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July 2021 was mostly warm and sunny, a good month for moth trapping in south-west Donegal and a hot, dry, tropical weather system was being drawn up from the south-east between 15 –25 July. This was my 2^nd summer of trapping and I set my Skinner 20W trap on the night of 23 July at the back of my house in Rosbeg, Co. Donegal where there is heathland and some willow trees.

My sister Amanda was due to visit the following day and I thought I would have any trapped moths more or less sorted by then. I duly unpacked it early the next morning with 21 species and 71 moths.

I had had several Double-square Spot Xestia triangulum already that month however, the specimen I was checking that morning was decidedly purple, shimmering and just had a different “jizz” about it.

As a relative novice with just Waring, Townsend & Lewington’s field guide the picture was a very good match for Triple-spotted Clay Xestia ditrapezium. Though it couldn’t be as it had not been recorded in Ireland since 1956 and that was in Dublin. Or could it be?

It went into the fridge for further inspection, and the photo and query went up onto MothsIreland Facebook page.

Amanda arrived and we both waited in anticipation for the expert’s view. Possibly, and probably not were the responses, but to freeze it anyhow for Ken Bond’s expert analysis.

Two nights later we took Amanda’s battery-operated Skinner 20W trap to Sheskinmore Nature Reserve for the first time with kind permission from NPWS. It is about 4km from the house. We found a suitable location at the edge of the machair, bordering a small wooded area.

On the twenty min walk back to the car we met a fellow moth enthusiast with his traps. It was Timothy McKillen who said he had been trapping in Sheskinmore for around ten years. We mentioned the possible Triple-Spotted Clay and he remarked that he had found a number of moths over the years which he thought matched the identification though they were not confirmed as they had not been not dissected. Encouraging and interesting news.

The following morning at 06.15am we opened the trap in Sheskinmore and found a very similar moth to the Rosbeg specimen, which also went in the freezer.

The 2 specimens were posted to Ken Bond.

Big excitement at 07.15am on 11 November. Ken Bond had confirmed that both specimens were indeed Triple-spotted Clay, Xestia ditrapezium. A possible small population of this native species.

Hidden in plain sight in Rosbeg Co. Donegal.

Triple-spotted Clay is local but widespread across England, Wales and western Scotland in open and damp broadleaved woodland.

Valerie Pedlow.

© Valerie Pedlow

First Irish record, 5^th July 2021, Cian Merne & Gareth O’Donnell.

From Gareth:

It was very unexpected, in so many ways.

Being based in West Cork, the opportunities to visit family in the North Dublin suburb of Bayside have been very sparse since March 2020.  So when an opportunity for a trip to the capital looked likely for early July 2021, planning started in earnest, with a last minute “ah sure, I’ll bring a wee battery powered light trap with me with the over-night weather looking reasonable and a bit of an Easterly wind blowing for most of the night.  Sure you never know…..”.

Well, we often think we do know, with declarations in our head like “it’s a bit too cold tonight to bother” and “there’s far too much street light pollution here”, or “sure there’s so little flying at this time of the year”.  The street light issue was certainly a consideration in this instance in Bayside since the house that I would be based had a great big street light beaming directly down into the small back garden, a garden surrounded by a typical suburban Dublin habitat, or lack thereof.  But, something in the greater universe forced the “Sure you never know…..” to win out.

Feeling more than a little daft, I traipsed out to the back garden, a little later than expected as I had not noticed dusk with all the light pollution, to deploy the small, 2 x 2 W LED, heath trap in the nearly-bright-as-day nightscape.  I thought I heard the street light giggling at my naivety.  The battery was connected, the light came on, and not even a small elevation of the overall brightness in the back garden could be noticed, not by me anyway.  Off to bed, after a good catch-up with family that evening and lots more time to chat in the morning on the cards on account of the “won’t be much in the trap tomorrow” spiralling in my sleepy mind.

