Monday 15 August 2022

Yellow-legged Clearwing

 This very rare moth was reported by Marc Hughes of the RSPB, Ynys-hir. It was discovered during some maintenance work on an Oak tree stump. This is the first county record for an adult of the species. Many thanks to Marc for the photos.




3 comments:

  1. I seem to recall that an adult (rather than exuviae) was recorded by Adrian Fowles, myself and several others associated with old oaks at Old Cilgwyn SN 314416 on 7th June 1992? You`d best check with Adrian. The next day - and being envious that it had been recorded in Ceredigion - I visited some old trees in front of Stradey Castle, Llanelli (Carms vc44) and found a thriving colony on a dying sweet chestnut (later sadly felled). Barry Stewart took photos of the Carms moths. I`ve not seen the species since, in spite of trying with pheromone lures this year. However, I suspect that it occurs in the Tywi Valley at Parc Dinefwr or on the old hedgerow oaks at Rhandirmwyn in the upper reaches of the same valley (all in vc44).

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  2. I`ve been thinking further (and checking old notes etc)... The field meeting report for Old Cilgwyn in the Dyfed Invertebrate Group Newsletter (A P Fowles, Vol 26:15) does not mention yellow-legged clearwing - though it certainly was recorded. This has made me think whether it was an adult or exuvial in form! Certainly an adult record would have been more likely to prompt me to search for it in Carms (following the principle `if it`s out in Ceredigion, it should be out in Carms`, provided the right habitat etc is checked). The same DIG Newsletter cited above (available online, incidentally - just google `Dyfed Invertebrate Group`) has a full paragraph summary of it being found in Carms a day after the Old Cilgwyn discovery in Ceredigion. In summary, I`ll be happy to be corrected if the 1992 vc46 record was of exuviae or an adult as previously suggested...it`s now 30 years ago and my memory (never perfect) is not as good as it once was. Whatever, the recent Ynys Las record is a great find!

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  3. You are right, there is a single Ceredigion record for Pupal exuviae, recorded from Nanteos parkland on 01/12/91, by A.P. Fowles and determined by B. Baker.

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