Saturday 21 July 2018

More clearwing hunting

Last Sunday I took a trip to Llanymynech Rocks on the hunt for Six-belted Clearwing.

Following on from a day of disappointment, I did not have high expectations - the previous morning I had failed to find Large Heath up on the Berwyns in perfect weather, and that same afternoon it was our event for Welsh Clearwing (spoiler alert: we didn't find any - see Sue's excellent write-up below). I didn't even bother to bring my proper camera....

However, I was to be pleasantly surprised. Within minutes of deploying the lure, a tiny wasp-like insect arrived. Moments later, a much larger one clumsily flew in. In total, I saw at least four individuals (within about ten minutes). Expecting to find a mate, these excited males must have been pretty disappointed to instead find a chunk of rubber in a teabag...


The feeling at the last event was that the daytime format worked well so an afternoon session targetting this species is pencilled in for the 2019 MMG programme.

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