This moth night was intended as a joint meeting of the society with the Suffolk Moth Group but no members of the society turned up for the event. The original intention of the meeting was to carry out some moth recording along Chalk Lane as I understand that this is under some pressure to be opened as a public byway. Three visits had been organised by the moth group to visit the site during the year. At the first meeting, earlier in the year, a brisk wind had been blowing across this rather exposed site that meant that we had relocated to a more sheltered spot . Unfortunately for this the second meeting of the year the access gate to the site was locked when it shouldn’t have been so we had to relocate again. This was a slight disappointment as weather conditions appeared very favourable for the night and calm nights on exposed sites need to be made the most of. Not far from Chalk Lane is a picnic area amongst the forest and this is where we had relocated to for the first meeting and now again for this meeting.
Several mercury vapour lamps and traps were operated in the wooded areas around the southern end of the picnic site and moths quickly started arriving at the light. A fair representation of the species that one would expect to find in a wooded area in the Brecks were seen including; Clay Triple-lines, Pretty Chalk Carpet, Orange Footman, Brindled White-spot and Marbled White Spot.
This time of year provides good opportunities to see some of the more colourful and spectacular moths and the area of the Brecks is a good place to visit for these species. Of the larger moths three species of hawk-moth came to light during the evening with Pine, Elephant and Small Elephant Hawk-moths. As well as the hawk-moths we saw the Buff-tip moth that does a very good impression of a piece of broken twig. The Cream-spot Tiger with its cream and dark brown forewings, yellow and dark brown hindwings and orange-red body would put many butterflies to shame and may also be seen flying during the day in Breckland and the Sandlings. On a slightly smaller scale and one of my personal favourites, the Rosy Footman has forewings mainly coloured with yellow and red overlaid with black squiggly lines. The Prominents are a popular group of moths that usually raise a few ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ at public moth nights and on this night we saw a representation of the species of this group found in the county by way of Iron, Swallow, Coxcomb and Maple Prominents. Reminding us that we were in a pine forest were sights of Barred Red, Bordered White, Satin Beauty, Tawny-barred Angle, the micro-moth, Rhyacionia pinivorana and the Pine Hawk-moth, all of which species have larvae that feed on conifers.
Although possibly not so immediately attractive the Lunar Yellow Underwing was a significant record of the evening. This is a nationally notable species that has its stronghold in the Brecks and the Sandlings areas. The larva feeds on fine acid grasses including Festuca and Deschampsia. There is some concern about the use of sheep grazing as a management regime in the Brecks and the effect it may have on the grasses/habitat required by the larvae. A survey is currently in progress to assess any possible impacts of this grazing regime on the larvae in the Brecks and the Sandlings.
Another important record was that of the small tortrix moth, Archips oporana. The larva of this scarce species feed on various conifers but somewhat surprisingly, given the wide occurrence of its foodplant, the moth is very localised and restricted to the south-eastern counties of the country. This is the first record of this species in West Suffolk.
At the end of the night we had recorded 104 species of moth - a respectable number for this time of the year - and with some notable species amongst the list the night ended on a higher note than we had initially expected.
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