We did manage to add three species to our current list but against this detailed enquiries lead me to remove one species, a complicated story reported in more detail elsewhere. The species removed is White-spotted Pinion (NOT to be confused with the White-pinion Spotted!). This was however, replaced by its congener the Lesser Spotted Pinion which has been recorded by three different people (Steve McWilliam, Bill Hardwick and Geoff Wotherspoon) in the area just south of Chester. Paul Griffiths and Roger Robinson turned up the Oak Lutestring in Combermere Abbey grounds, this was last seen in Cheshire in 1925 but was one species I had forecast might be found amongst established Oak in the south-west, lets hope they are now able to find one or two of the other species in the same area during the earlier part of the year. Our third addition is a true first for the County, John Coupe took Blair's Shoulder Knot in Bebington in October; this first arrived in Britain in 1961 and has been spreading steadily nothwards, but I had not expected it to reach us quite so soon.

The records which follow reflect a great deal of hard work by many people and fill in a lot of gaps in the charts but there are not a great many surpises among them. Two new records of the Green Arches doubles the number for this attractive species which is well established a few miles south of our boundary and seems to be spreading; the Barred Sallow, also at Combermere, is another good record, only its fourth in recent times and they are all widely separated; the discovery of the Brown-veined Wainscot at Ridley is good news as it has not been seen at its old haunt at Hatchmere for many years; the eastward spread of the Scarce Silver-lines was confirmed when it came to my trap in Alderley Edge. Prof. Sir Cyril Clarke has confirmed that the Scarlet Tiger taken in 1988 was a decendant of the colony established experimentally nearly 30 years ago. The only migrants of any note were a couple of Hummingbird Hawkmoths and a solitary Vestal, though this had a good season futher south.

Turning to numbers, the total of about 340 new records, nearly as many as last year, brings the grand total past 8,060 which is an average of 260 species per 10Km square and reflects the increasing interest in the subject and the enthusiasm of our recorders whose numbers have again been swelled by several new contributors. The four squares whose total stood at about 190 species a year ago have now all passed 200 and this leaves only three squares below this figure. SJ68 and SJ37 are nearly there due mainly to the kindness of Andrew Pownall in allowing me to operate a trap in his garden in Antrobus on a number of occassions and to the generosity of the Rangers of the Wirral Way in allowing us to operate at Hadlow Road Station, where the local residents have been very understanding of our unusual activities! SJ36 lies mainly outside Cheshire but does cover the area of the East side of Chester; Steve McWilliam has found a suitable collecting site near Balderton and has obtained many good records there but it will take another year or two to record another 50 species in the 35 square kilometres of SJ36 that lie in Cheshire.

C.I. Rutherford - (01625-583683)                                                                                                                                                                 February 1990