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iSpot features moth new to Britain

The OPAL iSpot project (see previous post) has had an exciting few days – a moth, found by six-year-old Katie Dobbins in Berkshire, was posted on iSpot, and has turned out to be a species not recorded in Britain before: Pryeria sinica, the Euonymus Leaf-notcher. This is native to Asia but has been found in a couple of places in the States since 2001.

Further details and more photos are on the Berkshire Moth Group website.

Thanks to Katie Dobbins for getting her dad to report the moth, and to Martin Honey of the Natural History Museum for his help in confirming its identity. Full details will be published as soon as possible, and the specimen is being passed on to the NHM.

This may well be just a one-off importation with plants or packaging, but it’s emerged via the Back Garden Moths forum that the Euonymus Leaf-notcher was also seen in Spain last June, the only other record for Europe that we’ve heard of (so far!).

The Open University press office have made good use of the story and so far it’s been picked up by the Express, Mail and Mirror. As usual the papers have their own perspective on this, and according to taste the moth is either the “UK’s rarest moth” or the next major pest outbreak.

All good fun, and hopefully Katie has enjoyed her encounters with biodiversity and the media!

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links from Moths and the Media talk

Here are the links to many of the websites referred to in the “Moths and the Media” talk I gave in Newbury on 19 May 2009, for Butterfly Conservation and BBOWT, and again for Moths Count at the South Wales Moth Recorders’ Gathering, September 2009.

Many of the links, including most of the ‘serious’ mothing identification sites and online resources for moth recorders, have already been listed in my previous post on this subject and aren’t repeated here. The ones that are new:

Additional mothing sites

Online mapping and grid references

  • Where’s the path – OS maps and Google aerial photos side-by-side (this site has recently moved URL)
  • Grab a grid reference – excellent innovation from Keith Balmer for Bedfordshire Natural History Society, displays grid reference squares at various resolutions over Google maps and aerials (works throughout UK)

Moth-related blogs (a small and fairly random selection from among many)

Moth miscellany

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Award for David Lonsdale

I’m delighted to hear that David Lonsdale has been awarded this year’s Marsh Award for Insect Conservation. Many years ago I volunteered as Conservation Officer for the Amateur Entomologists’ Society, under David’s guidance, and have fond memories of his friendly supervision, his expert and detailed knowledge, and his untiring dedication to the cause of conserving invertebrates. Strong memories also of his beady eye for any deviations from good English and scientific accuracy!

David is still active within the AES, editing their Invertebrate Conservation News among other activities, and also supports the Ancient Tree Forum and Buglife, among others. He (along with Reg Fry) was instrumental in getting the first book published on insect conservation in the UK, the AES’s “Habitat Conservation for Invertebrates – A Neglected Green Issue” (1991).

This award for David is thoroughly well-deserved, congratulations, and long may his inspiring work continue.