Thursday 9 July 2015

Hummingbird Hawk-moth

Hummingbird Hawk-moth, The Lodge, 9th July 2015

Wednesday 8 July 2015

Waved Black larva breeding success

On 22nd May this year Woburn Safari Park staff found an unknown larva during their bioblitz, which the Beds Invertebrate Group was also taking part in. I was handed it on the 23rd to identify and found it was a Waved Black larva. I didn't hold up much hope of managing to breed it through but it took bracket fungus from a birch tree and happily munched on this for a few weeks. However, in mid-June before we were due on holiday it was looking a bit lifeless and nearly got thrown out. We kept it and within a couple of days it pupated successfully. Andy checked it on his arrival home from work this evening and found an adult had emerged.

Waved Black larva                             photo Melissa Banthorpe

Waved Black adult                            photo Melissa Banthorpe

Sunday 5 July 2015

A Study in Scarlet......

As part of the annual Invertebrates Day at Flitwick Moor on 3rd July Melissa and I went wandering along the River Flit in the afternoon and found a total of 33 Scarlet Tiger moths. At one point we had 20 flying around along the path and I took some video on my phone that though not close to the action shows the moths in flight. Two photos below and I am working on how to get the video on line at a decent resolution.