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14 Sep 2024 Norfolk Snout

An update on Dave and Pauline Jones' rediscovery of Norfolk Snout Nothris verbascella, which I trailed in a blog last week - and which has been picked up by the media, including The Guardian and BBC Online. Dave will be writing up the full findings in a future issue of Atropos. He has found feeding signs of the moth's larvae on Hoary Mullein at three sites relatively close to Stoke Holy Cross (where he caught the adult), with up to seven adults at one site.

I chanced upon one of these sites and found an adult sitting calmly on a dead leaf under a fresh basal rosette that showed feeding signs: it did not move a kilometre despite me handling the leaf, and was still present when I returned an hour later. I have also found feeding signs on seven Hoary Mullein plants (but no adults or larvae) nearer Norwich. I have checked four other patches of Hoary Mullein to the south and west of the city (at Whitlingham, two sites at UEA and near Taverham), checking 205, 100, c50 and c20 fresh rosettes but without locating feeding signs, larvae or adults. Two of these negative results had several Wasp Spiders with webs over the rosettes (a potential predator?), while Kite-tailed Robberfly was common at the site where I saw an adult. The moth appears to be very localised.