PG Dots

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.