Corona Wildlife Diary: Day Seventy-three.

This weekend's Back Garden Bird Race will be on Sunday (10-11) Full details are (here)

Day Seventy-three

I ran the moth trap in the garden again last night. My plan was that today I would show you all of the exciting moths I found in the trap, as I did last week (here).

The problem was when I opened the trap this morning there weren't many moths in there. It hadn't been a good night for moths in my garden and each egg box I took out of the trap held just a few of the commoner, browner moths; the Heart & Dart and the Treble-lines.

I was thinking I may have to resort to putting up my blog about Face Mites (which I have stored away for such an emergency) but then I picked up the last pink egg box, turned it over and found something very unusual. A moth which I had never seen before in ten years of moth trapping. 

And it was a beauty!

I had no idea what it was but I was pretty sure I had seen it somewhere near the back of the moth book. I excitedly thumbed the pages and found it...

Bingo! Agrotera nemoralis - the Beautiful Pearl. I turned to the text to find out more about this little moth and read that it was...

It seems that the moth is only found in one woodland in Kent - which surprised me as I was neither a) in a woodland or b) in Kent.

I did some more research online and it turns out that there have been a few other sightings of the Beautiful Pearl along the south coast in the past decade. It is believed that these are migrant moths flying from in across The Channel. I spoke to Colin Pratt, the county moth recorder, and he confirmed that the Beautiful Pearl has only ever been seen at two other locations in West Sussex in the past 100 years- so it was a real rarity.

I thought I'd learn a little more about this lovely moth. It was first described and introduced to the world by this guy...

...wig-wearing Austrian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (1723-1788) in his great work the Entomologia Carniolica (published in 1763).

It seems the first place the moth was discovered in Great Britain was in Albourne on 26 June 1851. 169 years ago but less than four miles away.

After it's discovery it became a wanted moth.

The allure of the Beautiful Pearl was not just its beauty but its rarity. Victorians were obsessed with collecting moths and men travelled from all across Britain to hunt the Beautiful Pearl. Armed with gas-powered lanterns, nets and extravagant moustaches, they descended on Sussex woodlands in hordes searching for the Pearl. Captured moths and were sold on to moth traders. Collecting pinned moth specimens was big business in the late 1800's and in Sussex alone there were as many as 30 businesses making money from the moth trade in the late 1800's.

In his excellent four volume 'A Complete History of the Butterflies and Moths of Sussex', Colin Pratt says that this beautiful moth was "in particular demand by wealthy Victorian collectors" and some "were prepared to pay a golden guinea each" to be able to put the Beautiful Pearl into their polished oak display cabinets.

One of the best woodlands in Britain to find the Beautiful Pearl was Abbot's Wood near Eastbourne. Which gives me an excuse to reach for my battered copy of Robert Adkin's 'Butterflies and Moths of Eastbourne' from 1931.

Adkin’s book contains a map tucked away in the back which I always excitedly unfold as if I’ve discovered the concealed directions to some long-lost buried treasure.

In this case Adkin's book gave the directions to a treasure that had been looted long ago - the Beautiful Pearls of Abbots Wood vanished sometime around the 1890s. Until recently the only known place you could find the moth in the UK was in that one woodland in Kent.

However, in recent years, the Beautiful Pearl has made a return to Sussex. My moth-trapping friend David has been finding the moth in the far east of our county. Before I met David, many years ago, someone said to me 'you'll never meet a nicer fellow'. And they were right. David's knowledge and passion for wildlife have been an inspiration. I'm always looking for any excuse to phone David for a chat and the Beautiful Pearl was a good reason. David, now in his eighties and locked down near Burwash, told me that he was hoping to find a Beautiful Pearl in his trap this year but was really excited to hear about my moth "That's made my day" he said. Whether I'm finding unusual moths or a Hedgehog, the wildlife in this little suburban garden has given me the thrill of discovery every day. It's been such a powerful distraction during these bleak times.

Here's a beautiful song about diving for pearls (here).

Have a great weekend folks.