Devon Moth Group

It’s back! Always a great day for moth enthusiasts. Meeting and lunch are free, but need to be booked in advance

Our annual UK Moth Recorders' Meeting is back! 📢

Join us in person at the Birmingham & Midland Institute on Saturday 27 January 2024 to hear the latest developments in moth research and conservation. 🦋🌙

Full programme and details on how to book can be found here 👉 https://butrfli.es/2zhJZxI

📷: Emperor moth - Sophie Hall

Amazing record of a Bright Wave from Sara McMahon in Plympton last week - 3rd ever sighting in Devon. In the UK, Bright Wave is a nationally rare species that is resident only in east Kent. (📷Sarah McMahon)

This moth is an absolute stunner!
It's Synanthedon tipuliformis (Currant Clearwing)
Photgraphed yesterday (11/6) by Rob Wolton at a farm in North Devon.
Rob was understandably delighted to come across it, having only spotted galls in stems in past summers, but never the live moth.
Rob's advice is "It's worth checking your currant bushes!"

So interesting exploring the our new website and all of the data. Here’s the Box-tree Moth - a very recent colonist. www.devonmoths.uk

Whoop, whoop! Brand new shiny website for Devon Moth Group!! Still some work to do on it but wonderful to finally make >1 million Devon moth available as species maps & phenology charts.

Devon Moths The Moths of Devon.

A reminder that our final indoor meeting takes place at the Kenn Centre tomorrow evening (Thursday, 30/3), beginning at 7:30.
Come along to hear a talk by Barry Henwood entitled "The Curious Life Histories of Devon's Butterflies". We will also have copies of the annual report available at the meeting for all paid up members to collect.

Given that butterflies are really just a set of micro-moth families in the middle of the moth family tree, you might be interested in a free online event next Tues (28th) evening - Barry Henwood talking about the Curious Life Histories of Devon’s Butterflies. Register at

The curious life histories of Devon's butterflies Join the Devon branch of Butterfly Conservation to hear from Barry Henwood about the butterflies that visit and live in our county.

The records are in! 130,000 Devon moth records received and processed for 2022 - amazing effort by so many recorders and by the team of expert DMG volunteers who verify them.👏🏻👏🏻 The data show what a stunning year 2022 was for the immigrant moth Crimson Speckled (Utetheisa pulchella) - there were almost as many records last year (18) as in all previous years put together (19). The best years for this stunning species before 2022 were 2013 & 2017, with a mere 3 records in each.

After an extraordinary year for mothing in Devon in 2022, tomorrow evening (Thursday 26th Jan) kicks off 2023 with our AGM and a talk by naturalist Dave Smallshire entitled "Insects In My Devon Garden".
All are welcome at the Kenn Centre, starting at 19:30.
www.kenncentre.co.uk

It seems a long while ago that we set up our stall at the "Celebrate Start Bay" event at Slapton in the summer!
But here we are at the start of another mothing year, and it's time to send your 2022 records to our County Moth Recorder Barry Henwood at this email address...... [email protected]
Please send your records by the deadline of Tuesday, 10th of January to ensure they are entered into the database for 2022.
You can use this link https://devonmoths.org.uk/recording-moths/ for advice on how to submit records.

Brilliant evening celebrating the 25th anniversary of Devon Moth Group on Thurs night. Barry Henwood, County Moth Recorder, cut the cake & John Walters delivered an excellent talk themed around 25 years of Devon wildlife. Great turnout too, including four people present at the inaugural meeting in January 1997, although we missed Roy who was otherwise engaged. Huge thanks to everyone who has contributed to the success of DMG, particularly all of the council members past and present.

The Devon Moth Group website is temporarily unavailable. We are working to resolve the problem. Many thanks for your patience

Some wonderful pictures here. Scroll down to see a fabulous award-winning image of Micropterix calthella!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-62492855

Picture of wild cat hunting flamingo wins award A photo of a wild cat hunting flamingo wins the Nature TTL Photographer of the Year competition.

The Oak Eggar is a fairly large moth you might see during the day during August. This fresh specimen emerged this week. With its rich chocolate colouring and eye-catching white spot, it's a real beauty.

Unusual Devon sighting by Karen Williams of a Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) without the mark which gives it its vernacular name (left in the image compared with a typical Hebrew Character on the right). This is an aberration named gothicina, which seems to be much more common in the north of Britain and in Scandinavia. Thanks to Karen for the image and sighting and to Steve Nash and Jukka Vuorinen for ID help and info.

Spring is in the air and so are moths. Oak Beauty is one of the species on the wing across Devon currently.

🥳 Happy Birthday to us 🎉 Devon Moth Group was formed 25 years ago today. Many thanks to those original 18 members and especially Roy McCormick and to everyone who has helped the group grow and thrive since then! A year of celebrating Devon’s magnificent moths, recorders and conservationists ahead😄.

