Moth traps
On the evening of July 16th, Ian Bushell and lepidopterist, Hugo Brooke set up moth traps at the top of Village Green. You may have seen them and wondered what they were doing.
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Butterfly transect
Southwick Country Park
Recorder Ian Bushell
Date 21 July 2020
Start time 1420hrs Finish time 1615hrs
Temperature 23C; Cloud 70% Sunshine
Wind direction – westerly, light, odd gusts.
All fields now mown.
The Big Butterfly Count
The Big Butterfly Count began yesterday and will run until Sunday August 9th. Join in and help Butterfly Conservation monitor the health of Britain’s Lepidoptera. Spend just 15 minutes in the park, your garden, a field or wood, counting the common butterflies you see.
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Peacock
Remember all those peacock caterpillar netsts? They have metamorphosed into a shiny new generation of adult peacock butterflies.
A marbled white (Melanargia galathea) on creeping thistle flowers, photographed in the park yesterday by Julie Newblé. If you look carefully, there are at least three common red soldier beetles hidden in the picture.
Thanks Julie.
Another win!
Gatekeeper
The gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus) reported in last week’s butterfly transect has turned out to be a winner.
Continue reading “Another win!”National Insect Week – Day 2
Ringlet
The park’s first ringlet butterfly (Aphantopus hyperantus) of the year was seen and photographed in Sleepers Field on June 10th. This newly hatched adult was a smooth, velvety dark brown fringed with white, its underwings clearly marked with the rings that give the species its common name.
Continue reading “National Insect Week – Day 2”Q&A
A question from a reader:
If I want large white butterfly caterpillars in my garden AND I want my kale, is that like trying to have my cake and eat it? I suppose they don’t eat anything else, do they? I have sent you a photograph.
Liz
A nest of peacock butterfly caterpillars found in the park by Isabelle Newblé, aged 9, and photographed by her mother, Julie. Well done both of you!
Peacock
The peacock caterpillars in the nettles in Simpson’s Field are growing fast.
Continue reading “Peacock”Messages about moths
Please do send us pictures of the flora and fauna you come across in the park, particularly if you don’t know what it is. We are happy to help with identification. To encourage you, here is our Messenger conversation with Julie about the caterpillars she found and photographed.
Continue reading “Messages about moths”A third new species
Brown argus
In the last ten days, three new species of invertebrates have been discovered in the park, photographed and identified by experts: an azure damselfly, a tent web of small eggar moth caterpillars and a brown argus butterfly.
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Another new species
On Sunday, Julie Newblé sent us pictures of caterpillars in a tent-web she found strung between blackthorn twigs in the hedge at the top of the Arboretum.
Continue readingMeadow brown
This week has brought a report of the first of the summer’s meadow browns.
Continue reading “Meadow brown”Another world record
Longest butterfly migration
We now know the painted lady (Vanessa cardui) makes the longest migration of any butterfly: 9,000 miles from tropical Africa to the Arctic Circle, almost double the journey made by the previous record holder, the famed monarch butterfly.
It can take six successive generations of painted ladies to complete this epic journey, flying up to 1,500ft high and reaching speeds of 30mph. The butterflies that return to Africa at the end of the year are several generations removed from those that set out.
This astonishing and beautiful butterfly, spotted in the park for the first time last year, will begin arriving in Britain this month. Keep a look out for it.
Pictures (CC0) from pixabay.com
Recording butterflies
iRecord Butterflies is a free app for your smartphone that will help you identify and record any butterfly that you see in your garden while you are in lockdown. Your sighting will be logged by Butterfly Conservation and added to their records.
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Disease resistant elms
The Covid-19 lockdown has interrupted our plans for the five disease resistant elms donated to the park by Butterfly Conservation as part of their rescue plan for the white letter hairstreak butterfly.
Continue readingButterfly numbers
Last year’s record breaking summer was an excellent year for butterflies, with more than half of Britain’s species increasing their numbers.
Continue reading “Butterfly numbers”UK BAP Priority Species
While reviewing our species lists, we found that eleven species of our Lepidoptera are UK Biodiversity Action Plan Priority Species!
Continue reading “UK BAP Priority Species”Small heath
While rummaging through our species lists looking for ammunition to throw in the direction of Planning Application 20/00379/OUT, we found a 2018 record of a small heath (Coenonympha pamphilus) hidden in the Lepidoptera section. The small heath is the park’s third UK BAP Priority Species of butterfly.
Continue reading “Small heath”2019 review – part 1
We are going to use the last few days of 2019 to review the year’s new entrants to our species lists.
Continue reading “2019 review – part 1”Winter moths
The Winter moth (Operophtera brumata) is one of the few moth species that can cope with winter’s freezing temperatures in its adult stage. They are endothermic which means that they can produce heat internally by biochemical processes, just as warm-blooded creatures do.
Continue reading “Winter moths”Elephant hawk moth
by Ian Bushell
Elephant hawk-moth – Deilephila elpenor – one of the eighteen species of hawk-moths found in Britain, all of whose caterpillars have a characteristic horn at their tail.
Continue reading “Elephant hawk moth”Speckled wood
A speckled wood (Pararge aegeriais) on hawthorn berries photographed last weekend by DKG.
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