From Cian:

Meanwhile, down the road in Baldoyle, it was Garden Moth Scheme night and I put out my 40W actinic Skinner in its usual spot at the bottom of my garden against the shed wall.  The next morning the thermometer had recorded a low of 12.7 deg C.  Things looked OK, there was a Peppered Moth resting on the shed and a peep into the trap revealed numerous moths among the egg boxes.  As I removed the first Perspex lid I spotted an unusual moth on it and quickly grabbed my camera.   My cheap macro ringflash seemed to take an eternity to charge up but luckily I managed to get 2 shots before the moth flew. (Note to self, switch on the flash before opening the trap)  I didn’t realize at the time that I had anything particularly interesting and proceeded to process the rest of the catch (28 species; pretty average for my suburban garden).  Afterwards, I downloaded the photos and had a quick glance through the micro moth field guide but nothing jumped out at me.  It was only later after breakfast when I got round to posting a photo of the mystery moth on the MothsIreland Facebook page that it became apparent that it was something special.  As is often the case, once pointed in the right direction, another look in the field guide had me wondering how on earth I missed it first time around.  It’s a pretty distinctive moth.

Back to Gareth:

After a relatively late breakfast, sure what was the hurry in opening a probably near-to-empty trap, I gathered my field guides, magnification loupes, small steel rule, my mammy and my partner Cindy to have a look inside.  I had never opened up a trap with my mammy before, and was already preparing the “sometimes there can actually be loads of moths, honestly”.  On approach to the trap, I noticed a few bits and bobs on and around the cone and close to the faint indigo-blue light, “…Oh goodie, some colourful stuff to look at and show to Mam”.  The Brimstone received a good reception, as did the Peppered Moth, even with it being a bit worn.  A Eudonia mercurella and a few other fairly unexciting micros needed to be dealt with without any ceremony to avoid Mam from worrying about my sanity.

All going well so, and then…..”Folks, I have NO idea what that is! Make sure that doesn’t fly off before I pot it…..please!”.  Both Mam and Cindy appeared to sit up a tad more attentively with this call-to-arms.  In what must be close to an involuntary action, a glass sample jar was in my hand with lid off, the egg box of specific interest carefully, but firmly in my other.  My eyes out on stalks taking in everything possible in case…..”well, it looks happy where it is…” and other familiar famous last words and expressions speed through my mind.  I just HOPE it doesn’t fly.  Mam was excited, Cindy was excited, I was beside myself, and I still had no idea what I was looking at.

The moth was indeed happy to rest on the light-green, not too battered, egg box while I worked the photo-shoot like a pro at the side of a catwalk.  There we go, that’s a nice bright, clear shot, good enough for some on MI fb to not make fun of the smudge in the photo that I was claiming might be a moth of note.  Pot it in the ready glass sample jar.  A reasonably quick look through the micros field guide, knowing at least that I should be looking among the Pyralidae, and BOOM, Euzophera pinguis looked very, very promising.  Page 360 for the map and text, “oh my…”.  June-Sept. FS looks good, FL of 11-13 mm looks good, wing pattern and shape look good, but the Ireland part of the map was very, very BLANK.  Followed by a review of the MI maps list…..  Mam seemed disappointed when I said “It’s not listed…..”, but a brief explanation helped raise her spirits once more, and lifted mine to a crescendo.

I need to post this on MI fb.  How do I word this?  Excitement very close to consuming me.  I have never had a first-for-Ireland before.  Maybe there has been one since the MI maps were last updated in 2015?……Oh dear, dare I hope……I’ll go low-key…….”Could this be Euzophera pinguis. North Dublin, last night.  Eamonn O Donnell?”……..Ken Bond responded first and rapidly with a “Certainly looks like it.  Not on the Irish list as far……”  Well, as Ferdia says “I nearly fainted”.  And to put the icing, on the icing, on the icing, on the cake, another comment is made by Cian Merne “Well, well, well!  I had one last night too!  Posted photos looking for confirmation of ID separately. I’m in Baldoyle, Co. Dublin”.  Baldoyle, a mile or two from Bayside, where Cindy, my mammy and I sat all with very big smiles and bouncing with excitement.

Euzophera pinguis, 5^th July 2021, joint first Irish record, Cian Merne with one individual to light and Gareth O’Donnell with one individual to light, both O 23, both first first Irish records.  An Ash bark feeder and a fairly local species in G.B., with few, if any records in Scotland, few in Wales and many regions in England with no records, e.g. Cornwall and much of Devon.  The most westerly record up to these Dublin records is on the Isle of Man (unconfirmed).

Sure you never know, sometimes the very unexpected does happen.  Traps out folks…..

Gareth O’Donnell’s Bayside, Euzophera pinguis individual.

Cian Merne’s, Baldoyle, Euzophera pinguis individual.

On Mon 12th July I noticed a large white larva with black and yellow markings feeding on Figwort in my garden. Knowing we don’t have Mullein, Toadflax Brocade or Striped Lychnis in Ireland I was surprised and excited. Many photos later, which I submitted to the Mothsireland FB page, I got confirmation that it was a Mullein Moth larva.

