Sunday 5 April 2015

Diamonds on the cliffs

Despite an absolutely glorious day on the cliffs, we saw very little Lep activity, the one exception being Plutella xylostella, with 100+ seen at Horse Cliff. The cliff tops in this section are powdered white with Danish Scurvey-grass at this time of year (see photo below) and I'm guessing this is the main foodplant of what is presumably a home-bred population, although the dominant form was the pale-sandy type, which could suggest migrants – I don’t know? Sorry lots of speculation here! Has there been any migrant activity yet? Several Small Tortoiseshells, the only other species noted.

2 comments:

  1. Only Brimstone and 2 Small Torts in Laleston / Bridgend today and a Green-veined White yesterday. No butterflies at all at Broughton / Llangennith despite the nice weather.

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  2. Interesting. There have been some diamondbacks reported recently on Atropos Flight Arrivals, but nothing like those numbers. I'd agree that given the large numbers they are probably home grown.

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