Twist : Torts and Ticks

I'm going to focus on various Tortricidae from the garden, and including some ticks. In no particular order. First up, a couple of non-descript looking Torts that were confirmed via gen det courtesy of Andy Mackay:

Grapholita tenebrosana - 12/07/2021 - a full blown tick for me

Grapholita funebrana - 13/07/2021, previous records in 2017 & 2018

Oddly enough, I've had neither of these to the pheromone lures that seem to have attracted them for others (SKI & MOL). Unlike the following two; whilst these were never really in doubt, they have been confirmed by gen det too:

Pammene suspectana to MOL - 29/05/2021

Grapholita lobarzewskii to SKI - 13/06/2021

And this one too:

Dichrorampha vancouverana - 01/07/2021

The following was new for the garden, though I didn't realise until after it had been dismissed with the rest of the catch so only this quick snap.

Eucosma hohenwartiana - 16/07/2021

Also new for the garden, though not a classic specimen!

Variegated Golden Tortrix - 12/07/2021

None of the following were new, though only single records for each:

Gypsonoma oppressana - 17/07/2021 (one previous record 2013)

Cydia fagiglandana - 17/07/2021 (one previous record 2020)

Acleris kochiella - 22/07/2021 (one previous record 2011)

The following will be new for the garden when confirmed - pending gen det:

Dichrorampha sp. (alpinana / flavidorsana) - 17/07/2021

D. flavidorsana would be a full tick for me

Endothenia sp. - 22/07/2021

And to round up the Tortrix overload, none of the following are 'special', except that they are Tortricids which are perhaps my favourite moth group.

Epiblema foenella

Cydia splendana

Epinotia nisella

Lobesia abscisana

Zeiraphera isertana

Lozotaeniodes formosana

Rhyaconia buoliana

Pammene fasciana

Celypha lacunana

Finally sticking with the Tortrix theme, the Epinotia spp. that I netted a couple of weeks ago were confirmed as Epinotia tedella and Epinotia nanana by gen det.

Tortrix is derived from the Latin tortus, meaning twist - alluding to the leaf-rolling habits of many of these species.

Lighting Up for Bugs n Beetles

Aside from seven days in the sun (it's been like a proper summer recently), this last week has been one of the most productive for the garden light trap that I can remember, and I think that's more down to me spending time looking at it with camera in hand before going to bed rather than waiting to see what is there in the morning. I've seen quite a few species that were there in the early part of the night, but no sign in the morning. The mothing side of things has been pretty good too, and before long I need to get on with transcribing a few nights from the digital dictaphone for data entry.

Here's a few recent non-leps that have graced the trap:

Eurhadina pulchella - tick!

Aguriahana stellulata

Limotettix striola - tick!

Balclutha punctata

Linnavuoriana sexmaculata

Ledra aurita - a retrospective tick!

I have seen one of these before, years ago on a mothing night out, but discovered it was missing from my PSL. Never had one in the garden before, then two in the same night.

Oncotylus viridiflavus - tick!

Miridius quadrivirgatus

Pinalitus cervinus

Empicoris culiciformis - tick! And a weird looking one at that (it is a Hemipteran)

Chlaenius vestitus - tick! Super smart Carabid

Deleaster dichrous - tick!

Prionychus ater - one of two this week

I will get around to posting some moth highlights soon, but the trap is off tonight as I need a lie in!

White-striped

This hot spell is proving excellent for the garden trap, but wearing a bit thin on my energy levels - can't go to bed early when the trap is buzzing, and I can't get up late when there is the thought of potential garden firsts in the trap. And I need to get to work at a reasonable time anyway. Fatigue is off the scale, especially as the few hours in bed are not exactly a comfortable deep sleep with the sticky heat. Tonight is looking superb with cloud cover and humidity - but I think tomorrow night the trap is going to have to stay off regardless.

I can't be bothered with pulling together a load of detail on garden ticks just now, instead here's a couple of recent white-striped ticks ....

Pilophorus perplexus - how smart a bug is that! Very active like an ant scuttling about, I needed to slow it down a bit for this shot. From the garden trap on Sunday night.

Athripsodes albifrons - from the sheet when out on Saturday night at The Drift. For a caddisfly, that is very nice. Appears to be rare in VC55 too, perhaps just two previous records.

