Sections Entomology Visiting Lepidopterists - Autumn 2007
Visiting Lepidopterists - Autumn 2007
Our annual reports in the Bulletin are a valuable record but may not be very exciting to anyone but devoted entomologists. However, here in Jersey and the other Channel Islands, we are very lucky to be so near to the Continental mainland from where we are recording slowly but inexorably, an increasing number of species normally found to the south of us. Global warming is almost certainly the main cause of this northward spread of insects into the Channel Islands and across the Channel to southern England.
Many of these exciting records are reported by us in the national journals and - Tourism Department please note - a good number of UK lepidopterists have come to Jersey especially to get a bit of the action and see some of our specialities. In 2006 Keith Tailby and two friends, keen, amateur moth-hunters from the Midlands, flew across with three of the special moth-traps that we use and set them up on Les Blanches Banques and stayed with them all night. After they had enjoyed a well-earned morning's rest I showed them some of our treasures in the Société's collection in Pier Road and then took them to the National Trust for Jersey land in Grouville Marsh. Following another all-night session with their traps they packed up and somewhat tired but happy and exhilarated, they flew home. So successful were they that they made a return trip October 2006 and they have just returned home after the second of two more this year.
We were pleased to report that our visitors have no wish to keep any specimens, but only to record them all and photograph the rare and interesting ones. 'All' was a terrific number; over 5,500 moths of more than 250 species in 2006 and, almost certainly because of the unusual weather, their totals this year were down to just under 2,000 moths of over 150 species. Many of their more interesting records will appear in the Section's Report in the 2007 and 2008 Bulletins. They were very pleased to see most of the special Jersey moths they hoped for, and we were delighed that they had added at least eight new species to the Island list, including one first record for the British Isles.
Keith and friends think that we are fortunate to have such a wide and splendid variety of moths in our small island and they are planning yet another trip, probably next year, to try to see some of the specialities that have eluded them so far. There's enthusiasm for you!
Roger Long
