While we have regular monthly moth surveys, on 27 June we held our first moth survey night open to all, led by Warwickshire county moth recorder David Brown. With a good handful of families with loved ones laid to rest at Sun Rising, and another handful of regular mothers (that’s moth-ers), on the most perfectly warm and still summer night, the prospects looked good. In fact, the results were outstanding, with over 70 species of large moth recorded, and many micromoths as well.
Perhaps the most exciting was the sighting of a double dart moth (Graphiphora augur), a moth that is struggling to maintain its presence in South Warwickshire. With a sense of success, having found one double dart in a trap by the pond, there were half a dozen more at the trap in the NE corner of the site. This picture is a little fuzzy, but it was taken on the night – many thanks to Scott, the mother and photographer.
Double Dart Moth
At one of our regular moth survey nights ten days later, over 125 species were counted by Alan Prior and his team – many of which were not found at that previous event, and including two double darts. This, I believe, brings our total species count of moths seen at Sun Rising to the fine total of 201, some of which haven’t been recorded in the area for many decades. It’s a good start for a fledgling nature reserve and less than a year of serious moth records. Thank you to all our wonderful surveyors!
Now, if I could only find someone to be as fastidious and knowledgeable about flies and beetles and spiders …
