NOTES BUTTERFLIES ON SOME SUFFOLK AT FRAMLINGHAM MOTHS, 2000
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Butterflies at Framlingham, August 6th–14th Our observations in 2000 were as follows: Small Skipper Large Skipper Brimstone Large White Small White Green-veined White Small Copper Brown Argus Common Blue Holly Blue Red Admiral Painted Lady Small Tortoiseshell Peacock Comma Speckled Wood Wall Brown Grayling Gatekeeper Meadow Brown Ringlet
6
7
6 6 6 6 7
7 7 7
8 8 8
9 9 9
10
11
12
13
14
10 10 10
11 11 11 11
12 12 12 12
13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13
14 14 14
6
11 7 7
6 6 6
6 6 6
7 7 7 7 7 7 7
8
8 8
8 8
9 9 9 9 9 9 9
10 10 10 10 10
11 11 11 11 11
9 9
10 10
11 11
12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12
14
13
14 14 14 14
13 13
14 14
Sixteen species were seen on the 12th, a total equal to our previous best on 3rd August 1997. The daily species-average rose to 12.5 after a decline since our highest in 1995 (13.7). Over the nine days we saw twenty-one species, the highest total in our ten years, exceeding the twenty seen in both 1995 and 1997. This was the first time we had seen the Speckled Wood in Suffolk. We missed seeing the Brown Argus in one of its churchyard sites, probably because the vegetation had been mown flat for an event: possibly the butterfly population will survive, nevertheless. Moths at Framlingham, 6th–14th August In 2000, we noted 54 species, mainly at street lamps or at shop windows. The most favourable night was the 12th, with 21 species, including the Yellow Barred Brindle, Acasis viretata, a species I last saw in this vicinity in 1948. An unexpected arrival on the 8th was the Yellow Belle, Semiaspilates ochrearia, which we used to see mainly in sandy localities. A Black Rustic, Aporophyla nigra, appeared on the 10th, reminding me that, although it is now common in Suffolk, it did not reach the county until the 1960s - it used to be regarded as a western species. (It has become very frequent here in Selborne, Hampshire.)
Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 37 (2001)
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Suffolk Natural History, Vol. 37
The Carnation Twist, Cacoecimorpha pronubana, was recorded on the 11th: it was first noted in England in 1905 and spread throughout the southern counties but had not been seen by 1937 in Suffolk, where it is now local. My early specimens were confirmed by Stanley Wakely, as I had looked for it in vain in the older Suffolk collections at Ipswich and at Bury St.Edmunds. The General Purple and Gold, Pyrausta aurata, a local species on dead-nettles and mint, flew in on the 13th. We also saw several specimens of the Furness Dowd, Blastobasis lignea, and of the Four-spotted Obscure, Oegoconia guadripuncta There were several immigrants in evidence:- the Silver Y, Autographa Gamma, on the 6th, 7th, 11th, 12th, 14th; the Diamond Backed Moth on 14th and, in the autumn, we saw a Rush Veneer, Nomophila noctuella, at Bruisyard on October 22nd. Alasdair Aston Wake’s Cottage, Selborne, Hampshire GU34 3JH
Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 37 (2001)