Autumn2004
The SuffolkArgus determined by dissection, as E. hannoverella and E. turbidellaare indistinguishable in the majority of cases as adults from external appearance alone. This group of moths has a reputation for being tricky to rear through to the adult stage as the larvae leave the mine and spend the winter as a pupa in a small cocoon with the adults emerging in the spring. Being so small they are prone to drying out and appear to need exposure to cold weather before they will emerge and some species can be very heavily parasitised. Jon Clifton, Neil Sherman and myself took mines from two sites in Suffolk and tried different techniques to over-winter them in the hope that at least one of us would manage to rear some adults. This actually proved more successful than expected and in April and May the majority of adults hatched from both sites. These were determined by Jon Clifton to be E. hannoverella- a new species of moth to Britain found in Suffolk. Returning to events in late 2003, I had continued to search for further sites with mines in black poplar hybrids and managed to locate two further sites in Suffolk, one in the Woodbridge area and the other near Brandon. Andy Musgrove also managed to find some mines in Norfolk. at Thetford. It would appear that E. hannoverellais established in at least two broad areas of Suffolk and I suspect will be found in other areas of the county as well. How widespread it will be outside the county is hard to say. Leaf-miner recording certainly has a long history in Essex and some of the other adjoining/nearby counties to Suffolk have or have had recorders interested in recording leaf-mining moths. Black poplar and its hybrids have other leaf-mining moth species associated with them that are likely to have attracted the attention of leaf-miner recorders in the past, so it would seem unlikely that they would have been over-looked for a long period of time. Now that the species has been recognised as occurring in this country it will hopefully encourage other recorders to go out and look for it so that its precise distribution can be determined.
Small Tortoiseshells Along the SuffolkCoast by RichardStewart On Mai,ch 29th 2004 I walked from Buss Creek at Southwold right through to the railway station at Lowestoft. It was a lovely day for this time of yearbut cloudy conditions restricted my butterfly sightings to just a few unidentified and distant fliers. That was until the afrernoon, when the sun came out and the increased temperature produced a very surprising total of 43 Small Tortoiseshells between Kessingland Beach and the vegetation alongside the tracks at Lowestofr railway station. This is easily my best one-day total for this species at such an early date, in fact I doubt if I have ever seen that number previously in the whole of March. It was also interesring to note that just two other butterflies were recorded, both Peacocks. Several of the 43 were close together, showing courtship behaviour, and condition varied from excellent to ragged. Many were close to Alexanders, but this might have simply been because this plant has invaded most suitable habitats close to the path near the beach. What I could not decide was whether these represented a local population, which had successfullyhibernated and was evident along the path because of the sunshine, or whether they were migrants. There was a large movement of moths and butterflies into some south and southwest counties in February 2004. Dorset was the chief beneficiary, with over 300 records of the Painted Lady received by 28th March plus sightings of several rare migratory moths. Was this day'stotal the easterlytail end of this movement? If anyone else has similar numbers from other sites at the end of March, perhaps they could report them to Rob Parker.
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Suffolk Biodiversity Partnership helped to cover travel costs for several volunteers searching new sites. A new colour leaflet on the Dingy Skipper in the eastern region is also available and can help new volunteers distinguish between the butterfly and several day flying moths.
SurveyTraining Following the success of the transect and monitoring training day in Cambridgeshire, a similar day was held in Bury St Edmunds on Thursday 5th August using PowerPoint presentations from Head Office and the experience of Rob Parker and Sharon Hearle. The event was attended by 6 volunteers none were members of Butterfly Conservation and included staff from Suffolk County Council and RSPB. There were many other enquiries about recording from people who could not make the day. The Eastern Daily Press and East Anglian Daily Tlffies covered the event and although the copy was not completely accurate it did lead to an incredible 32 enquiries from the public and hopefully more recorders/members in the future.
How can you help? There will be further training days in 2005 and if anyone has any suggestions for topics they would like to see covered please get in touch. There are many County Wildlife Sites across the county, which have interesting potential for butterflies but no public access. If you are aware of sites near you that you would like to visit please get in touch, as it may be possible to arrange access for named individuals for recording purposes. There appear to be a number of locations along the Icknield Way where butterfly and moth species numbers have gone down. If anyone has any information about this track and former habitat I would be pleased to hear from you.
2004 Field Meetings Dingy Skipper Survey
-2004 by Rob Parker This year's searches for the Dingy Skipper were well planned, but the season ran late, and some of our early surveys were too early for the flight period, and one took place in a torrential downpour. Perhaps the most important achievement was the completion of negative searchesthat confirmed that a number of former sites are regrettablyinactive. In several cases, the habitat is no longer suitable. A more satisfactory result late in the season was the discovery of a previously unknown colony just north of the existing Wordwell site; that has an extensive area of Birds-foot Trefoil and looks like a strong reservoirin the heart of the King's Forest. All visits were conducted with the landowner's consent, or along public rights of way. A total of twelve sites were visited during the 2004 flight period, and Dingy Skippers were found at four of these, including a stable colony at Center Pares and a few sightings at the Chalk Lane site. The butterfly appears to be holding its own in a very limited area of the Suffolk Brecks. The Dingy Skipper was on the wing from late April elsewhere in UK, and on the Devil's Dyke (Cambs/Suffolk border) by 2 May, but again there were no early records from Suffolk. None were flying on 3, 5 or 7 May, and the first definite record was from Wardwell on 15th May, the same date as last year. The main survey events were: 15 May. Training event; count at Wardwell, but nothing found at Chalk Lane or to the northeast. See the following report.
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