Lolly Moor reveals its secrets

On Tuesday Dave had visited the NWT reserve, Lolly Moor, and discovered what he thought looked like Cinereous Pearl Anania fuscalis.  Not one, but at least two and probably several more.  What's the deal?  Well, there was one Anania fuscalis recorded in the Attleborough square in 1996 but apart from that there have been no records in Norfolk since the 1800s.  Surely Dave had made a mistake...

I looked at his photos and thought they did indeed resemble Anania fuscalis so on Wednesday evening I headed down there with him to have a look.  It's a tiny wet meadow south of Dereham and surrounded by big hedgerows or woodland.  The first thing I noticed was Yellow Rattle growing there - the favoured foodplant of Anania fuscalis - a promising start!  The second thing I noticed was that the whole reserve was crawling with small pale moths which quickly proved to be Grass Rivulets (Dave had photographed these the day before too).  I've only ever seen Grass Rivulets at one site before, and I could count all of them over two visits on one hand.  Here I reckon we saw a bare minimum of 100 Grass Rivulets.  Among them we quickly picked out at least 3 Cinereous Pearls Anania fuscalis.  With a good view of their underwings there was no real doubt about the ID but I dissected one moribund individual just to make triply sure.  Dave had done good!

Cinereous Pearl Anania fuscalis, Lolly Moor, 10th June

Grass Rivulet, Lolly Moor, 10th June

We weren't there for long but in the time we were we recorded a good variety of other species too: Yellow-barred Long-horn Nemophora degeerella (I'd had 3 of these in my lunch break too, at Barrow Common), Cork Moth Nemapogon cloacella, Large Lance-wing Epermenia falciformis (a species I've only ever seen twice before), Buff Rush Case-bearer Coleophora caespititiella, Water-mint Conch Phalonidia manniana, Hook-marked Straw Moth Agapeta hamana, 3 Common Marbles Celypha lacunana, Red Piercer Lathronympha strigana, 3 Meadow Greys Scoparia pyralella, Common Grey Scoparia ambigualis and 2 Straw Dots.

Large Lance-wing Epermenia falcifornis, Lolly Moor, 10th June

Water-mint Conch Phalonidia manniana (male, gen det), Lolly Moor, 10th June

Buff Rush Case-bearer Coleophora caespititiella (female, gen det), Lolly Moor, 10th June

Yellow-barred Long-horns Nemophora degeerella, Barrow Common, 10th June

Among the plantlife were several Common Spotted Orchids and also Common Twayblade, a new species for me.

Common Twayblade, Lolly Moor, 10th June

 probable Leptoterna dolabrata nymph, Lolly Moor, 10th June

The warm sunny evening gave way to a cool clear night so not such a good night at home.  Mottled Rustic was new for the year and the rest were 6 Silver-ground Carpets, Garden Carpet, 2 Common Marbled Carpets, Common Pug, Peppered Moth, Light Emerald, Poplar Hawkmoth, 2 Buff-tips, White Ermine, Cinnabar, 3 Heart and Darts, 2 Setaceous Hebrew Characters, 2 Shears, 2 Brown Rustics, Marbled Minor agg., 4 Treble Lines and 2 Vine's Rustics. 

Buff-tip, North Elmham, 10th June

 Setaceous Hebrew Character (left) and Mottled Rustic (right), North Elmham, 10th June