Minsmere moths and butterflies.
15/02/2007 00:00:00
National Moth Night
- Several RSPB reserves are taking part in National Moth Night, Britain’s celebration of moths and moth recording, on Saturday, September 23.
- The annual event is organised by Atropos (the journal for butterfly, moth and dragonfly enthusiasts) and Butterfly Conservation (the UK charity taking action to save butterflies, moths and their habitats).
- People throughout the British Isles are encouraged to record the moths in their chosen location and the results are pooled into Britain’s largest survey of what species are flying around the country. Much important information has been generated in past years, including new county records, new sites for scarce species and records of rare immigrants.
- A list of public events can be found online
September 2006. Three years of study by Robin Harvey, assistant warden, and entomologist Jeff Higgot have revealed
Minsmere, one of the RSPB’s best known reserves, to be a haven for a stunning variety of Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) with over 1,000 different species having been recorded there.
Minsmere has long been renowned for its birdlife and it may well become equally as famous as a home for insects.
Robin said: ‘We’ve added about 350 species to the list. In a lot of cases, no one had really had the time to look for them before. There have been lots of early starts and late finishes.
‘With a moth trap you never quite know what you are going to get in it and it is like getting a present every day. You might find a first for Britain in there.’
2 years ago they did find a species of moth never recorded in the UK. It was christened the Minsmere Crimson Underwing.
The 1000th species was another unusual migrant, the Many-lined Costaconvexa polgrammata, which used to be resident in several British fens but is not known to have bred here since 1879.
Robin said: ‘There are now 1018 species of moths and butterflies at
Minsmere out of a total of around 2,500 known in Britain.
‘That includes 32 butterflies, including the spectacular Camberwell Beauty and the Queen Of Spain Fritillary. The next target is 1000 moths, and we aren’t far off! There are parts of the reserve we haven’t covered yet. We have a conifer plantation we haven’t been to for example and I’m sure we will find some more species in there.’
Dr Mark Avery, the RSPB’s director of conservation, said: ‘
Minsmere is a great place for birds, but also for a whole range of other wildlife including otters, beetles, snakes and butterflies and moths. The work we do on our nature reserves to make them wonderful places for birds works for wildlife as a whole.’
Martin Warren, Chief Executive of Butterfly Conservation: ’Butterflies and moths are generally in steep decline in Britain, so it is great news that they are thriving at
Minsmere under the special care of the RSPB. The reserve is a superb demonstration of what can be achieved to reverse the decline of our wildlife, and we hope it can be replicated around the country.’
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