LEICESTERSHIRE & RUTLAND WILDLIFE TRUST
MY WILD LIFE “It’s like finding a jewel when I open the trap” Volunteer Finn Miskin-Young loves to switch on his moth trap lights and settle down to watch the night flyers arrive. Wendy Tobitt discovers why Finn also loves talking about moths.
I discovered moths on family camping holidays. I was 11 years old when I went to a moth-trapping event in Kelling Heath, Norfolk, and it was just magical. One minute they weren’t there then suddenly they were! That sense of wonder has stayed with me. Why do moths matter? Moths and their caterpillars are essential food for frogs, bats and garden birds like robins that need moth caterpillars to feed their young. Moths are pollinators too, helping wild flowers set seed and expand their range. Where are you moth-trapping? Once a month I take my moth trap onto
an LRWT nature reserve. I get there just before dusk, set it up then settle down for a few hours. Moths spend the first hour of the evening feeding and then I switch the lights on. Some are dainty and delicate, others yo-yo up and down, while some are powerful and fast. I love just sitting there watching them flying around. We have many different habitats in Leicestershire and Rutland, which support hundreds of species. From my home I go east for moths of ancient woodlands and calcareous grasslands, and west for moths of the Charnwood Forest heath habitats. Do you need special kit? I bought a ‘beginners’ moth trap for my garden and use it on the reserves too. Special lights attract the moths in, which
AMY LEWIS
“Moths are invisible to us most of the time, but they are just as important to the natural ecosystem as butterflies and bees.”
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Wild | Winter/Spring 2024
then rest inside suspended cardboard egg boxes. Some moths go into the trap, some stay outside on the grass, but every moth is recorded. All the moths are released unharmed. Is there a scientific reason for trapping moths? Moths are not the picture-postcard species of the natural world, but they do have an important role in the ecosystem. They are an indicator species responding to climate change; some that were only seen in the south are now recorded in the Midlands and further north. Moths like The Vestal and Bordered Straw that migrate from continental Europe, and even north Africa, are expanding their range too. Butterfly Conservation holds the records of more than 2,500 moth species in their National Moth Recording Scheme. NatureSpot and the Leicestershire Moth Group submit their sightings to this scheme. There aren’t many branches of
Muslin moth
