Atropos migrant insect review – end-April 2011

The second half of April remained very dry, warm and sunny with more interesting Lepidoptera and Odonata sightings made.

The undoubted Odonata highlight has been the record influx of Vagrant Emperor Anax ephippiger with a second wave of records, following on from the winter sightings in Pembrokeshire and Cornwall. Singles on 15 and 16 April in Devon and Cornwall respectively were the forerunners of this second influx. Several more ‘probables’ were then noted in Cornwall and Dorset. However it was not until the Easter Bank Holiday weekend that the species finally gave itself up and allowed observers the chance to finally catch up with this rare dragonfly at Dungeness, Kent (where up to four were seen) and at Windmill Farm and Mullion, The Lizard, Cornwall. Two further records then surfaced from Pembrokeshire (on 24 and 27 April) and one individual even made it to North Uist, Western Isles on 18 April (G. Morgan) – perhaps not too surprising, as this species is well known for its migratory tendencies and is the only species of dragonfly to have made it to Iceland! A southern Irish coastal record awaits confirmation. There was a further record from Kent (Samphire Hoe, 30 April, J. Lowen) to close the month.

Almost eclipsed by the Vagrant Emperors were the records of Red-veined Darter Sympetrum fonscolombii from Cornwall on 25 April (five at Windmill Farm, three at a private site near Predannack and one at Porthgwarrra).

Clouded Yellow Colias croceus have been thin on the ground with Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta appearing in reasonable numbers – small numbers were ‘everywhere’ between St. Levan and Land’s End on 19 April (J. Foster). A Swallowtail Papilio machaon was seen heading out to sea at Clonque Bay, Alderney, Channel Islands, on 22 April (H. Rowe). Many resident butterflies like Pearl-bordered Fritillary Boloria euphrosyne and Duke of Burgundy Hamearis lucina have been emerging well ahead of their usual flight periods.

Immigrant moth news in the second half of April concerns the earliest ever British record of a Dusky Hook-tip Drepana curvatula light-trapped at Dungeness, Kent, on 21 April (D. Beck). Slightly further west along the south coast of England a Blair’s Mocha Cyclophora puppillaria at Pagham Harbour, West Sussex, on the night of 20 April (I. Lang) was a new site record. Another early record concerned a Dewick’s Plusia Macdunnoughia confusa at Ware, Hertfordshire on 27 April (L. Goodyear) – an excellent inland record and only the second County record.

Rarer still was the pyralid moth Elegia fallax recorded at Stubbington, Hampshire, on 24 April (D. Houghton) – believed to be the first mainland British record. Not quite as rare but an astonishing record so far north was the Euchromius ocellea which made it to Benbecula, Western Isles, on 18 April (R. Dawson) – a truly remarkable record! More excitement was provided by the record of a Levant Blackneck Tathorhynchus exsiccata at St. Mary’s, Isles of Scilly on 29 April (M. Scott) of which there are only about twenty previous British records.

The conditions look potentially very interesting for the coming few days with a warm plume of air originating from Spain forecast. A gap between the high pressure over northern Europe and low pressure over the Atlantic is predicted to suck up warm air from Spain and North Africa.

Atropos would like to thank you for your contributions to the Flight Arrivals webpage. Please keep posting your migrant news and we look forward to an exciting May.