| Butterfly Conservation |  |
| 40 years of saving butterflies, moths and their habitats |
| Butterfly Conservation | |
| 40 years of saving butterflies, moths and their habitats |
|
|
|
RESEARCH Over the past few years, the Branch has been able to support significant research
into threatened moths in our region.
Grizzled Skipper in Essex(The following article appeared in Branch newsletter No.52 February 2007)The area south of Basildon is now the only place in Essex where the rapidly declining Grizzled Skipper can still be found. It is a candidate UK BAP Priority species and benefits from careful management to maintain its preferred habitat.
There are still copies of the Grizzled Skipper leaflet available which gives lots of information. If you would like a copy or think you can help with the survey (or even become its ‘Champion’!) please get in touch with Sharon Hearle (details below).
Fisher's Estuarine Moth***Latest News - August 2008***Click here to download the latest Project newsletter (2.5MB) which includes news of a captive breeding programme at Colchester Zoo. Introduction
Conservation Action
Volunteers from the Essex and Cambridgeshire branch of Butterfly Conservation came to the North Essex coast in each January of 2005, 2006 & 2007 to plant-out several thousand Hog’s Fennel seedlings. Click here to see the report of the final January 2007 visit to Kirby-le-Soken. The majority of seedlings are growing well and we are now at the stage where we can put the results into action on a larger scale. In April 2006, a two year landscape-scale conservation project commenced that will develop a programme to enable farmers/landowners to receive support for creating and managing sites for the moth through the Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agri-environment scheme. Project objectivesThe project aims to set-up a sustainable landscape-scale network of interconnected sites for Fisher’s Estuarine Moth that are secure from the threats of flooding within the moth’s natural range on the north Essex coast. The project will develop a ready-made package for conserving the moth whilst promoting and increasing the take-up of the HLS scheme.The main project objectives are as follows:
What does the moth need to survive?
Habitat CreationHabitat for Fisher’s Estuarine Moth can be created by planting Hog’s Fennel seedlings into areas of established grassland which support an abundance of the long coarse grasses the moth requires for egg laying.Alternatively, the moth’s habitat can be created from bare ground by drilling an appropriate grass seed mix, followed by either drilling Hog’s Fennel seed or planting Hog’s Fennel seedlings. To protect the seedlings, all sites must be enclosed by a rabbit-proof fence, together with cattle/sheep fencing where necessary. Project FundingFor the first 2 years, the project was funded under the England Rural Development Programme (ERDP) by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund. Other contributors and supporters were the Environment Agency, Natural England, Writtle College, the Cambridgeshire and Essex branch of Butterfly Conservation and Tendring District Council.In addition to providing funding for the current project, the Cambridgeshire and Essex branch of Butterfly Conservation have provided annual financial assistance to conservation work on Fisher’s Estuarine Moth since the year 2000. Contact Details
Life History of Fisher's Estuarine Moth
Fisher’s Estuarine Moth lays its eggs beneath the outer leaf sheath of long,
coarse grass species, such as Sea Couch, Cock’s Foot and False Oat-grass.
