Last night’s moth trap had some fine specimens:
Light Emerald
Garden Tiger
Garden Tiger
Coxcomb Prominent
and quite a few more.
Posts Tagged ‘Moths’
Moth Trap
July 23, 2017 Skye Botany Group’s July Excursion
July 4, 2017We went to Tusdale (west of Eynort) yesterday and recorded 189 vascular plants and charophytes plus 119 bryophytes from tetrad NG32M for which there were no previous plant records.
Nitella flexilis sens. lat. (Smooth Stonewort) was new to the ten-kilometre square NG32. As we were running out of time we found an excellent gorge which could do with a revisit.
I accidentally left my camera in the car but Terry has sent loads of excellent images. Here are a few plants:
and a few non-plants:
Macleod’s Maidens and Beyond
June 30, 2017
Macleod’s Maidens
It is a fair old walk out to Macleod’s Maidens but Joanna and Julian were determined to get to tetrad NG23I which lies beyond this impressive group of sea stacks. Nick and I joined them on Thursday on what turned out to be the best weather of the week.
Previously there was a single record in the database for NG23I – Silene acaulis (Moss Campion) in 1990. There was plenty of that:
Silene acaulis
but also we spotted nearly 50 specimens of Orobanche alba (Thyme Broomrape) and a few Carlina vulgaris (Carline Thistle):
Orobanche alba
Carlina vulgaris
Overall we recorded 132 taxa which was pretty good going given we could not get down to the shore and there is no woodland or body of fresh water. Nick recorded over 80 bryophytes, which is unexciting but again pretty good considering the range of habitats.
On the way I spotted Juncus foliosus (Leafy Rush), a first for Skye, though known on Raasay, Rona and Rum.
Juncus foliosus (Leafy Rush)
As well as broader leaves compared with J. bufonius (Toad Rush), J. foliosus has tepals with dark lines either side of the midrib.
It was a great day for insects, with many butterflies and moths
Chimney Sweepers on Trifolium repens
and I found the rust Melampsora lini growing on Linum catharticum (Fairy Flax).
Melampsora lini on Linum catharticum
There was also Nicrophorus vespilloides, the Sexton Beetle with black clubs on its antennae.
Nicrophorus vespilloides – with added mites
On Friday morning Joanna and Julian joined me for a quick look at the tiny bit of land on Harlosh Point in NG24Q. We found 48 taxa in this tiny coastal strip including Carex distans (Distant Sedge), Cerastium diffusum (Sea Mouse-ear) and Galium verum (Lady’s Bedstraw).
Miscellany
June 27, 2017Near East Suisnish on Raasay there is a little bit of land in NG5533. I chose not to record this separately for The Flora of Raasay. However, there is a slightly bigger area on the Moll peninsula of Skye that falls in the same tetrad and that is a different habitat, making a visit to the Raasay bit worthwhile in order to achieve a more complete picture of the tetrad. On Sunday I went to NG5535 and added 21 taxa to the tetrad. I also had a look in early April when I added five.
New things this time included Acaena inermis (Spineless Acaena), well-known nearby, and the always-nice-to-see Pinguicula lusitanica (Pale Butterwort).
I have found a lot of different rusts and leaf-mines recently but they do not generally make for interesting images. However, the moth trap yielded 15 moths of 12 species the other night.
Magpie Moth
True-lover’s Knot
Beautiful Golden Y
Grey Pug
Nearby this ichneumon was on the wall, perhaps attracted by the light.
The moth trap had also attracted large numbers of non-biting midges and yesterday the garden was full of insects including Red Admirals and this Yarrow Plume Moth:
Yarrow Plume
Curiously there are Flame Carpets everywhere at the moment but none ventured into the trap – or if they did, they got out again.
A Week on Muck
June 18, 2017I have just spent a rather wet and windy week on Muck with the Inverness Botany Group. I decided to record on a monad (1 km square) basis as there are only 13 and none has 100% land. However, it spreads over four 10km squares, three of which have no other land in VC 104. We made over 1,800 records and as well as re-finding old records of many species, we added Carex extensa (Long-bracted Sedge), Carex limosa (Bog-sedge), Carlina vulgaris (Carline Thistle) and Valeriana officinalis (Common Valerian) to the Muck list.
Daucus carota
Sagina maritima
Ajuga pyramidalis
Dactylorhiza incarnata ssp coccinea
Carex paniculata
Sedum acre on a shell beach
Fumaria bastardii (Tall Ramping-fumitory), distinguished by its large flowers but small stipules, was a good find with only two previous sites (on Muck and Eigg) in VC104 and no record since 1999.
Fumaria bastardii (Tall Ramping-fumitory)
Some Myriophyllum in brackish pools led me to hope for M. spicatum for which there are no accepted records for VC 104, as this is the habitat in which it is found on Coll and Tiree and the Outer Isles.
