The Suffolk Argus
1996 Field Trips
July 1997
As mentioned Roger ran different lamps at each trap these being: I) actinic 2) white fluorescent 3) green phosphorescent 4) blue phosphorescent 5) MBF Mercury Vapour
Moth Night at Groton Wood Nature Reserve Friday, 19th April by Tony Prichard This event was run by Roger Kendrick who has since moved to sunnier climes in Hong Kong. I am providing a write up of the event in his absence with a species list he has supplied. About 12-15 people turned up for this first field event of 1996. Roger was running five moth traps with different lamps to see if there was any difference in the efficiency of the lamps to attract moths. The evening started with checking the sallow blossom for feeding moths. On this occasion this was not very successful in yielding any moths. On hearing from the reserve warden that some trees had recently been felled the group moved to this area to see if any moths could be found on sap rising from the cut tree trunks - unfortunately again this yielded very little in the way of moth species. On returning to the moth traps things started to be come more active as moths turned up at the lights. The rest of the night was spent moving between the lights noting the various species at the different lamps.
The best performing lamps in terms of the numbers of different species turning up were the green phosphorescent and the MV lamps. The advantage of the actinic and phosphorescent lamps is that they require less than 10% of the power of the MV lamps which means that more traps can be run from the one generator using these lights. The most notable of the species found were a couple of localised species - Leadcoloured Drab and Oak Nycteoline. The full species list for the night was:Frosted Green, March Moth, Shoulder Stripe, Brindled Pug, Early Thorn, Purple Thorn, Dotted Border, The Engrailed, Small Square-spot, Red Chestnut, Small Quaker, Lead-coloured Drab, Clouded Drab, Common Quaker, Twin-spotted Quaker, Hebrew Character, Early Grey, The Satellite, The Chestnut, Oak Nycteoline and a couple of micros Micropterix calthella and Diurnea fagella.
Early Thorn (Selenia dentaria)
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Eastern Region
FWAG Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. by Stephen Goss
White-letterHairstreak (Strymoni,li<Lw-a!bum)
Suffolk Branch were invited to represent Butterfly Conservation at the Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) Conference, held at Centre Pares in February. James Mann and I attended the conference, which was opened by Professor David Bellamy and featured in both the local and national media. It was very well attended with over 400 delegates from a very varied range of conservation groups. There were ten speakers during the day who covered a broad range of conservation topics, from the role of game shooting in conservation to reservoir management. The quality of these speakers was excellent throughout, and I am delighted to learn that one of the most interesting (and entertaining), Dr Roger Key, has agreed to speak at our members evening later this year. Our display stand was extremely well received with crowds of people eager to find out more about the role we play and to purchase books. At one point I had six people all waving money at me for books and wallcharts. Very exciting stuff and, because everybody at the conference was already interested in conservation, we feel sure that we managed to recruit several new members without too much difficulty. Finally, I must tell you about something that happened whilst we were setting up the display material. I picked up one of the BC booklets on the White-letter hairstreak and said to James 'Doyo11think we'll eversell these?I reckonwe'restuck with themforever'. Well, you've guessed it. .. just a few minutes later the very first person to visit our stand wanted to know all about White-letter hairstreaks - where and when to search for eggs, what the caterpillars look like and so on. James and I smiled at each other, answered her questions and sold her a book!
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