. . . and finally
Four-Spotted MothThis is a small day flying moth which we are now working on, so any records of this would be welcome.Click here to download an INFORMATION SHEET. (WARNING! This is a large file (0.6MB, PDF file), so you may want to "right-click", select "Save Target As ..." and save it to your local disk.) If you do not have a PDF file reader, then click this image for a free download:
New Sites for Four-Spotted Moth in Cambs, Essex & SuffolkAuthored by Sharon Hearle, Regional Officer, East Anglia October 2005The Four-spotted (Tyta luctuosa) seems to have had a good year in 2005 with a number of new locations for the moth located in Cambridgeshire, Essex and Suffolk through targeted survey by Regional Officer Sharon Hearle and many volunteers. The Four-spotted moth is a high priority UK Biodiversity Action Plan Species and information about its distribution is needed to help plan conservation work.The Four-spotted moth flies on sunny days and is very distinctive, a mainly black moth with four large white spots. As it is diurnal, it is a great one for butterfly recorders to search for. The moth is single or double brooded and can be seen from mid May to mid August. Four-spotted larvae feed on Field Bindweed growing in hot, dry open sites with sparse vegetation including grassland on chalky soils, field margins, embankments and derelict ground. The Regional Officer has benefited from detailed work on Four-spotted moth by Paul Waring, including a visit to a well known Peterborough site that has been monitored by a transect walk for several years. The Peterborough ditch bank habitat at Werrington appears very similar to the new sites located in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk. Four-spotted moth was recorded this year at Great Wilbraham near Cambridge (click here for aerial photo) along the edge of a railway cutting and in an area of adjacent set-aside. This was not far from where the moth has been recorded in previous years by John Dawson and had thus been identified as a potential site. Visits in 2004 were negative but this year Four- spotted was recorded on several occasions with a maximum count of 5 on 8th June. The set aside field was a sea of Ox-eye Daisy in June, one of the favoured nectar sources, and the moth was also observed moving through open grassland at a low level. One Four-spotted moth was recorded near Great Bradley in Suffolk on 16th June 2005. This follows a record of one to MV light just over the border in Cambridgeshire at Kirtling in July 2004, about a mile away.
One side of the banks is cut in the autumn and the uncut bank is now quite scrubbed over in places. This site provides ideal habitat for the Four-spotted moth. It is also possible to see good numbers of Small Heath, Brown Argus and Common Blue butterflies and many other day flying moths. There is a public footpath along the edge of this channel from Kirtling to Great Bradley. The Four-spotted has not been recorded in Suffolk since 1995. It used to be regarded as frequent in the Breck district of Suffolk but has not been seen for decades despite searching. It is a moth that does come to light and is not likely to have been overlooked in the Brecks where many moth traps are operated. It has also been recorded at several locations in north east Essex around Great Chesterford, Ickleton and Littlebury including one occasion where over 100 individuals were seen.
Click here to read an article written by Sharon which appeared in the Autumn 2006 edition of BC's 'Butterfly' magazine. For further details or if you would like to help please contact:
Grass MarginsAuthored by Vince Lea – October 2005Many field margins have been converted to grass for wildlife, but are they the answer to our declining farmland butterfly populations? Grassy habitats should benefit a number of our common butterflies – particularly the ‘browns’ & ‘skippers’, whose caterpillars feed on grassy leaves. Butterfly adults, however, are also need nectar sources, and the browns & skippers live in closed colonies, unlike ‘cabbage’ whites etc. which will travel great distances between nectar sources and egg-laying sites.
We are interested in finding out if standard grass margins can be improved through the selection of the most suitable variety of grass, in particular whether wild-collected seed of grass species creates better wildlife habitat than cultivated varieties, and whether the inclusion of flowering plants improves the habitat. Replicated experiments were set up in Spring 2004, using either cocksfoot or red fescue single varieties around the margins of fields at Hope Farm. Monitoring started in 2005. The single grass varieties were mixed with 20% flowering plants 9Red Clover, Oxeye Daisy and Knapweed) to attract butterflies as quickly as possible, and to determine the interaction between the different grass varieties and broad-leaved plants. During the summer flight period, there was a marked difference in numbers of butterflies between the grass species, with Red Fescue having about twice as many browns & skippers as Cocksfoot plots. The 5 cultivars of cocksfoot were generally down on numbers of adults compared to plots sown with wild origin seed, which performed almost as well as the fescues. There were differences in the habitat conditions, some of which may explain the differences in butterfly numbers; the fescue plots had less grass cover and were shorter, compared to cocksfoot, allowing far more of the flowering plants to prosper, so nectar availability was much higher on these plots. A second set of experiments has been established to study the overall effect of adding flowering plants and the effect of using wild origin compared with cultivated origin material. For this experiment, 50m long margins were created for each of the following mixes:
Adding flowering plants to grass margin mixes or use of wild-collected grass seed instead of cultivars will clearly increase establishment costs. Our research therefore hopes to find out whether such costs coul be justified by the benefits to wildlife. The larger mixed plots show the importance of adding wildflowers to margins, and also demonstrate that the lower dominance of wild grasses allow added flowers to perform their role as nectar sources more effectively than cultivated grasses do. We would love to hear from any members who could help with the continued caterpillar monitoring in 2006 – notice of dates will be provided in the next newsletter. We are very grateful to the many volunteers who helped with the caterpillar hunting this year, particular thanks go to John Dawson for his identification skills. Note from Editor: This article has been taken from Branch Newsletter No.48 published in October 2005 Here are some of the larvae found on the various searches:
Buttoned SnoutClick here to download an INFORMATION SHEET. (WARNING! This is a very large file (1.8MB, PDF file), so you may want to "right-click", select "Save Target As ..." and save it to your local disk).Click here to download the final RESEARCH REPORT. (WARNING! This is a large file (0.2MB, PDF file), so you may want to "right-click", select "Save Target As ..." and save it to your local disk). If you do not have a PDF file reader, then click this image for a free download:
The Buttoned SnoutAuthored by Paul WaringStudy of this moth this year centred on observing the life-cycle in a large outdoor cage to investigate key aspects of behaviour and ecology such as overwintering, mating, nectaring, egglaying and larval feeding. Additional field survey work was undertaken in Essex, where larvae have now been found in most 10km squares, and in Cambridgeshire. Indications from work in 2002 and 2003 that populations are mainly in the south of Cambridgeshire, and are much more thinly distributed than in Essex, have been confirmed. For example two larval searches (on 25 July & 11 August 2004) of a large stand of the foodplant (Hop Humulus lupulus) in the north of the county between Etton and Glinton (modern Cambridgeshire but vice-county Northamptonshire) proved negative, for the second year running (see also Ent. Rec. 116: 77-78). Another substantial stand at Maxey was searched on three dates (13 & 25 July & 11 August 2004), for the first time, and also produced negative results. Discovery of larvae during a BENHS field meeting led by Paul Waring in the grounds of London Zoo on 17 July 2004 was one of the highlights of this event and was reported in an illustrated article in Lifewatch, the magazine for members and supporters of the Zoological Society of London (Autumn 2004: 4). This is the first UK BAP species to be recorded wild in the Zoo and the first time that invertebrates other than butterflies have been surveyed there. The observation cage was erected at Writtle College, Essex, as part of a joint project between the College and Butterfly Conservation Cambridgeshire & Essex Branch. Graham Watkins, with some assistance from Robin Field and others, spent a great deal of time watching adult moths that were placed in the cage and searching for the eggs, larvae and pupae that resulted. Observations indicated that the adults were mainly active around dusk and much less so after dark. Nectaring was never seen, despite placing a range of seasonal flowers freshly gathered from the college estate alongside the potted Hop plants. The adult moths hardly roused from hibernation when the sallows were in bloom in March and did not appear to be tempted when Blackthorn and Hawthorn flowers were added later on. No mating was observed and individual moths tended not to roost alongside each other. Although plenty of larvae were produced in the cage, no egg-laying was seen. No eggs were found in searches of the undersides of growing Hop plants, suggesting they are either tucked out of sight on the plant - perhaps into the leaf axil - or on surrounding debris. A hibernating individual is currently under observation in an old garage, the third year running that this building has been used, and a roost with a large number of adults in a war-time gun emplacement has been visited, but even here adults tend to be dispersed singly on walls rather than in association. Paul Waring January 2005 Breeding Rostralis – The Buttoned SnoutAuthored by Don Down October 2005After many visits to a hibernating site of the Buttoned Snout over the past year I have found how restless the moths can be, for number can vary tremendously from visit to visit even during a constant spell of cold weather. So this year I decided to collect a few moths and try and watch over them during the winter of spring of 2005. January 23rd 2005 I gathered just six moths from a count of forty-two, 3 females and 3 males were placed in a prepared wintering cage at home. All moths settled in and hibernated in dead leaves at the bottom of the cage. One or two would appear occasionally during February when weather conditions were mild; otherwise little was seen of the moths until well into March. Serious study began March 17th. During the milder evenings of March 18th, 19th the 6 moths in a cool hibernating cage where they had overwintered became quite restless. On the afternoon of March 22nd I slipped a couple of stems of freshly opened male catkins of Great willow into the cage and by 22:00 hours all six moths were nectaring well from them. >br> March 27th – the moths moved around between dusk and 22:30 and by 23:00 hrs had all disappeared back into the leaf litter at the bottom of the cage.
