Ghost / Swift moth survey

[ronm]

And of course those Huntingdonshire moths are notoriously wierd!!
Something to do with the underlying rocks?

[Maggi Young]

For comparison if Alan gets his open wing shot.....

http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?bf=2109    N. comes

http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/showimage/7734/  N.  pronuba

http://www2.nrm.se/en/svenska_fjarilar/c/conistra_vaccinii.html   C. vaccinii

[mark smyth]

I'm not panicking ..

what are these caterpillars that I find in the garden when cutting back perennials?

[ronm]

Certainly members of the very large family Noctuidae. Never known to reach pest proportions so please dont squish them! They will eat a range of plants but really should not be too destructive. If you find them on a rare plant please just move them away, they'll probably do OK. Some of these are becoming extremely rare, so I urge once again please, identify, evaluate numbers then move away if possible.
There are many similar larvae in this large family Mark. I'll try to get you a species name for each tomorrow. need to consult the books for this family! Unless Anthony can be bothered while we are in bed?

[Paul T]

There are so many comments that last statement could lead to...... but I'll be good and not say any of them.  Maggi would have kittens and ban me from the forum.

[Anthony Darby]

Maggi's pics confirm chestnut. The other two don't appear until July. One and three are what Noctua pronuba would look like in March.

[Alan_b]

I was alerted to something amiss when the snowdrops in one of my pots began to die back prematurely although they had flowered as normal.  Sitting smugly at the bottom of the pot was a huge swift moth larva (if I have identified the critter correctly).  There are some interesting observations to make:

• I suspect the larvae are semi-dormant during the colder weather but have now woken up with an appetite.  So any snowdrops that suffer a check or die back prematurely after flowering may be being preyed-upon.
• The roots seem to be preferred to the bulb; no bulb has been eaten but retains its roots but some bulbs have lost roots whilst the bulb remains intact.
• The bulbs look "mouldy" where they have been eaten; is this just the standard fungi taken advantage of a wound or could the larva actually carry a fungus that attacks snowdrops?
• If you did not find the larva you might conclude that the problem was disease rather than insect predation.