2 minute read
Olive Crescent
Olive Crescent Moth
Tony Prichard has news of a colony discovered in Suffolk
Earlier this year, at the end of June, the Suffolk Moth Group held one of its moth nights at Old Hall Wood, near Bentley. The group has visited the site in recent years for some general recording as well as targeted searches for particular species that might occur at the site. One of the species searched for has been Olive Crescent, an RDB and BAP species that in East Anglia is restricted as a resident to Stour Wood in Essex. It also occurs in a few scattered woods in some of the southerly counties but the picture is confused a little as the moth appears to be migratory and has turned up at various southerly coastal localities in the past.
In Suffolk the moth’s first county record was a singleton at Ipswich Golf Course, where Neil Sherman recorded it in 2005. At the time this was thought to be either a migrant or possibly a wanderer from across the water in Essex. At the SMG moth night this year we were quite surprised to have twelve adults of the moth appear at some of the lights in the wood. This number of moths all appearing at once is strongly indicative of there being a colony present in the wood and in addition the habitat in the wood appears suitable with plenty of oak, sweet chestnut and beech trees. Neil Sherman and myself made a daytime visit to the wood in late September and very quickly found a number of larvae of Olive Crescent feeding on the withered leaves of oak and beech. The larva can be found on bunches of leaves that have snapped or broken off and remain suspended in the branches - why they prefer the withered leaves when there is plenty of fresh foliage around is unknown to me. The finding of larvae confirms the presence of a colony and one probably of recent origin, as we’ ve not seen it during past visits. We also had a search in Wherstead Wood but failed to find any Olive Crescent larvae.
The following day I made a brief visit to Great Martins Wood and found a couple of larvae feeding on withered sweet chestnut leaves - a second site for the moth in Suffolk. John Chainey and Jenny Spence from Hertfordshire were also searching for the larvae at this time but failed to find it at Freston Wood, Cutlers Wood or Wherstead Wood.
Further searches will take place at some of the other woods south of Ipswich, there are a few of them to check, to see if we can find any more colonies.
Editorial copy date
Contributions for the Spring edition of our newsletter are very welcome and should be sent to the Editor, Peter Maddison, no later than Saturday 12th January, 2013. Any piece of writing considered to be of interest will be published and we also welcome line drawings, prints and photographs. Contributions (preferably electronic) can be sent to the address on the Contacts page or by email to: prmaddison@yahoo.co.uk
