The copper underwing problem

Firstly, I will put my hand up to having very little experience of these two species. Just a few caught last year and three so far this year. Last year I caught Copper Underwing Amphipyra pyramidea, once for certain, because I dissected it and then there were another two or three that either escaped or I let go. Once I've proven a species for a site I don't repeatedly take samples. I'm happy to agg. confusion species. At the time I was unaware of the palps feature, which has been given as a way of separating this species from Svennson's Copper Underwing Amphipyra berbera. 

On opening the traps yesterday I found two copper underwings within. Looking at the palps I appeared to have both species. Both moths were comparatively fresh, the A. berbera, especially so. 

Amphipyra berbera lower surface of hind wing. Note how the orange blends across the wing.

Svensson's Copper Underwing Amphipyra berbera. Note the very dark palps with pale tips.

There was a bit of a discussion online about copper underwings and it appears that the palps feature is no longer considered good. This seems to be based on a 2022 paper in the Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation. Whilst I think the overall conclusions of this paper are sound; don't entirely base your identification of either of these two species on one feature - "Many recorders refer to a single characteristic that can be viewed with ease such as the labial palpi or the contrast of the abdominal lateral chequered marking, without reference to any other or to genitalia." My own feeling is that there is a flaw in the argument within this paper because of the samples used for the analysis. Whilst very worn specimens were rejected from the analysis worn individuals were included see below.

 

  (Entomologist's Rec. J. Var. 134 2022). 

 Note with A. berbera the proportion of the sample that were classed as worn.

 What requires further investigation is if an animal that presents with black palps with white tips can it be anything other than A. berbera? Surely, these would wear to paler, and thus it would be unwise to use the palps feature to identify A. pyramidea?

What is very useful in the paper is the list of features that are used to differentiate between the two species. What is not mentioned is how difficult some of these features are to use unless viewing from exactly 90 degrees. A number of these features, particular using dorsal views of the fore-wings, require estimation of angles and divergence of lines drawn across the wings. These analyses would have to be carried out from photographs and for them to be features that can be used reliably the photos would have to be taken using accurate management of the angles when they are taken. Whilst this is not impossible with live specimens I would suggest it can be tricky, both these species are quite lively. My photograph above is not suitable for these analyses.

The classic hindwing feature of how the coppery suffusion spreads across the ventral surface of the hindwing is hard to see unless the moth is killed, they don't tend to spread their hindwings fully when in a transparent pot. I know some moth trappers are very skilled at managing live moths and seeing these tricky features, but in my experience this is difficult to do, and almost impossible to photograph unless an assistant is to hand.

I took the specimen of the moth above so the hind wing feature is easy to see. Additionally, the discal spot is more typical of A. berbera than A. pyramidea. It will be interesting to see what illumination the dissection brings, but I'm not expecting any surprises.

Here are my photos of the (presumed) Copper Underwing Amphipyra pyramidea. I didn't take the specimen as I have proven this species from the site previously.

 

Presumed Amphipyra pyramidea

What can be used to identify this moth? The palps are worn I would judge and whilst at a glance this would seem to be good for A.pyramidea a cautious approach would suggest not.

Only dorsal features of the fore-wing can be used as nothing else was photographed. Fortunately this photo would seem to be more useful for some analyses as it would appear to be close to a 90 degree view (and I do try to achieve this when I can having the camera set to give me this information when I'm taking the photos). The discal spot is perhaps more typical of A. pyramidea? Feature 10 in the paper does seem to be relatively easy to use  and helpful.

(Entomologist's Rec. J. Var. 134 2022). 

I think that this feature supports an identification as A.pyramidea for this moth. However, a word of caution, whilst A.pyramidea presents this feature consistently A. berbera can be variable so that it may on occasion show these proportions. A further feature referred to in the paper from Clancy 1997 suggests that the alignment of the peaks on the antemedial line and a continuation of that line to dissect (or closely so) the discal spot. Is also a useful feature. This can be seen in Plate 15 above. This criteria may work on the right-hand wing of my moth above, but it is not clear.

On balance I think this moth is Amphipyra pyrimidea.

Why is all this important? The paper gives a good summary of this, basically, the distribution of these two species in the UK is unclear because identification criteria are not used consistently by the various county moth recorders. Additionally, Amphipyra berbera was only recognised as a full species in 1968. In Scotland, whilst the initial colonisations appear to be clear (Leverton and Cubitt 2024), monitoring the future fortunes of these two species relies on consistent and accurate identifications.

