The first night out for a short while, and the woodland around Kilburn beckoned. The wind dropped and the temperature remained above +9, and the half-moon was low enough in the sky so as not to impact on the trapping. The trapping session was brought abruptly to a close with a rain shower.....water and very hot bulbs do not go well together. While going throught the assembled moths, there was one in the egg boxes that immediately stood out....was it the legendary Yorkshire Brown.....no it was a Lutestring but which one? A quick check in Waring and Townsend and my Lutestring cribsheet, it was soon narrowed down to Poplar Lutestring.
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| Poplar Lutestring |
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| Poplar Lutestring |
On returning home, a quick check of Sutton and Beaumont suggested only a couple of old records, but the NMRS website showed several other squares in a small group in the Yorkshire area. The County Recorder Charlie Fletcher kindly confirmed the pictures and sent the current distribution map for the moth for the previous ten records, and my record was a new 10km square and the earliest county record.
A total of 98 moths of 26 species, with 33 Brown Silver-line and 11 Pale Tussock the commonest, and new for the year were singles of Common Lutestring, Poplar Hawk-moth, Alder Moth and Rustic Shoulder-knot.
Well if you'd sent me that top photo I would have immediately recognised it as a Poplar Lutestring and not a Yorkshire Brown!
ReplyDeleteHi Pog
ReplyDeleteHad any luck with the very close relative the Cornish Brown at all?