My garden is large and in rural north Co Dublin surrounded by tillage farms. The garden is managed for insects and, this year, has the best growth of Figwort I’ve ever had. Mullein/Verbascum grows in the front garden. While I’ve longed to see the larva of a Mullein Moth and always examined the Mullein plants, I never expected to see one here. A bigger surprise came on Tuesday evening when another larva was discovered on a poor specimen of Figwort in another part of the garden. That one has gone down into the plant pot and hopefully will be OK. The original larva is happily munching away. I will keep watch on the larva and continue to photograph it as it matures. This has to be the highlight of the year for me.

Mullein Moth has not been recorded in Ireland since 1952 and was classified as Regionally Extinct in the Red List of Ireland’s macro moths published by the NPWS in 2016. In GB, Mullein Moth is common and widespread across the south of England, becoming more patchy in its distribution in north England and Wales.

Fionnuala Parnell

1. Background

The Irish Red List on Macro Moths (2016) has the following to say about the Thrift Clearwing moth (Pyropteron muscaeformis)

I have been studying the sod hedges on Loop Head for several years, principally to assess the solitary bee populations that they support. I have also been aware of the decline of the Thrift Clearwing moth in Ireland. It seemed to me that if you want to find something rare that feeds on thrift, then go where there’s the most thrift, so I have also spent some time in recent years looking for this insect there. Until this year, I was unsuccessful: probably I had been looking too late (early – mid July).

On Saturday 29^th May 2021, I discovered a female Thrift Clearwing moth calling amongst the thrift in the sod hedges, close to the Grave of the Yellow Men. If the Red List account is still current, this is only the third record since 2000. The location is 150km from the ‘recent’ west Cork records and, even taking into account the pre-2000 data, is a new one.

On foot of this find, I obtained a pheromone trap and lure for Thrift Clearwing, and twice returned to the area to do a more systematic survey. A visit on Sunday 13^th June was thwarted by bad weather, but a return on Friday 18^th June yielded moths at all three of the survey sites that I had selected.

2. Survey Details and Results

Based on my initial find, I identified three sections of sod hedges to survey:-

A – Kiltrellig: along the coast road west, north of the bridge at Cloghaun Lough. Map Ref. Q752483. This is also where my initial find was;

B – Kilclogher: along the coast road east, south of the bridge at Cloghaun Lough. Map Ref. Q759481;

C – Kilbaha south: along the approach road to Loop Head lighthouse, and the track northwards to the cliffs. Map Ref. Q699476.

The pheromone trap consisted of a small cage to hold the lure (a rubber bung that had been soaked in the pheromone chemical), located above an ingress area and a funnel leading to a collection pot. The trap was set up at the mid point of each location, being suspended near the top of the sod hedge, so that it hung down amongst the thrift plants. It was left in place for 40 minutes (research on-line suggested that 40 minutes was reckoned by regular users of pheromone traps to be sufficient time to get a catch, if the subject insect was present in the area). The trap was then checked.  The results were as follows:-

I was particularly struck by the success at location C, which was on the more exposed, north-facing side of the peninsula. The general numbers of insects active here were far lower than the comparatively sheltered locations A and B, which were busy with bees, wasps, hoverflies and other Diptera. Site C is also, relatively speaking, inland. At site C, the two moths were not caught by the trap but were a casual observation nearby. Since one was a calling female, it was likely in competition with the trap for males.

3. Conclusions

Based on the outcome of this small, informal survey, one can make the following observations about the status of the Thrift Clearwing moth in Ireland:-

1. Given the scale of this find at Loop Head, it is reasonable to assume that there are undiscovered populations of Thrift Clearwing moths at suitable locations elsewhere in Ireland;
2. The Critically Endangered status afforded the moth on the 2016 Irish Red List may be unduly pessimistic;
3. The received wisdom of the moth’s apparent preference for stressed host plants in the splash zone is, at best, not the whole story, at worst, somewhat misleading;
4. There is a good case for planning and executing a wider survey of candidate sites, using pheromone traps;
5. The key criterion for site selection should be that there is a large amount of thrift present.

Photographs

The calling female from location C

General view of the sod hedges at location B

Three of the four males trapped at Location A

Thrift Clearwing male from location A

Trap set up at location C

Nick Larter. Ennis, Co. Clare.