 The Les Evans-Hill (2022) paper is available here - https://www.derbyshiremoths.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Guide-to-Copper-Underwings-Les-Evans-Hill-Public.pdf?fbclid=IwY2xjawMigL9leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFSWEhXT2VsVHNrMDM3UWJaAR4xv_nHXZS7q2gbrC8o2uYmYJ8HiDeIPzAD58zT0t2Yfxv8eHGJYUJgTVkDgg_aem_e2a-fB-yNYG9321vMVzt3w

A more general post will follow shortly. 

 

 

Feral

For my birthday, which is a while ago now, I was given a copy of George Monbiot's book, Feral. As I've mentioned previously I'm no longer much of a reader, but this is a fascinating book. Whilst ostensibly being about rewilding the book is about much more than that, hard to describe really, but very readable and very well researched and referenced. Of course, I wouldn't agree with everything George suggests, however, with thorough referencing you can be assured of the accuracy of what is written. Feral was first published in 2013, but is still very relevant. In contrast, I bought The Treeline by Ben Rawlence on a whim, a more recent book, 2022. This book is not well referenced, not written by a biologist and contains nonsense IMHO. For example, apparently...."The ecologists... and they count the the pupae of winter moths on the leaves of the blaeberry plants which the capercaillie feed to their chicks in winter."  Tosh! Capercaillie chicks leave the adults in autumn and fend for themselves; and Winter Moth pupae are found in the soil under trees and shrubs, not on the leaves... that's for starters, there's more wrong with that sentence but life's too short. So is this a book where the information written can be trusted? I found other errors of fact in the first chapter as well, so I suggest probably not.

Much recommended, since beginning reading this I've found it much admired by several folk I've mentioned it to.

Not much to report on the bird front. Hirundines still around and the odd Willow Warbler, Whitethroat and Spotted Flycatcher. A swaithe of Swifts passed through the village the other evening as I was enjoying a pint in the pub garden.

However, following a tip off, excellent views of Beaver not far from home one evening. Close to the spot I first saw one. And then on Sunday, whilst at the CCW I was struggling through vegetation at the back of the reservoir when I came across a scene of destruction.

Evidence File 1.

General felling.

They don't usually go for Alder. It doesn't taste nice so they don't eat it. However, Beaver will use Alder to build their dams and they've been busy at the reservoir increasing the height of the dam. A few months ago I was sat on the dam photographing water creatures, I'd be getting quite wet if I tried that now. A welcome addition to my CCW species list, although it would be nice to see one in action and not just their guilty evidence. A situation to be monitored, if they keep going we won't need to pipe water down to the ponds, which are now dry, it will just overflow the reservoir banks and make its own way down there, which will save a bit of work. I was dead chuffed recently to be asked to join the steering group for the CCW, hopefully I can make some useful contributions to the future development of this interesting site.

Today the builders arrived to further investigate, and hopefully remedy, our problems with Serpula lacrymans, that's the dry rot fungi. The house was treated for this wood gobbling fungi some years back, but unfortunately the appropriate maintenance was not carried out, and, some additional guttering work which should have been done at that time was not. As I think I mentioned a few weeks back eagle-eyed Louise spotted the paprika-like dust of the spores by the front door and further investigation found fruiting bodies behind the plaster.

A PSL tick I perhaps did not want to find in our house! Serpula lacrymans

Anyway, today further investigation today has found that although the fungi is in some of the stone and brick work it is in just the end a couple of ground floor joists, hopefully not more, and with luck should be fairly simple to remedy. The guttering work is due shortly, once we get the place dry, sprayed with fungicide and then put back together again, we should have no further issues. We'll be watchful though!

Last year the kitchen acted as one large flying insect trap, but we've had fewer interesting things this year. I did manage to identify a German Wasp Vespula germanica the other day which was new for me and there was the spectacular Ant Beetle Thanasimus formicarius earlier in the year, but otherwise not much else. Last night I found Twenty-plume Moth just as I went to bed, a species I've seen rarely, but they are frequently found in houses.

Twenty Plume Moth

Today there was a picture winged fly displaying on the inside of the kitchen window, so as usual I potted it. I took a few pictures of the fly and then ran it through Obsidentify. 100% Rhagoletis meigenii was what came back. Looking at NBN there are just seven records of this species for the UK and none within 100s of miles of Scotland so it seemed unlikely to be correct, and with a bit more investigation I found that R. alternata was a somewhat more likely alternative. However, I posted my pix on the Diptera UK FB Group and it was confirmed as R. meigenii. In the meantime I'd found the key, which I'd previously downloaded a couple of years ago (Clements 2022), and a quick run through that also confirmed the identification. 

Rhagoletis meigenii, on the kitchen window. Many thanks to LC for confirming the identification.

