A friend recently showed me a photograph of a Box Tree Moth larvae, one of an "adventive" population that decimated a Box Tree hedge at a garden he works just over the border in Oswestry, Shropshire.
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| Box Tree Moth, Cydalima perspectalis. Seb Stewart. |
Purely out of curiosity, I looked on the MMG species list to see if it had been recorded in Montgomeryshire. It is not listed (yet). I noted that the Gypsy Moth (regarded as another adventive species) has one record in Montgomeryshire, so we do record adventive species.
North Wales Lepidoptera's site has three records since 2018, all near the north-east coast of Wales.
So it occurred to me that in all the time I have been with MMG I, for one, have not been present at a talk, formal or otherwise, where adventive moth species have been discussed.
Ethics of controlling populations before and after cataloguing, "semi-naturalisation" acceptance thresholds and at what point official cataloguing and inclusion of these species to UK listing is conducted, are some of the ponderings in my head.
If anybody out there can contribute to this query/conversation, I would be most grateful.
Phil.
n.b. Before rushing out in panic to check beloved Box Trees (if you live in the Oswestry area), my friend informed me that all the caterpillar's "appeared" to have died........but DID they all die????😟
All moth species, no matter in which vice county they're recorded and what their status is, should be recorded. This is how adventive species like the box-tree moth can be monitored and in some circumstanced be controlled if required.
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