Apologies in advance for yet another update on pheromone luring around oaks
for Pammene giganteana. Pretty much every day this week, I've nipped to
a spot somewhere on the way home from work and added dots to the map. I also
headed out for an hour earlier today a bit further east in the next hectad.
With these records, and the couple from last year, I've recorded this now in
13 tetrads. My success rate with the lure is around 87% - and where I've not
been successful I think that conditions and/or time of day are factors.
In the following maps, the bright green dots are 2022 sites and the blue dots
are the two 2021 sites.
SK50
SP59
SP69
I know that Graham Calow has been recording this in SP49 (as well as the four
squares in SP59 around Frolesworth and Leire), and I think Adrian Russell will
have added some dots to the east of Leicester.
It still seems amazing how the perceived status of this species prior to the
use of pheromones was so completely wrong. Very few records to light, and no
casual daytime records. There are similarly 'rare' species that may prove to
be similarly common later this year. We added Pammene suspectana to the VC55
list last year, but there were no widespread efforts made to record it and I
am certain it will be common. Pammene splendidulana, Pammene albuginana and
perhaps Pammene ignorata and Pammene obscurana could all go the same way.
Pammene argyrana may also prove to be more common and widespread than existing
light trapping records suggest.
Oaks in open damp grassland at Everard's Meadows
Oaks in hedgerow along a rural lane near to Ashby Magna
Large oak at entrance to Kilby Lodge Farm
Small oak on roadside near new housing build at Lubbesthorpe
The next oak is from the garden trap last night ....
Oak Beauty
Meanwhile, with no link to this post whatsoever, I'm very much enjoying the new
album from Feeder.
On Sunday afternoon, whilst I was out at the KP watching LCFC win, I
speculatively left the MOL pheromone lure in the trap out in the garden. I put
it out at 13:00, literally just before I got in the car and headed off to the
game.
Here's a very sketchy map: the blue dot is home, the green dots are definite
oaks that I know of that are closest to home, and the orange dots are a large
tree that I think is oak (I can't get close to it and I've never bothered
trying to look at it to see, but looks like it 'naked' from the lane) and an
area on Whetstone Golf Course that I think has oaks (again to be checked). The
green dots to the SW of home are those at Victory Park (see last post). There
are almost certainly more oaks within this image than I can recall. Either
way, as you can see there are oaks dotted about reasonably close to home
(within 1km) but it is not exactly abundant.
I had no expectations, but with good sunshine, a bit of warmth and a light
breeze it was as good a time to try an any. I got home at 16:30 and headed
straight to the garden to check the trap. Well, blow me. x2
Pammene giganteana were within it. I am 100% certain that these are
completely unrelated to the use of the trap on Saturday: the one I took to
photograph was still in the fridge, and had there been any inadvertently taken
into the car they would have been buzzing around the trap on the passenger seat
for sure. It's perhaps not an entirely unexpected garden tick, as there are
plenty of similar experiences being posted on the 'Pheromone' Facebook group of
garden records. This was considered a rare moth in VC55 before last spring, but
it is clearly quite common - just inconspicuous and perhaps poorly attracted to
light traps.
post-script: whilst I was writing this I'd left out my new ARG lure (intended for Pammene argyrana) in the garden for the last hour of daylight. I checked just after posting - another x2 Pammene giganteana, so they're clearly not coming from too far away!
x2 from this evening on left, x2 from Sunday afternoon on right
I had to nip into work yesterday late morning, so whilst out I briefly stopped
off at some of the large open parks that are local to my workplace and home
with the MOL pheromone lure. This lure is specifically intended for Grapholita
molesta (an orchard pest and non-native non-naturalised species that is not
likely to be here, not yet anyway) but like many of the lure it has turned out
to be very useful for attracting other species within the Tortricidae. This
one is excellent for Pammene giganteana
as I saw last year, albeit a bit later into the flight period.
Conditions were certainly not perfect, as although very sunny and reasonably
warm the wind was absolutely blasting in persistent gusts. Nevertheless, I
tried at four locations and within a few minutes at each I'd added four dots to
the VC55 map which I expect will be filling out quite widely over the next
year or so.
All four locations are open parkland with large oaks, but none are 'oak
woodland' - in fact none are really woodland at all with large open space around
the trees and at the Cosby park the oaks are actually within the boundary scrub alongside a road with housing on the other side.
Western Park
Braunstone Park - northern end
Braunstone Park - southern end
Victory Park - oaks in boundary on eastern side
This one on the trap at Victory Park ....
