The Essex Naturalist
23
Reports from the club's recorders
The following are the un-refereed reports of the Essex Field Club's Recorders
Review of the Lepidoptera of Essex for the year 1997
Brian Goodey
298 Ipswich Road, Colchester, Essex CO4 4ET.
Introduction
The year 1997 seemed at first to be a poor year for migrants, especially when
compared to 1996 with its painted lady bonanza, but late August and early
September saw latticed heath moths swarm in the thousands and these may
have been homebred or migrants from Europe. It was very much the most
spectacular event of the year.
Three moths were added to the county list in 1997: Triaxomera fulvimitrella,
Argyresthia cupressella and Duponchelia fovealis (a second for Britain); whilst news
of another, Ancylolomia tentaculella, taken in 1996, was released. The marbled
green was re-admitted to the county list and, at last, we have a breeding record
for the pine hawk-moth.
The Essex Moth Group continues to flourish and had a very successful and
enjoyable year, ending with a winter meeting on 31 January which attracted a
crowd of forty-five - surely the finest gathering of local lepidopterists seen in the
county for many years. Closer links were formed with Butterfly Conservation
and the Suffolk Moth Group, with whom a couple of joint meetings have been
arranged in 1998.
Recording continues apace and the database now contains 26,000 entries
from 50,000 records. Some important new suppliers of information have been
found, chiefly the Bishops Stortford Natural History Society, data from which
has been collated by Colin Plant and Charles Watson.
The list below includes most of the more notable records received so far for
1997. The end number "# DBR" indicates how many records are currently on
the database for each species and will give a rough guide of how frequently they
are reported. Our microlepidopteta recorder Maitland Emmet has kindly cast his
eye over the list and has made many helpful suggestions, including correcting
the odd nomenclature slip, the rules of which defeat me!
Out thanks to recorders who continue to provide us with much of interest.
Adelidae
0151 Adela croesella Scop. Mistley, 26 May (1. Rose). There are currently four
database records (= 4 DBR)
Zygaenidae
0171 Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet Zygucna lonicerae latomarginata Tutt.
New colonies have been reported at Ingatestone, 29 June (G. Smith);