Sunday 29 June 2014

Two interesting micro moth records from Flitwick Moor 28th June 2014

The Wildlife Trust for Beds,Cambs & Northants & The BNHS held their annual Invertebrates Day at Flitwick Moor on 28th June 2014. All was fine until it started raining just after midday which did not stop until after 3pm. As it started raining I was collecting leaf-mines from a Crab Apple in the meadow and found an interesting large Coleophoriid case that I did not recognise. On getting home I identified it as Coleophora siccifolia, a scarce species with five previous Bedfordshire records. Two of these were adults at Turvey Abbey in 2001 & The Cockayne Hatley Rothamsted trap in 2005.There are three previous larval records, two of feeding signs in N Beds in 1992 and 2005 and one larval case in 1992 in Sharnbrook. This then is the first record in 9 years and the first in the centre of the county.
The second find was whilst wandering round in the rain in the afternoon collecting leafmines for id later. One I had been looking for on Honeysuckle and happily found was Perittia obscurepunctella. The only previous record of this in the county was of an adult in a light trap at Apsley Guise in 1983.

Melissa took some nice photos of the Coleophora case and I scanned the Perittia mine, both ids have been confirmed by Beds Micro-moth Recorder David Manning.
Case of Coleophora siccifolia on Crab Apple, Flitwick Moor 28/06/2014. Photo by Melissa Banthorpe

Case of Coleophora siccifolia on Crab Apple, Flitwick Moor 28/06/2014. Photo by Melissa Banthorpe

Leafmine of Perittia obscurepunctella on Honeysuckle, Flitwick Moor 28/06/2014. Scan by Andy Banthorpe


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