.... and one potted up at Western Park for a proper shot
With the wind blasting, I managed to hand the trap from snags on the bark at
most of these sites and in the process found a number of resting Diurnea
fagella and Luffia lapidella (f. ferchaultella) at Braunstone Park. I shall
try and get out with the lure again before the end of the month, targeting
similar large parks and large mature oaks.
Meanwhile the garden trap has been out the last couple of nights, no big
numbers but it's starting to wake up a bit. A couple of different Twin-spotted
Quakers is nice for the garden; it has never turned up in numbers here,
usually one or two a year at most and it wasn't annual but this is now the
fifth consecutive season it has turned up.
I've managed to dissect butcher a few more from the box of
bits I'd forgotten about. I've done the Grey/Dark Daggers (3x Grey, 2x Dark).
Here's an unset pile of Grey Dagger valvae for reference ....
Knowing what the key features are, and only going as far as necessary to
see/confirm them is all well and good but obviously leaving the genitalia like
this would be completely useless if actually trying to work out what something
was (say a really knackered Noctuid with no markings).
I probably should have mentioned that I'm referring to
this excellent site
for guidance.
I had this next one down as a probable Lesser Common Rustic (first of the year
on 03/07/2021, generally dark with clearly contrasting stigma), albeit nowhere
near a classic almost black one.
Well, it was. I only looked at x3 specimens and both of the others from a week
or so later were paler browner/sandier Common Rustic. If you think the butchery on the Daggers was
laughable, with this pair I've not even looked at the typical genitalia parts
that you see excellent photos of; for these dissecting out the thorny
cornuti from inside the aedeagus is necessary. Here they are from down the
barrel of my old and frankly about knackered stereo microscope - the more
rounded shape of Common Rustic left, and straighter Lesser Common Rustic
right:
I have no idea what purpose these cornuti serve. Looking at web
images of these pair, the general form is consistent but there is clear
variation in the number and size of the serrations.
I've not posted for a few weeks. It's not because I've done nothing - I've
done lots, just none of it interesting for this blog although that wouldn't
normally stop me posting it. I've enjoyed some Football matches home and away,
I've been down to that there London for a fantastic long weekend that included
seeing the Moulin Rouge! musical and some historical structures that I've not
been arsed to go to before, been out for drinks and meals, and I've been out
to see to Light Up Leicester festival. But I've been feeling massively
despondent about a lot of things. I can't believe we still have the same
Government; I can't believe how far we are all being screwed over whilst
energy and oil companies turn over stupid profits, and I can't believe that
our 'response' to Putin is so lame (and don't get me wrong: I mean the slow
pace of muted sanctions and the reticence to open up to refugees).
If I'm really honest with myself; I'm normally quite a resilient bloke,
healthily cynical of a lot of things, but just lately I feel a bit defeated.
We are spiralling to hell in a handcart on all fronts, yet my Twitter feed
seems full of arguments with, reference to and blatant support of complete
fucking arseholes. I should just ignore social media, but tucked in and around
all the nonsense are pieces about things I am interested in. I could just try
to mentally and technically start blocking out the shite, but then I'm just
being a bit Ostrich about it all. My go-to respite would normally be getting
out and looking at something but weather, fatigue and a lack of energy is
holding me back. I just need to shake myself down and force myself out.
I ran the garden moth trap for the first time in a while on Thursday night and
ended up with a decent number and range of early season moths, albeit nothing
exciting or unexpected except perhaps this Grey Shoulder-knot ....
Far from annual here, with the last being in November 2018.
I also found a box of desiccated Daggers, Minors and Common/Lesser Common
Rustics that I put aside in June/July last year and then forgot about. I had a
quick go at one (no intention of properly setting, just need to see the
relevant bits to ID) - Dark Dagger. This is definitely annual here, but given
that I don't check them normally I can't prove it. The last time I checked the
bits of anything here myself was back in 2013.
" ... difference between a small nuclear explosion and a large one by a very simple method; the calling card of a nuclear bomb is the blinding flash that is far more dazzling than any light on earth. Brighter even than the sun itself. And it is by the duration of this flash that we are able to determine the size of the weapon. After the flash a fireball can be seen to rise sucking up under it the debris, dust and living things around the area of the explosion. And as this ascends, it soon becomes recognizable as the familiar mushroom cloud. As a demonstration of the flash duration test, let's try and count the number of seconds for the flash emitted by a very small bomb, then a more substantial medium sized bomb, and finally one of our very powerful high yield bombs ...."
