Kentish Glory Moth Trap & Egg Hunt Granish near Aviemore 13th May 2023

We had a great turn-out for this event, partly because it had been advertised as part of Cairngorms Nature Week. Twenty-one folks gathered at the Aviemore Kart Raceway at Granish on the outskirts of Aviemore. Tom Prescott had run a couple of moth traps overnight in nearby woodland and brought along his catch for us to enjoy. There were 26 species, the star of the show being a male Kentish Glory in fresh condition, and he was very well photographed. A large and furry Puss moth took second place, but there were other brilliant moths, such as Red Swordgrass and Scalloped Hook-tip, amongst a variety of moth shapes and sizes.

Looking for Kentish Glory at Granish

 

Going through a moth trap while Go-Karts buzzed around the track behind us, was a novel experience! Once we were finished with the moth trap, we walked through to the nearby birch woodland to search for Kentish Glory eggs. It was a gorgeous, very warm and sunny day, the warmest day of the year so far. We stared at birch tree twigs until lunchtime, but had no luck with finding eggs, but the hot weather brought out plenty of other insects to keep us interested. For example, four species of ladybirds (7-spot, Striped, Eyed and Cream-spot), two species of longhorn beetle (Black-spotted and Two-banded), a Scorpion Fly and zillions of Green Tiger Beetles along the paths – I’ve never seen so many.

Left, Kentish Glory.  Right, Puss Moth

 

Where we stopped for lunch, there were many solitary mining bees (probably Orange-legged Furrow Bees) and their nest holes, with parasitic Nomad bees amongst them. Tom hung up pheromone lures for both Kentish Glory and Emperor moths. We didn’t attract any of the former but had good views of the latter.

Bored with looking for KG eggs, after lunch we crossed the steam railway line to an area of moorland with bearberry, the foodplant of day-flying Netted Mountain and Small Dark Yellow Underwing moths. We found several of the former but none of the latter (which was a long shot anyway). A couple of Green Hairstreak butterflies were a nice find (first of the year for most, if not all, of us) and added to the butterfly list of Speckled Wood, Orange-tip and Peacock. Other insects were added – Hawthorn Shieldbug, a Spider-hunting Wasp and a Blood Bee. A warm, sunny day and many enthusiastic pairs of eyes on the look-out yielded a bumper crop of insects. What an amazing day!

Here's a list of the moths from the morning moth trap:

Red Chestnut                                     

Hebrew Character                            

Pine Beauty                                        

Red Sword-grass                              

Light Knot Grass                 

Nut-tree Tussock                              

White Ermine                                     

Herald                                                   

Scarce Prominent                             

Lesser Swallow Prominent            

Pebble Prominent                            

Puss Moth                                           

Engrailed                                              

Peppered Moth                                 

Brindled Beauty                                

Scalloped Hazel                                 

Early Thorn                                         

Early Tooth-striped                          

Ochreous Pug                                   

Double-striped Pug                          

Water Carpet                                     

Garden Carpet                                   

Kentish Glory                                      

Scalloped Hook-tip                           

Elachista canapennella

Semioscopis avellanella

                               Pete Moore