This may be new for Scotland. I never thought I'd find anything new for a country, but so far I've got a moth and a beetle, and I was pipped at the post by a few hours for another moth, a fly would be an excellent addition.

I light trap about once a week. I've been a bit knackered of late as I've had to do some long distance driving which I do find quite tiring these days, the motorways around Glasgow are very busy and somewhat chaotic I find. However, a couple of nice things have turned up in the traps and there are a few micros which I'm currently investigating further. Shuttle-shaped Dart and Anomalous have been the best of the macros.

Anomalous

 I'm making a big effort to get my PSL list up-to-date. The target species option is very useful for this, although coming up with dates etc for things seen long in the past can be tricky. In doing this I'm finding various birds that have been missed off my bird lists, like Snow Goose. In particular, there are a lot of plants which I'm pretty sure I've seen, but I'm not 100% and certainly do not know where and when.  If in doubt I don't add them, hopefully I'll refind them sooner or later. Broad-leaved Helleborine was added the other day, lurking in amongst the Bracken at the CCW and I'm not sure if I've seen this before.

Epipactis helleborine.

A few other nice things from Sunday at the CCW.

Pretty certainly Arge ustulata, a sawfly, thanks IA for helpful comments.

Balclutha punctata

 

Dasysyrphus albostriatus, new for me.

Campaigning

 No posts for a while as I've been busy.

Back in March we finally got agreement with Perth and Kinross Council to fund our village library into the future. We're not entirely sure how long that future is, but for the moment the library looks secure, although we're still engaging with their proxy, Culture Perth and Kinross, about some development plan.

In the last month a group of us decided to try to stop the windfarm development that was proposed to plough a new road through parts of Glen Lednock and cause traffic mayhem and misery to residents of the glen and the centre of Comrie. The first phase of this battle has just ended.

As someone who sees themselves as politically Green this was a bit counter-intuitive, and looks like nimbyism, but in Scotland we are seeing the use of the financial arrangements of the Scottish Government being used to benefit shareholders and not Scottish citizens, the folk who via their taxes, and their electricity bills, pay for much of this. This particular scheme is particularly environmentally destructive in our view. And it also would also cause misery to homes and travellers all the way back to Perth and beyond. There appear to be all sorts of breaches of Scotland's National Planning Framework 4, which is designed to ensure that developments are fair to all of us. 

Here's the official map of part of the development. It is worth reading what Park's Watch have to say about it here - https://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/07/21/glen-lednock-wind-farm/

 

An issue that can be dug out of the paperwork - https://www.glenlednockwindfarm.co.uk/ is that the developers themselves estimate that during the 40 year life of the turbines they would kill 12 Golden Eagles, 18 White-tailed Eagles and 112 Red Kites. If a sporting estate made that statement I think there would be a bit of a fuss!!

A long time since I posted and a birthday occurred along the way. A very welcome present was membership of the Botanical Society of the British Isles; what an excellent organisation! Here's a link to the Perthshire bit of the website https://bsbi.org/perthshire I've made a couple of visits to the nature trail at the foot of Ben Lawers, by the car park. That has produced some new plants for me. I'm eyeing the upper regions of this Munroe as there are some very special plants up there, but it's a bit of a slog. There's also a Staphylinid beetle found near the summit in 1974, the only UK record. It would be very interesting to know if that is there still. On my first visit to the nature trail I did add a new species to the Ben Lawers list:

Antherophagus similis, I'm so pleased I got hold of Vol 3 of Luff, just a shame I'm missing two volumes and they are pretty much unavailable.

That was new for me as well. A subsequent trip yesterday, somewhat marred by the midges, although they were manageable, produced two new hoverflies as well as the plants. My target plants were Alchemilla species, and with the Alchemilla BSBI guide loaded on my phone and a bit of local advice, I managed to find two of the three low altitude species.

Alchemilla alpina, very common further up the nature trail path.

Eristalis rupium, there were many of these.

Leucozona laternaria

More to come, but I'll post this just now.

 

Reading a book

I don't read many books, I use books a lot, but rarely read from the beginning to end. A favourite using book is The Larger Moths of Scotland bur Roy Leverton and Mark Cubitt (2024). Actually, its a good read too, and quite amusing in parts, as well as being a seminal work on Scotland's Lepidoptera. Even if you live in England it is a worthwhile purchase. A plug here for the very helpful folk at Atropos Books - https://www.atroposbooks.co.uk/the-larger-moths-of-scotland

  

However, I read Bob Mortimer's biography because I found it in our "saved" library in the village, and I enjoy Gone Fishing, good TV (if I have to watch the thing). So I was in Stirling the other day and not finding what we wanted in The Book Nook - https://thebooknookstirling.co.uk/  we headed to Waterstone's, which also didn't have what we wanted, but did have some quite interesting music books. 

