A moth evening in Lyme Regis

As part of the nationwide Museums at Night initiative on Friday 18 May, Lyme Regis Museum held its first moth evening! Dr Phil Sterling, Dorset County Council’s natural environment manager and ecologist, gave a talk at the museum, and then led over 30 people to a site off Charmouth Road, where mercury vapour lights had been set up by Alan Kennard and Marjorie Waters. Some 36 different species were seen over a two hour period. Pick of the catch was a Ruddy Carpet, a nationally scarce moth, but known to inhabit Lyme. A Cream Wave also stood out amongst the more common species such as Flame Shoulder, Hebrew Character, Scalloped Hazel, Green Carpet, Iron Prominent, Pale Tussock and Twenty-plume moth.

The left-hand picture below shows Phil Sterling identifying one the catch to members of the tour group. On the right can be seen two of the moths that were caught: the yellow one is a ‘Brimstone’ (Opisthograptis luteoilata) and the other specimen is a ‘Green Carpet’ (Colostygia pectinataria).