Norland moor walk - Aug.23rd

I won't give a summary of the walk as others are better qualified for that, suffice to say there was a good turn out of fifteen people and a couple of dogs and the weather was great after an ominous start to the day.


Lepidoptera as follows:


As is usual on the higher part of the moor micro moths were few and far between, in fact I only saw three all day but two of those were new to me :-)

No Annie, it wasn't a White-streaked Badger Moth but Eupoecilia angustana. It's larvae feed on the flowers and seeds of Heather amongst other plants.

This was in the grass at the base of an isolated birch tree - Epinotia trigonella. It's larvae feed on the spun leaves of birch. At 10mm in length it's nearly twice the size of the previous species. This one brings my list of Lepidoptera seen in Calderdale to 499.......

The third micro was a Agapeta hamana lying face down in a puddle!

Lots of leaf mines and coleophora cases seen but I'll not trouble you with a list of meaningless latin names.

Other leps were:

Silver Y x 3 flying wildly after been disturbed

Peacock sunning itself on Heather

Small White x 1

One Buff-tip larva doing well to avoid being trampled or run over in the car park.

Also of interest was this Cowberry plant hosting the fungi - Cowberry Redleaf (Exobasidium vaccinii). It deforms the upperside of the leaf turning it a reddish colour and the underside is covered in a white spore-bearing powder. I don't think this is the usual rust or smut but more closely related to the jelly fungi, sharing the same phylum.