I picked up Tracy Thorn's My Rock 'N' Roll Friend. https://traceythorn.com It's a great read, so far, about a time I knew (because Tracey's friend and I are about the same age), but I hasten to add I knew the time via a very different experience. Anyway here's a play list - 

 

That was a bit of a diversion, here are some wild things, from the last couple of days, mostly from the Community Woodland but elsewhere too...

Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet (presumed because as adults these are inseparable from Five-spot Burnet, which does not occur in Scotland. Looks like the female emerged from her pupa and the male flew in. (Somehow that chimes rather well with Tracy's book.)

I'd heard about these via WhatsApp, argued about the ID, and then spent quite a bit of time searching for them, occasionally having them bomb past me at 100kmh, but as I was leaving yesterday I saw the pupal case and this pair were there. A lifer BTW.

 

Meliscaeva auricollis, just up the way this morning.

Rhogogaster scalaris (probably), a female I think, thus the probably. A very smart Symphyta.

Taphrina alni Alder Tongue, a fungi.

Uroleucon jaceae, the left side aphids, I believe.

Dark Green Fritillary, they don't often stay still.

And nearby there were both Lesser and Greater Butterfly Orchid.

Greater Butterfly orchid.

Earthquakes

There is a reason that The Earthquake House is in the field behind our house https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/comrie/earthquakehouse/index.html. And this may be the reason there are a few cracks in the plaster, although, to be honest that is of lower concern than some of our other maintenance issues.... (which species do you perhaps not want as a PSL tick in your own house, maybe Serpula lacrymans! Our house had been treated for this in the past, but essential maintenance was neglected unfortunately. Fortunately, it looks like we've caught this before it has become a serious issue.)

Anyway back to the earthquakes....

Actually folk in the village are used to earthquakes here, and why the village is known as "shaky toun" because it sits on the Highland Boundary Fault. There were three quakes, one on 13 June and two on 16 June, I slept through all three. One of them on 16th was 1.4 Mag and only 2km down, so apparently it caused quite a wobble. Here's the data - http://earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/earthquakes/recent_uk_events.html

A while since I posted, tied up with a load of stuff, the library campaign, helping develop a new campaign about Glen Lednock, supporting the verification of moth and butterfly records in Orkney, as well as trying to keep up with my own recording efforts on iRecord, and of course identifying stuff.

In Orkney first pugs and then the Crambidae issues have raised their seasonal heads. I've decided I really need to understand pugs better, so invested in the wee NW England guide and downloaded some resources from the web. The Scoparia/Eudonia issue is always a challenge, and it is clear that not all individuals can be identified, even with dissection, so until we have pocket barcoding kits... Some are best left undetermined. Here's one I'm currently pondering from the garden light traps 15th June.

Scoparia pyralella maybe

I'm thinking this ticks quite a few S. pyralella boxes. It's not a species I've necessarily come across previously (need to check, not often at most). I do see a lot of these moths, and at the moment most of them are either Scoparia ambigualis or Eudonia mercurella.

Otherwise on the moth front quite a few interesting things to pheromone lures, but I never found Large Red-belted Clearwing and so far have a blank for Welsh Clearwing, both of which are known from VC88 I think.

However, the big success was Lunar Hornet Moth to the lure in the garden.

Lunar Hornet Moth, a bit battered but it flew off strongly.

Grapholita janinthana, these love the JAN lure, a tiny 5mm FW tortrix.

I've caught a few tricky things as well, a very likely Dichrorampha senectana found in a puddle at the cemetery, currently out for expert opinion as my dissection was maybe not definitive. 

  

Dichrorampha senectana most likely.

And captured in the kitchen was Epinotia tendella. 

 

Epinotia tedella

 Perhaps the smartest moth of the recent finds has been this fabulous Lilac beauty, new for VC88 and potted outside of the trap around midnight on 19/20th June.

 

Lilac Beauty.

Not much on the bird front, other than Barn Owl being regularly heard around the garden, around midnight.

 

I've a few caddis and beetles to work on. I have eventually sorted out the Oedemera beetles, taking a few specimens in the end, all of which turned out to be Oedemera lurida, one of which handily saved me a dissection by exuding it's genitalia. 

 

 

Oedemera lurida.

Also from the Community Woodland some orchids.

 

Dactylorhiza sp, I need to sort these out.

More straightforward, Lesser Butterfly Orchid.

And finally a very nice spider hunting wasp, which I made a pig's ear of initially and thought it was an Ichneumon, doh! It's an aculate, look at the antennae.

 

Priocnemis perturbator