However, the inflorescence being <3cm and the tip drooping in bud plus the basal whorl of flowers being in leaf-like pinnatisect bracts then others in pectinate bracts, tells me that it is the locally frequent M. alterniflorum.
We also recorded a number of insects, mammals…..
Rhagium bifasciatum
Carabus granulatus
Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary
Grey Seals
Shags
Belted Beauty Larva
The Belted Beauty has yet to be recorded on Skye.
Also fungi, some of which are awaiting identification….
On Rosa caesia subsp. vosagiaca
On Silene flos-cuculi
Later: Bruce tells me the fungus on Silene flos-cuculi is Septoria lychnidis, or as NBN has it Caryophylloseptoria lychnidis, and that it is found on other members of the genus too.
More from Skye’s East Coast
June 8, 2017The day before last Saturday’s Skye Botany Group outing, Ro went up Ben Tianavaig and added 45 taxa to the tetrad. I had been there at the beginning of April 2013 – see here and here hoping to re-find Saxifraga oppositifolia (Purple Saxifrage) and Dryas octopetala (Mountain Avens). I succeeded in the first but failed in the second. Ro also failed to find Dryas – maybe it has been lost in a rockfall. However, she did find a single plant of Arabidopsis petraea (Northern Rock-cress), previously recorded from this tetrad in 1967 by John & Hilary Birks.
Arabidopsis petraea Photo: R Scott
Yesterday, I visited the bits I failed to get to last week, NG54J and NG55F. They now have 105 and 135 taxa recorded respectively, and I added a few to NG55A and B while passing through. There was lots of Equisetum telmateia (Great Horsetail), Eupatorium cannabinum (Hemp-agrimony) and Hypericum tetrapterum (Square-stalked St John’s-wort) all of which have limited and essentially coastal distributions on Skye.
Some of the trees were covered in lichens and bryophytes. like this Goat Willow:
Salix caprea – epiphytic flora
Not that I am getting seriously into micromoths but I managed two yesterday that have been confirmed by Keith and Nigel:
Anthophila fabriciana larva on Urtica dioica
Micropterix calthella on Ranunculus repens
The given vernacular names are Nettle Tap and Plain Gold.
This rust on Hypochaeris radicata (Cat’s-ear) is Puccinia hieracii var. hypochaeridis:
Coincidentally Steve sent me this image from Suisnish which is of a similar thing on Pilosella officinarum (Mouse-ear-hawkweed), Puccinia hieracii var. piloselloidarum:
He also sent me a picture of Botrychium lunaria (Moonwort) that appears to have a fungus on it but that has yet to be identified:
Moths
May 4, 2017I put the trap out a few nights ago and caught 33 moths including three species I hadn’t had before:
Caterpillar & Fern
March 26, 2017Nick reports Hymenophyllum wilsonii (Wilson’s Filmy-fern) from Allt Daraich where I failed to re-find it based on an old record, just over a year ago.
I found this moth larva whilst doing a bit of spring tidying in the garden:
Nigel tells me it is the larva of the Large Yellow Underwing – a moth I often get in the moth trap later in the season. It apparently comes in brown and green forms.
The Last Skye Botany Group Meeting of 2016
October 1, 2016Yesterday we took a gentle stroll up Glen Sligachan from Sligachan itself. We managed to record 104 vascular plant taxa in a generally species-poor area very late in the season – the number being boosted by plants around the Sligachan Hotel. Nick also recorded bryophytes and we spotted a few invertebrates, fungi and a frog to add to the store of data collated by the Highland Biological Recording Group.
We found a single plant of Eriocaulon aquaticum (Pipewort) in the River Sligachan. Whilst there is plenty about in nearby lochans, this is the first time I have seen it actually in a river.
The last tetrad with 100% land and no records
August 26, 2016Yesterday I went to NG34E in which part of the Edinbane wind-farm is located. It was the last tetrad in VC 104 with no records ever. It now has 122.
There are still four tetrads with 20 -80% land and no records, mostly a bit of a pain to get to, plus more with <7% land, and then there are tetrads with earlier records but none since before 2000 (nine with 100% land and five with >20% land).
The wind-farm roads added quite a few species such as Capsella bursa-pastoris (Shepherd’s-purse), Cerastium glomeratum (Sticky Mouse-ear), Spergularia rubra (Sand Spurrey) and Urtica dioica (Common Nettle). There was also a nice wet area with Comarum palustre (Marsh Cinquefoil), Menyanthes trifoliata (Bogbean) and Sparganium natans (Least Bur-reed).
However, the tetrad to the west, NG24Z was less fun: lots of Molinia tussocks and not many plant species. In 2012 I recorded 74 taxa. After several hours in it yesterday that total has risen to 97.
It was a good day for insects, however. Heather Flies everywhere – this is their time of year – and several species each of butterflies, dragonflies and moths including this one which I have yet to sort out:
Also a lizard. I doubt if I shall ever get a photo of one, they skedaddle so fast.
