At the end of May, Neil and some of his friends visited Lackford Lakes nature reserve to look for larvae of white-spotted pinion, a scarce elm-feeding moth that is thought to be locally extinct in Suffolk. Over the last two years, however, there had been three previous recordings of sighting in the area. Unfortunately, they did not find what they were looking for, but were rewarded with a couple of other fascinating sightings. 

Neil comments, “We found a larva of blossom underwing on an oak in a hedge. This spring-flying species has been noted occasionally in Suffolk in recent years, normally 3-4 records a year, but wasn't thought to be resident, the moths seen assumed to be migrants. The finding of this larva now proves the moth has colonized Suffolk, at least locally. It is a very attractively marked larva. The moth itself flies mainly in April and has orange forewings with whitish hindwings tinged with pink, hence the English name. 

“We found an even more interesting micro moth as well, the scarce gold conch, Phtheochroa schreibersiana. I spotted this moth at rest on an elm leaf along the edge of the hedge. This is a very rare species nationally and has only ever been seen once before in Suffolk, in 1870! This was at Icklingham which isn't too far from here, so it may well have been lurking in the area undiscovered all that time. It feeds under elm bark as a larva so probably is breeding at this site. It's been a poor year for moths so far due to the cold conditions and the drought last year, so these observations have brightened up a bad season.”