Chocolate-tip moth (Clostera curtula) in 1998 (UK)

Nick Greatorex-Davies NGD at wpo.nerc.ac.uk
Thu Feb 18 04:51:20 EST 1999


Tony Pritchard Wrote:

>Has anybody else noticed a marked absence/low numbers of the Chocolate-tip
>(Clostera curtula) in 1998. I didn't see any at all here in Suffolk and
>currently I have only a couple of records for one site from another recorder
>for 1998.

>We generally find this species localised but it normally turns up at quite a
>few sites during the year and in reasonable numbers. In 1997 I have records
>for 11 sites.

>Was the miserable spring to blame?

We get just a few in the Rothamsted light trap here at Monks Wood in Cambridgeshire most years, and there was just a single one in the trap in 1998 (in late May).

On a more general note, the general consensus among moth trappers I know was that 1998 was an exceptionally poor year here in the UK for moths with catches down to about 50% of what might be expected in a 'normal' year with a number of species usually present in reasonable numbers being entirely absent from some traps.

Rothamsted have a national network of light traps and will be looking closely at the moths caught in 1998 and comparing them with previous years - so we should get some actual figures in due course.

Kind regards

Nick Greatorex-Davies



Mr J Nick Greatorex-Davies
(Butterfly Monitoring Scheme co-ordinator)
Institute of Terrestrial Ecology
Monks Wood
Abbots Ripton
Huntingdon
Cambridgeshire PE17 2LS  UK

Tel: (+44) (0) 1487 773 381
Fax: (+44) (0) 1487 773 467
E-mail: n.greatorex-davies at ite.ac.uk
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   


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