Lack of Updates

Hey folks,

Apologies for the silence on my part for the past month or so… I’ve been really busy of late, and to make matters worse, my moth trap broke!

My ‘waterproof’ ballast for the trap leaked, and it’s taking a while to fix! I may need to replace the ballast completely, sadly. I have, however, managed to re-wire my old moth trap, which isn’t quite as effective (smaller funnel, less caught), and I’ve got that out just now.

There hasn’t really been very much else to report on over the past month or two, since I’ve been without the moth trap. The most interesting thing is in relation to the Comma Butterfly. Last year was the first year that we had seen the species when walking the transect at Cullaloe, and we’ve seen them again this year. The difference is that although we saw them last year, it was only ever individual butterflies. This year, on the other hand, we’ve seen multiples on more than one occasion. I reckon it’s only a matter of time before we find the proof of them breeding in Fife, in the form of caterpillars. I plan on making a concerted effort to find some next year!

I also managed to find a couple of Commas near The Hermitage, in Perthshire… when I reported these, I was told that apparently, they’re spreading further northwards all the time. They’re regularly seen at Blairgowrie, it seems. Still, my records were a first for the 10km square, so I’m happy with that! 🙂

Hopefully I’ll have more to report on over the next couple of weeks, now that I have a moth trap in action again.

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