Sunday 2 September 2012

Jersey Tiger

Just popped out to have a look at the trap to discover a rather battered Jersey Tiger flapping around in the breeze, which looks like the second county record.  Will pop a photo up tomorrow.

I wonder if they are breeding here?

And here is a pic:














And a quick update on the Jersy Tiger - when releasing it this afternoon it flipped over to reveal what looks like a nematode (?) emerging.  At least I presume that's not norma!?!















7 comments:

  1. Excellent record Adam - I think only the 3rd Welsh record after Flat Holm (2008) and Newport (2011).

    Probably need a few more records though to be confident they're breeding on this side of the Bristol Channel.

    George

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  2. I'm sure it won't be long before they are breeding here, as I believe they are now regularly caught in Somerset.

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  3. The data on the NBN gateway made me wonder of they may have colonies this far north by now Dave. It's nice to see a species expanding it's range instead of dissapearing. |To be fair though as you can see from the worn state of my specimen, it could well have travelled a long way to get here!

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  4. Don't forget that the Gateway is only showing you where things have been recorded. Jersey Tiger was an a occasional immigrant species to the UK when I started mothing. So whilst it has been recorded as far as Yorkshire these are likely to be singletons rather than breeding populations.

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  5. That doesn't look normal Adam - I've never seen anything like that!

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  6. This looks more anatomical to be - perhaps a sex or more probably a defence organ? I'm not sure though and quite bizarre!

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  7. Hopefully a final update on this - I netted the same moth again this afternoon thinking it may be a second specimen of the same species. It was active and flying very happily in the afternoon sunshine so I guess the most likely explanation is that the 'dangly bits' in the second photo are a normal part of it's anatomy and it has successfully retracted them into the body cavity.

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