A SICKLESMERE GARDEN

June - September 2002

June did not start at all well - the garden moth lamp did not come on. I eventually discovered the cause of the trouble - a break in the cable. After running repairs I managed to make a start, I may as well not have bothered. The sum total of moths for the first night of the month was 18, with 14 species. Here is the complete list, all singles unless stated otherwise:

Buff Ermine, Spilosoma luteum, Buff-tip, Phalera bucephala, The Shears, Hada plebeja, Epiblema cynosbatella, 3 Heart & Dart, Agrotis exclamationis, Common Marbled Carpet, Chloroclysta truncata, Oak-tree Pug, Eupithecia dodoneata, Poplar Hawk-moth, Laothoe populi, Rustic Shoulder-knot, Apamea sordens, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Xestia c-nigrum, 2 Shuttle-shaped Dart, Agrotis puta, The Spectacle, Abrostola tripartita, Treble Lines, Charanyca trigrammica, White Ermine, Spilosoma lubricepeda.

The first week of June followed the same pattern, but the first of the migrant moths on 7 June was a welcome sight, even though it was only Pearly Underwing, Peridroma saucia. A few days before this, on 5 June, began a long series of Straw Dot, Rivula sericealis, with a total of 114 between that date and 30 August. This compared with a total of 21 for the same period in 2001 - an increase of over 500%. A second Pauper Pug, Eupithecia egenaria, put in an appearance at Sicklesmere on 13 June. This RDB3 species is described by Skinner (1984) as very local in Britain and known only from southwest Norfolk; and the Wye Valley, in Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire. It is obviously expanding its range, as it has been recorded previously in 1993 and 1994 at the Kings Forest, 1998 at Groton Wood, 1999 at Nowton Park and in 2000 at Sicklesmere. I have no doubt that it has been recorded at other places in Suffolk. The larvae feed on the flowers of both small-leaved lime, Tilia cordata, and large-leaved lime, Tilia platyphyllos. A third specimen occurred at Sicklesmere on 19 June. A Dotted Fan-foot, Macrochilo cribrumalis, on 28 June was the second record of this Notable / Nb species at Sicklesmere. This very local moth inhabits fenland and marshes. The larva is stated to feed on hairy wood-rush, wood-sedge and various marsh grasses. On 7 July a Dingy Shears, Parastichtis ypsilon, made a welcome appearance, the last record being on 8 July 1998. This very local moth is another inhabitant of damp woodland, fenland and marshy places. Another local moth was recorded on 19 July, an Oak Nycteoline, Nycteola revayana, whose larva feeds on oak and over winters as an adult. An Olive, Ipimorpha subtusa, followed this on 20 July, the first record at this site since 1999. The first of a run of Haworth’s Pug, Eupithecia haworthiata, began on 22 July, with a total of 20 moths appearing between that date and 12 August. This is a local moth and is shown as having been recorded in 4 tetrad squares in Suffolk in The Suffolk Moth Groups’ Checklist of the Moths of Suffolk, although I suspect it is a little more common than this. Square-spotted Clay, Xestia rhomboidea, on 5 August reminded me that it has been recorded at Sicklesmere every year since 1995. This moth is a UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UK BAP) priority species and is the subject of investigation as part of “The Action for Threatened Moths Project” conducted by Butterfly Conservation with funding from English Nature. However at Sicklesmere and in the Breckland it is anything but a scarce moth. Flame Carpet, Xanthorhoe designata, although not an uncommon moth in Suffolk, is certainly very uncommon at Sicklesmere, this being the first record at this site since recording began in 1993. I was reminded that autumn was not very far away with the arrival of the first Centre-barred Sallow, Atethmia centrago, on 28 August. Other autumn moths followed such as Dark Chestnut, Conistra ligula, The Brick, Agrochola circillaris, Brown-spot Pinion, Agrochola litura, Lunar Underwing, Omphaloscelis lunosa, Pink-barred Sallow, Xanthia togata, The Sallow, Xanthis icteritia and Merveille du Jour, Dichonia aprilina. I suppose none of the above are truly autumn moths, in that they start their flight during the summer moths. However, they always remind me that autumn is just around the corner. Perhaps the most unusual of the Sicklesmere records came on 19 September with a Humming-bird Hawk-moth, Macroglossum stellatarum, found in the garden trap. This migrant moth is more usually seen during the day and is seldom seen at night.

While I was writing this article I thought that someone might be interested in a set of data that I have just compiled for another article. This data shows the 20 most common moths that I have recorded over the past three years in Suffolk, please note that this is not Sicklesmere alone, but includes other places I have recorded moths in Suffolk.

No real surprises considering the areas that I have recorded in (Sicklesmere and the Brecks).

Skinner, B.S. 1984. Coloured guide to the moths of the British Isles. Viking, References Harmondsworth

Stan Dumican, Anglezarke, Sicklesmere, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP30 0TJ

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