Jenna and I spent the evening at Nant-y-Gamar in North Wales walking around the limestone hillside in search of the Cistus Forester moth. I have always wanted to visit the area, so tonight we planned to try to see them before heading to Morfa Conwy for a three-hour moth-trapping session in the hope of catching some coastal species.
This small, localised population of a macro moth has been confirmed through examination of the genitalia.
We spent a good hour searching for the Cistus Forester moth. There was plenty of its food plant, Bird’s-foot Trefoil and Common Rock-rose, but at first we had no luck. As we climbed higher, we eventually found four amongst the Common Rock-rose.
Delighted to have found them, we then moved on to the beach at Morfa Conwy where we trapped until 1am.
Our main targets were Archer’s Dart and Sand Dart, and we managed to trap both.
