Rosy footman eggs hatch

The eggs of the rosy footman (Miltochrista miniata) have hatched and, after posing for a picture on the grass blade where the eggs were laid, have disappeared into my breeding box full of tasty mosses and lichens.

Apparently they are quite easy to rear, so I shall keep them until they are larger before putting them out in the wild. In my first posting on this species I had read that the caterpillars fed on lichen, but apparenty they feed on mosses as well, so we might have a resident population in Emthree.

Rosy footman eggs retrieved

Today the rosy footman moth I found yesterday had disappeared, but her neatly arrayed eggs were still in place on the grass blade.

 

Here they were too far from any of the tree lichens the larvae eat, so I have brought them indoors. When the hatchlings emerge I will put them out in areas where plenty of lichen grows and maybe keep a couple to see if I can rear them through.

Rosy footman lays eggs

I found a rather battered female rosy footman moth (Miltochrista miniata) hanging from a grass blade over Troy Track today. As the photo shows she was laying eggs, eggs that confirm the description give in Stokoe (1948):

"somewhat spindle-shaped, rich yellow in colour and placed on end with great regularity, at a little distance from each other, in rows of generally three to five eggs in each row."

The moth had obviously read the book.

The caterpillars eat lichens on trees, so this little creature's endeavours are a triumph of hope over adversity. It will all be worth it if I collect the clutch and distribute the hatchlings in the medlar tree that has a good vestiture of lichen.

Stokoe, W. J. (1948) The Caterpillars of British Moths. Frederick Warne, London & New York

Dolis and a ragwort moth

The first ragwort flower was fully out yesterday and glittering green females of a rather scarce dolichopodid fly Hercostomus chrysozygos (top picture) were skimming across Midsummer Pond, sometimes settling on the meniscus, sometimes on my Wadhurst Clay tiles or the ailanthus log. The one in the picture seems to have retrieved some morsel of food.

Today another dolichopodid (Poecilbothrus nobilitatus) appeared on the pond in some numbers, resting on floating leaves or the meniscus (middle and lower picture).

I also found a tortrix moth resting on a leaf by Troy Track. It turned out to be a retuse marbled bell (Eucosma campoliliana). The larvae feed on ragwort, eating the flowers or boring in the stem and this is one of the many species associated with the plant that must be suffering under the determined attempt to rid Britain of the plant because of its toxic effects, especially when dry, on horses and other grazing animals. There is a picture of the moth here. 

There are some buds missing and one ragwort plant in The Waste collapsed a few weeks back, perhaps because a worm was boring in its stem, so its seems likely to be breeding in Emthree. Most of the Sussex records for this species are close to the coast.

Yellow shell moth (Camptogramma bilineata)

I was scanning the birch sapling this evening and what appeared to be a dead leaf turned into a yellow shell moth. Though a new record for the project, this is a common species whose caterpillars feed on docks, chickweed and other low-growing plants, so it may have grown up in Emthree.

The yellow birch leaves have been attacked the microfungus Asteroma microspermum and, as the top picture shows, the moth has quite a good resemblance to these and is easily overlooked.

A ghost moth (Hepialus humuli)

I was with a friend at Emthree early this evening when I noticed something sticking out of the ground near the heather plant in The Waste. It was a pupal case (see top picture) and my friend almost immediately spotted the impressive moth that had hatched out of it.

It is a ghost moth (Hepialus humuli) and said to be common, though it is some years since I have seen one here.

The females ase a patterned orange colour and only the males white. They are indeed a ghostly sight as they hover the meadow grass at dusk.

One thing puzzles me: the pupal case was in a rather bare part of Great Plantain Desert and I wonder where on earth the underground larva found enough roots to eat. It certainly did not seem to kill or weaken anything.