Happy New Year to all our followers! There are moths still on the wing of course, but it won't be too long before the warm nights return. (image: Peach Blossom - Patrick Clement)

With the New Year fast approaching, it's time to think about submitting your records to the Devon County Moth Recorder.
The deadline for records to be included in the 2021 annual report is January 12th, although you can send in records later than this and they will be added to the database (but will not feature in the report)
See the following link for information........
https://devonmoths.org.uk/recording-moths/

Canary-shouldered Thorn (Rob Price)

News of Moth Night 2022!

Moth Night 2022 takes place between 19th and 21st May, the theme being woodlands at a time of year when they are at their colourful best. May is a particularly diverse month for moth populations in woodland with some attractive species on the wing and the shifting seasons evident with the mixing of stragglers from the early spring and fresh examples of the early summer species. We are also encouraging daytime recording as there are some enigmatic day-flying species on the wing, including the bee hawk-moths, Speckled Yellow and Argent & Sable in woodland. In more open habitats Mother Shipton, Burnet Companion and Emperor may be seen, and in Scotland it is a particularly special time with speciality species such as Kentish Glory, Netted Mountain Moth, Small Dark Yellow Underwing and Satyr Pug on the wing.

As usual we will have a range of prizes, details of which will be announced in due course on the Moth Night Website.

🚨Last chance to submit your records. Over 15,000 records have already been submitted including for 8-10 July 2021. It doesn’t matter whether you saw scarce species or common ones, all records are important & useful! www.mothnight.info🚨

Sombre Brocade sounds like a serious, sad name for a moth. But it's currently spreading happiness across Devon with a number of reported sightings.
A Mediterranean migrant first recorded in mainland UK in 2013, it is thought to be establishing itself across the south coast in small residential pockets.

Terribly sad news of the sudden loss of one of the shining young lights of UK moth recording and scientific research. Deep condolences to his family, partner and any Devon Moth Group members fortunate enough to have known him.

We at Butterfly Conservation were deeply saddened to learn of the recent sudden loss of Douglas Boyes.

A brilliant and dedicated young scientist, he was also a kind and generous colleague to those he worked with. We will miss him greatly and remember him often as we carry on his work to save the moths and butterflies he loved so much.

You can read a tribute to him here: https://butrfli.es/3B5tEu4

This month is turning out to be a bit special!
A first not only for Devon but also for mainland UK.
Hot on the heels of the Rosy Underwing he trapped last weekend, Chris Vincent has added a Maize Wainscot (Sesamia nonagrioides) to his list. This moth is commonly found across the Channel, but only ever recorded here on the Isles of Scilly until now.

Not only that, a second Devon record of Rosy Underwing has been found by Karen Debbie May.

A first for Devon! Chris Vincent caught this Rosy Underwing last Saturday (September 4th) at Otter Nurseries Garden Centre near Plymouth. That's a really nice moth Chris, thanks for sharing it with us.

If you love art and moths, have a look at this opportunity to see some lovely work by the mezzotint artist Sarah Gillespie. Her exhibition at Moretonhampstead is free to view and will be open until September 25th.

Here's the link to the venue ..... http://www.greenhillarts.co.uk/welcome

Home — Green Hill Based in Moretonhampstead and one of Devon's most prominent Art Galleries, Green Hill  is attracting the attention of some of the most respected South West Artists. Names such as Peter Randall-Page, Susan Derges, and Peter Stiles have become synonymous with Green Hill over the last five years  ...

Here's a photo of a Clifden Nonpareil which was kindly sent to us from a gentleman in Cockwood, Devon.
Look out for these as this is their time to take flight.

Coming up this Saturday (Sep 4th). The wonderful Apple Pie Fair at Marldon near Paignton.

Devon Moth Group will be there again this year. This is a lovely friendly event in a beautiful setting, so if you're in the area, why not come along with your friends and family to our stand to (hopefully) see some live moths and find out more about our scaled friends.

https://www.facebook.com/Marldonapplepiefair

Marldon Apple Pie Fair Festival

This Garden Pebble was spotted hanging upside down in its normal tent-like posture. It's a micro-moth of the Crambidae family, is bivoltine, and has also been known to occur again in the autumn. Its second generation is flying now.

LED street lights..... eco-friendly they may be, but it seems not moth-friendly.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/25/led-streetlights-moth-england-eco-friendly-sodium-insect-decline?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2RCAvlp3bGQwwynRTgphBwLD3LcBb1h5cZ09T8Fe0Mg8dZqAyN4cNMtcY =1629915990

LED streetlights decimating moth numbers in England ‘Eco-friendly’ lights found to be worse than sodium ones – but both contribute to insect decline, says study