Cheshire Macro-Moth Report - 1997


A strange year, 1996 gave us the biggest total of new records for Cheshire for the last four years while 1997 produced by far the fewest number of new records since we started the present recording scheme; the total is in fact just 48 and that includes six 1996 records that reached me too late to be included in the 1996 report. That however is only half the story as in 1997 we did add three species to the County list and the season got off to a much better start in the early Spring than for some years. Another good feature was the emergence of another active new recorder.

In July John Raines took a specimen of the Striped Wainscot in his trap, he had thought he had seen it in a previous year but had not been able to prove it; it is a reed-bed insect that I had thought should turn up somewhere in Cheshire, I don't think this one will be the last. Our second new species was the Privet Hawk, a single specimen being found in the evening by Eric Rudge when he heard it fluttering in the undergrowth! Surely this is the first species to be detected by ear rather than by eye. I might have suggested that it was either an escape or even a deliberate release from captive breeding but the fact that the specimen was recorded in the grounds of Liverpool University at Mossley Hill in 1996 increases the probability that the species may be established somewhere along the Mersey valley. Our third addition was even more unexpected, a Clifden Nonpareil was seen by Philip Thompson of Preston at Ness Gardens in daylight on the 1st September and reported to John Raines; I would probably have assumed this to be a release but for the fact that two specimens of this species were taken in different traps in the Shetlands on the 28th August, so there must have been a migration and ours could well have been a part of it.

We welcomed a new recorder, Edwin Samuels, who is able to trap on a fairly open site on the South-wesy of Bromborough and he added no less than eleven species to the records for SJ37 including only the second Angle-striped Sallow to be seen in the County, he also took three species not seen in SJ37 since 1980. Stephen Hind and his colleagues in the North-east of the county have again made several significant records including several around Congleton in SJ85 which we have treated as a marginal square up to now. Our mid-week meetings and some follow-up visits produced several new records, mainly of Pugs taken as larvae, these are not the only good records of larvae as Ian Smith beat the larvae of the Dusky Lemon Sallow from Elm flowers in three squares in the South-west and two of these are new records.

The attempt to get every 10km square in the County of Cheshire up to 250 species nearly succeeded; various visits to Brereton Heath, Bagmere and Goostrey Sidings gave us several records in Sj76, while the combined efforts of Eric Rudge with a trap in a local nursery garden and myself with sugar/wine strings in Park Moss Wood in October got SJ68 up to the target. Only in SJ56 did we fail, getting only two new species so that we need two more in 1998 and we have sites in mind for these. We are still sadly short of the other target of 100 species in all 31 squares but this probably requires night work as the commonest missing items are mostly Noctuids such as Dotted Clay in SJ37, Dot in SJ44 or Turnip in SJ86. For those who really like numbers, our total for the 31 squares has now passed 9,300 or an average of 300 species per square since 1961. We have recieved many useful 'update records' this year, but there are still many records not confirmed since 1980.

C.I. Rutherford - (01625-583683)                                                                                                                             January 1998



The following new records were received for Vice-County 58 (Cheshire) in 1997: - an asterisk (*) indicates a new species for the county; the number at the extreme left is the Bradley & Fletcher code from their publication: "A Recorder's Log Book or Label List of British Butterflies and Moths" - J.D. Bradley and D.S. Fletcher (1979) :-
Code English Name
10Km Squares (SJ)
161 Leopard Moth
SJ68
169 Six-spot Burnet
SJ99
1702 Small Fan-footed Wave
SJ28
1707 Small Dusty Wave
SJ68
1712 Small Scallop
SJ76
1720 Gem
SJ47
1746 Shoulder Stripe
SJ56
1754 Phoenix
SJ87
1756 Northern Spinach
SJ47
1797 Autumnal Moth
SJ47
1811 Slender Pug
SJ64
1821 Valerian Pug
SJ44
1827 Freyer's Pug
SJ46
1831 Ling Pug
SJ56
1844 Ochreous Pug
SJ28
1859 Sloe Pug
SJ44
1862 Double-striped Pug
SJ76
1870 Chimney Sweeper
SJ37
1876 Small Yellow Wave
SJ37
1893 Tawny-barred Angle
SJ68, 76
1912 August Thorn
SJ37
1933 Scarce Umber
SJ37
1936 Waved Umber
SJ46
1947 Engrailed
SJ37
1976* Privet Hawk-moth
SJ69
2035 Round-winged Muslin
SJ76
2080 Square-spot Dart
SJ37
2082 Garden Dart
SJ37
2177 Hedge Rustic
SJ37
2196* Striped Wainscot
SJ36
2240 Blair's Shoulder-knot
SJ99
2248 Brindled Green
SJ66
2256 Satellite
SJ68
2258 Chestnut
SJ37
2262 Brick
SJ68
2264 Yellow-line Quaker
SJ37, 68
2275 Dusky Lemon Sallow
SJ45, 54
2312 Olive
SJ68
2313 Angle-striped Sallow
SJ37
2325 Crescent Striped
SJ47
2333 Large Nutmeg
SJ47
2381 Treble Lines
SJ47
2391 Silky Wainscot
SJ64
2451* Clifden Nonpareil
SJ37
2462 Mother Shipton
SJ76


 

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