Muir of Dinnet: Wednesday 11th May 2016
This is another listed site for Netted Mountain Moth. Having year-ticked Garden Warbler, we bumped into the warden, who noticing my net asked whether I was interested in anything in particular. She was unaware of NMM being present at the usual public access site, but told us it had been reported, along with Kentish Glory, on heathland on the other side of the A93. So we departed for that location. There we found the first good patches of flowering Bearberry; failed with the above two mentioned target species but did manage to net several micros – 2 of which turned out to be amongst my target species for the trip – Clepsis senecionana, which has the apt English name “Obscure Tortrix” and the much more attractive Pancalia schwarzella. Returned via lunch out at Gordon’s Café in Braemar – it was full and we appeared to be its youngest clients. And in the afternoon I finished this week’s jigsaw – “The Bizarre Bookshop”
I returned to Muir of Dinnet in the evening with a view to sweeping the heather and then staying with a trap for a couple of hours after dark. Sweeping produced about 10 micros - all of which turned out to be Neofaculta ericetella (very common in heathland), but I also obtained what I thought was an interesting female Common Heath - these appearing very similar to the Netted Mountain Moth - which it actually turned out to be. The trap was much less succesfull - I gave up after 90 mins in which the only moths to visit me were 3 Early Thorns (common throughout UK).
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Plant of the day: Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) Family: Ericaceae
Prostrate, mat-forming undershrub; pink-tinged globular flowers, May-June (5 petals, 5 sepals, 10 stamens); leaves alternate, evergreen, glabrous, ovate, untoothed, paler and markedly net-veined on underside. Cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) is very similar but may be more erect, has more open flowers, and the underside of the leaf is less netted.