During June 2023, unusual numbers of Rannoch Looper (Macaria brunneata) moth were arriving in the UK, with Records being reported from a number of inland counties, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and even as far wide as Cambridgeshire, Northumberland and Hampshire. Most counties were recording their first records of this species, and I’m sure there will be many more reports that will emerge as time goes on.
Seemingly then, an unprecedented influx of a species that in the UK is only currently found, as the name suggests, in mature pine and birch woodlands of central and the northeastern highlands of Scotland, that have extensive Bilberry ground cover.
The last influx of this species, arrived from the near continent in 2011, when there was similar weather conditions to June 2023. High temperatures over western Europe, coupled with a number of days of moderate ENE winds across the North Sea, seemed too provide ideal conditions for this moth to arrive on our shores.
Derbyshire’s first record was discovered in a garden moth trap at Fenny Bentley on 15/16th June 2023. Incredibly another was trapped in the same garden on 17/18th June, and then a 3rd record, at Norbrigg’s Flash NR, Staveley, near Chesterfield, on 21st June 2023.
A superb addition to Derbyshire’s macro moth list. Many thanks to the contributors of this post and for allowing me the use of the images, to form a documented account of the occurrence.
