News

This July we celebrated our 2^nd year doing moth surveysLink opens in a new window on campus, thanks to the continued help of moth enthusiast Dan Hall (Teaching Fellow, School of Modern Languages and Cultures).

This anniversary turned out to be truly remarkable for a number of reasons.

Not only did we find record numbers of moths in our humane light traps - 280 individuals of 67 species, 37 of which were new to our list! – but we were also honoured to have moth expert David Brown, Warwickshire’s county moth recorder and accomplished author, in attendance.

Thanks to David’s advice after our first survey using our new moth traps, we managed to overcome the issue of the moths escaping before we get to record them, which resulted in an unprecedented “catch”.

Dan once again dazzled us with his moth ID skills and we were wowed by beauties like the ruby tiger, the canary-shouldered thorn moth, and the drinker that supposedly gets its name from its caterpillar’s habit of drinking from dewdrops.

We will continue our moth surveys at this site throughout the year to build up a more comprehensive understanding of what species inhabit this area at different times of the year.