Hiya Wurzel, do you ever visit http://dorsetbirds.blogspot.com/2011/12/reports-tuesday-20th-december-2011.html (shows the daily listings of Dorset birds) There are quite a few "goodies" around at the mo. Catchya later mate, Gibster. PS - there's a bunch of us staying at Portland Bird Obs 3...

Regards species which may colonise Britain in the near future, surely what we need to be looking at are the migrant species? It is all good and well saying "southern England will be as warm as France in 20 years time" but that means diddly squat for the French butterflies that fail to migr...

Why are you so keen to know, Nick? Is it for the record, or for your lifelist, or you just curious? (Hope that doesn't sound too offhand!)
Just wondering what you wanted to do with the record really!

Cheers mate,

Gibster.

I'll admit right now that my knowledge of butterflies falls far short of my knowledge of birds. There are MANY European species (of birds) that, on paper at least, are ready to colonise the British Isles any day now. In years gone by some, such as Serin, Fan-tailed Warbler, Bee-eater, Penduline Tit ...

The worst of it is that if such a butterfly DID exist, your camera would be indoors, your phone would be flat and nobody would ever believe you anyway

Wing shape looks good for cuprella . Both species (unfortunately for you!) fly in Cambridgeshire, although reaumurella is much the commoner. Did you happen to take notes on where the moth was seen. Numbers buzzing in hovering flight above sallows are very indicative of cuprella . A. reaumurella can ...

And - more to the point - which species may we lose in the coming decades? Is it realistically worth preserving, for example, the Mountain Ringlet? Looking forward to "new and exciting" incomers is all well and good, but what about the losers??? We can maintain and hopefully improve habita...

I'm liking this thread. I hope others will add their input. It's a real pity The Channel is such an insurmountable obstacle for so many species (not just lepidopterous) and yet, if microleps and Odonata are anything to go by, the Thames Estuary is a fantastic "jumping off/colonistation" sp...

I find the font size jumps rather erratically, which is a bit annoying. I suspect it's a problem with my laptop though, can't believe Pete would allow such an issue to manifest itself on UKB. Not after 10 years anyway!

Gibster.

I'll be up your neck of the woods sometime in July. You can buy me a beer!!!!

My first spankingly fresh male Orange-tip of the season is always a joy. And the first skipper too, of any species! But it is the Mountain Ringlet I still need to spend some time with...grrrrrrr Gibster. PS - Marmari, let me know if you fancy an extra pair of eyes to help you in your LargeTortoisesh...

Your second moth could be a heavily bashed Eulia ministrana. Maybe...

Just in case you have any close-up head shots of the top moth - this is from Moths & Butterflies of GB and Ireland Vol 1: N. swammerdamella - Head ochreous yellow, antennae white, spotted with ochreous brown below, scape ochreous above, frons yellow, palpi white. N. panzerella (= schwarziellus )...

Hi again Iain, regards the top moth - yup, it could very well be one of the other Nematopogons (I didn't even realise metaxella occurred in Scotland!) I found this link http://www.eastscotland-butterflies.org.uk/sm_Incurvariidae.html which you may not have seen (but probably have.) I just thought th...

Well I'm very rusty on moths, but the top one certainly looks like Nematopogon pilella. I'll pass on the others, but I'd concentrate on the Tortricidae if I were you!

Cheers,

Gibster,

Roger Gibbons wrote:This list is allegedly the final and agreed list that the taxonomists have agreed upon.

...until they discover an even more refined technique for classification...

Brilliant! Just brilliant! More please

Gibster

Don't forget, there are Heath Frits at Wrecclesham which is very do-able from IOW - straight up the A3 from Portsmouth (although whether or not you feel comfortable "counting" individuals at this colony is another topic entirely!) Same with the bumper numbers of Glanvilles at that site. Lu...

set aside especially for one bird in particular, the Canary Houbara which can only be found on Fuerteventura. I did`nt actually see one on this trip, but the last time i was here some five years ago in April during the breeding season i saw eight individual birds. The Houbara can also be found on L...

This is shamelessly lifted from the web - "Abstract 1. The incidence of parasitism by larvae of the mite species Trombidium breei was reported in one population of the lycaenid butterfly Polyommatus icarus, four populations of the satyrine butterfly Maniola jurtina, one population of the satyri...