesmere garden covering the appearance of moths throughout the year, providing, of course, that the Editor agrees.

References

Morley, C. (1937) Final Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of Suffolk. Ipswich: Suffolk Naturalists' Society.

Skinner, B. (1984) Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles.Viking.