First Lepidoptera of 1998

[J.B.Murray (John Murray)]

They first lepidoptera I saw in 1998 was a miserable bedraggled Mottled Beauty
moth (?Erannis defolaria?) that crawled its tedious way into my moth trap on the
night of January 1st-2nd, looking for all the world like one of the dirty scraps
of dead leaves that were blowing around my garden at the same time.  

Nothing unusual about that, but far more unusual was the sighting of a Brimstone
(Gonepteryx rhamni) butterfly in my garden on January 9th.  The temperature was
13.4 c in the Stevenson screen, and the weather was sunny, but with a moderate
southwesterly blowing.  The butterfly did not appear to have been accidentally
disturbed - I watched it flying about for 2 minutes around the garden and our
neighbours'garden, half-heartedly looking for nectar sites, perhaps a mate as
well.  This beats the previous Hertfordshire record for early sightings of this
species (1994 Jan 29th) by 20 days.  

That evening, the first Pale Brindled Beauty moth appeared in the moth trap, and
2 or 3 have come to the trap since.  This is also quite early for this species
here.  

John Murray
Field End                Email:  j.b.murray at open.ac.uk
Marshalls Heath
Wheathampstead,
Herts  U.K.