Note from Editor: This article has been taken from Branch Newsletter No.48 published in October 2005
Square-Spotted ClayThe main high-lights of work on this moth in 2004 were the discovery in March of wild larvae in Wester Ross, Argyll, Essex and Hertfordshire, all for the first time ever (Brit. Wildlife 15: 361-362 and Ent. Rec. 116: 275-277). The larvae in Scotland were found as part of a BENHS-sponsored survey of sites where adults had been recorded in recent years and are the first larval records for the whole of Scotland.This survey was undertaken by Robin Field and Tim Gardiner (of Writtle College) with assistance from local BC staff and others. A total of three larvae was found, two on 22 March on Primrose Primula vulgaris in Wester Ross and one on 26 March on Dog’s Mercury Mercurialis perennis in Argyll. The adult moth has been recorded from a very wide scatter of sites in Scotland and some of these sites were searched without success during the survey. Paul Waring and Robin Field mounted the first successful search in Essex on 15 March, joined by members of the Moth Groups of Essex and Hertfordshire who subsequently used their newly acquired skills to find six larvae in a site in Hertforshire on 16 March (Jim Reid) and two in another site in Essex on 17 March (Ted Ponting). Efforts were made to observe the behaviour of wild females in their natural habitat. A group led by Paul Waring & Robin Field confirmed that mated females as well as males visit flowers for nectar at dusk. On the evening of 11 August a total of six Square-spotted Clay, all in fresh condition, were observed nectaring at flowers of Teasel Dipsacus fullonum at Overhall Grove, Cambridgeshire. The six included three males and three females. Fertile eggs were subsequently laid by one of the females in isolation, confirming that she was already mated. Access to such flowers may improve the suitability of sites as breeding grounds. Unfortunately, no egg-laying was seen during nocturnal observation sessions in August and no eggs were found subsequently in day-light searches. Possibly the searches in 2004 were slightly too early because the year was not as advanced as 2002 and 2003. At the time of writing, larvae are already showing some activity, with the first feeding of 2005 observed on 10 January on Ground-ivy Gelechoma hederacea at Fulbourn Fen nature reserve, Cambridgeshire (John Dawson). Paul Waring January 2005
Click here to download an INFORMATION SHEET. (WARNING! This is a large file (0.6MB, PDF file), so you may want to "right-click", select "Save Target As ..." and save it to your local disk). Click here to download the final RESEARCH REPORT. (WARNING! This is a large file (0.2MB, PDF file), so you may want to "right-click", select "Save Target As ..." and save it to your local disk). If you do not have a PDF file reader, then click this image for a free download:
|
|
|
| All page content on this Web site is Copyright © 2000-2008 Butterfly Conservation unless otherwise stated |
|
| Legal Information |
|
| Butterfly Conservation is a Company limited by guarantee, registered in England (2206468) Registered Office: Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Wareham, Dorset BH20 5QP Charity registered in England & Wales (254937) and in Scotland (SCO39268) VAT No. 565 9070 16 |
|
|