Simply Red

So far this evening, I've had a very productive time sorting photos from the trap and working through a number of gen det confirmations - essentially adding several species to my PSL and my garden moth list at the same time. But I'll save that for another day.

You may recall that last weekend I unexpectedly added a couple of clearwings to the garden list. Since then, I've tried on a few days in the week with the MYO lure for Red-belted and the FOR lure for Red-tipped, both without success. The conditions yesterday were perfect for clearwing hunting, but I was frankly too knackered, hot and bothered to go out after the mothing expedition on Saturday night. I decided to try a couple of different lures in the garden to see if anything else might be attracted. I stuck out the VES lure again, but again Orange-tailed turned up quickly so I couldn't leave that out. I tried the HYL lure (intended for Raspberry Clearwing) but nothing was interested in a couple of hours. Next I hung out the CUL lure (intended for Large Red-belted). Within 15 minutes or so there was some action, but the small black insect darting around the trap was not going in so I swiped it in my net ....

So somehow, Red-belted Clearwing arrived when using the wrong lure - with no response to the supposed target lure. I've only seen Red-belted once before, a brief appearance to MYO but not lingering and not that bothered. Every other time I've tried MYO I've had no response. I left the CUL lure out but within another 10mins or so the trap had another two Red-belted so I pulled it in. From the pheromone luring Facebook group it seems that Red-belted is actually more attracted to the CUL lure than MYO - so perhaps I should try again at a few sites and see what happens.

Later in the day, after sleeping through most of the British Grand Prix ( I saw the first lap, nodded off during the red flagged stop and woke up with about three laps to go) I decided to try again with the FOR lure. The conditions were still perfect, and I've had success with this lure when out and about late in the afternoon / early evening. I wasn't too hopeful though and left the lure in the trap whilst I made a rudimentary effort at cleaning the dust and bird shite off of my car. An hour or so later, I checked the trap and ....

A single Red-tipped Clearwing, the fifth clearwing sp. new to the garden this year. Ironically, this is the one that I was most hopeful about!

The clearwing season is probably not going to last much longer, and I doubt there will by any others added to the garden list. Yellow-legged has resolutely failed to turn up but I can't keep leaving out VES anyway, Hornet Moth does not respond too well to the lure but will be over by now, and Six-belted is unlikely here despite being one of the commonest clearwing sp. But I think there is more to come from hanging out the lures, one way or another.

I imagine from the blog post title you were expecting me to post a link to some dirge from a ginger-haired Mancunian .... nope.

Sheep on Drugs

Last night's mothing effort at The Drift near to Pickworth was, as expected, superb. To be honest it couldn't be anything but given the fact that I've not sat by a sheet for just over two years.

The Drift is actually a long rough road/track that heads through the middle of nowhere. It becomes impassable to cars after a while, though it's not exactly a regular route for anything. The verges along the track are full of flowering vegetation, and there are plenty of mature trees in the hedgerows.

We set up a sheet in a convenient gateway with woodland visible c100M through the gate. No traps, this was old-school manning a sheet and keeping alert.

Pretty much from the off, the sheet was alive with inverts. Lots of moths of course, but literally 1000s of water boatmen (Corixidae), 100s of Carabids and plenty of other non-leps. But this was about the moths - and given my lack of activity in the last couple of years (and to be honest I'd not done a lot for a couple of years before that either) there was always going to be a few that I'd not seen for a while.

Top billing though goes to a new moth for me, and one that has very few VC55 records ....

Sitochroa palealis

Just the one, but we also had a few of its close relative ....

Sitochroa verticalis

This site is turning out to be excellent for a good range of species, and in particular Four-spotted seems to be doing well here. We only saw three as it is likely to be between broods.

Here's a few that I snapped on the sheet:

Minor Shoulder-knot

Round-winged Muslin

Black Arches

Latticed Heath

Pine Hawk-moth

(Dishevelled) Ruddy Carpet

Cochylis dubitana

Acrobasis suavella

Twin-spot Carpet

And a couple I potted to snap:

Pammene aurita

Recurvaria leucatella

The draft list is at c140sp - pretty good going for one sheet manned from dusk to c01:30.

On the way home, we had to go over cattle grids and through a field with sheep. It was a bit surreal; the sheep were sleeping on the road and reluctant to move. It was like they'd been smoking crack.