The brownfield site was inspected when the dark clouds had returned, the wind had picked up and when I was expecting rain at any moment but, apart from a few spots, it did n`t transpire. Consequently, hardly any lepidoptera were on the wing - indeed, the botanical interest won the moths on this occasion with two bushes of sweet briar Rosa rubiginosa (smelling of apples) and a strong colony of ploughman`s spikenard Inula conyza, the latter a plant not without its own good `moth potential`.
Above: a brief deviation into botany - sweet briar with Glamorgan across the estuary.
Above: Homoeosoma sinuella.
A single Homoeosoma sinuella - a pyralid of dry habitats that feeds on plantains - was flushed and caught; it`s a moth that I associate with our coastal sandy grasslands and evidently the well-drained slag soils at Bynea are to its liking. A Nemophora degeerella, looking quite tropical with its colourful wings, was spotted resting on a pathside leaf.
Above: the longhorn moth, Nemophora degeerella.
Morfa Berwig, easily visited along the main coast road, was called at almost on a whim, and I was glad that I did so, as several records of interest were made. Ox-eye daisies had what seems to be Dichrorampha alpinana resting and flitting around in the now-emerged sunshine; there is the extremely similar D. petiverella which feeds on tansy, sneezewort and yarrow which is also a possibility (though tansy is absent from this site), so alpinana cannot be an absolutely definite record.
Above: yesterday`s possible Dichrorampha alpinana, caught resting on ox-eye daisy.
Various other common day-flying moths were recorded and Glyphipterix forsterella was later seen in some quantity around patches of Carex remota alongside a broad drainage ditch within willow carr. Carex remota may well have been the host plant of my woodland forsterella seen very recently at Stradey Woods.
Leaf-miners provided other records of interest with Epermenia chaerophyllella, found on hogweed and Oidaematophorus lithodactyla on fleabane.
Above: the characteristic damage done by the plume moth Oidaematophorus lithodactyla on fleabane.
Above: as a final photo, a shot of one of the larger pills or drainage ditches at Morfa Berwig; wet carr, flower-rich brownfield and scrub are other habitats found at this LNR.
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