Lowestoft Life - 22nd - 27th June 2024

Since I got back from Scotland I have been trying to get the nightly mothing going again and it has been very productive with the warm nights drawing in a good selection. In fact I have added over twenty new species to the garden list since the 22^nd!

There have been many micros for which I have needed help but I am getting better at at least giving it a go while amongst the macros I have turned up a couple of local surprises along with a host of Heart & Darts and Heart & Clubs and the start of the inevitable Large Yellow Underwings.  Below is a taster selection...

Aethes beatricella

Anania coronta

Bordered White

Dusky Brocade

Eudonia lacustrata

Flame

A striking Heart & Club 

Small Blood Vein

Spinach

Broad Barred White

Celypha striana

Clouded Border

Mottled Rustic

Ringed China-mark

Sycamore

White Plume

Uncertain

A huge female Privet Hawk-moth was a joy and she even got shown to the neighbours and watching her rev up before departing that evening was a treat as she performed an exaggerated distraction ‘bugger off’ display first while a pink Elephant was in my trap this morning – more smiles.

Privet Hawk-moth 

Elephant Hawk-moth 

The garden has been well tended in my absence and is everything (both front and back) that I could have hoped for.  Trying to picture the height of the planting has worked well and the ‘lawn’ is a drift of grasses, Yellow Rattle, Corncockles, Red, White and Rose Campions, Ox-eyes, Hawkweeds and Sorrell interspersed with the towers of Purple Toadflax, Vipers Bugloss, Foxgloves, Great Mullein, Evening Primroses and Teasels. The Tree Mallow is topping eight feet and the Fennel is not far behind.

A delightful pinky red Evening Primrose

Rose Campion

Feverfew

Fox & Hounds

Great Mullein

Yellow Rattle -  most of mine could be Great... some is 18 inches tall

Weasel's Snout now fully flowering.

Viper's Bugloss

Ox Eye

Having been for a couple of local strolls, I like many others, have been worried about the dearth of insect life; not Butterflies which are in the June lull but there are very few Bumblebees, Hoverflies or other inverts to be found.  A stretch of Hogweed 10 yards long held one Honey Bee and nothing else.

Heriades truncorum in their new home

However, my garden is teeming although again very few Bumbles. There are many Dasypoda hirtipes whizzing around – all males at the moment and they love the yellow composites over everything else.  I have found several budding verge colonies in the surrounding roads.  There are a few Hoverflies with Episyrphus balteatus at last showing along with Syrphus ribesii, Myathropa florea, Merodon equestris, Helophilus pendulus and my first garden H trivittatus.

Dasypoda hirtipes 

Holly Blue, Large White and Red Admiral are the only Butterflies in recent days and the commonest fly is actually the shiny Broad Centurion.  I have never seen so many on one place.

Broad Centurion

I have been trying the moth lure for Red-belted Clearwing but no joy yet but the one for Lunar Hornet Clearwing took just four minutes to work with a stripy beast whirring around my head and the trap.

Lunar Hornet Clearwing

It feels like the warm spell may be at an end overnight but I will stick the trap on as dusk falls and see what appears.