Amy Huff, Lepidoptera BTCV Natural Apprentice
Since I started my apprenticeship at the end of April it has been a wonderful and unusual experience.
My apprenticeship began in Edinburgh at the Museum of Natural Sciences, where I was being mentored by Keith Bland. It was here I learned how to pin and stage moths and a little later cook up their abdomens in caustic pot ash and set them on glass slides to get a good look at their genitalia (always a conversation stopper at any dinner party). I also became quite adept at gluing on abdomens after pinging them off in all directions while trying to stage them up because of my cack handedness (I have since improved some what). I became familiar with different collections that in time need to be added into the main collection, and barely even scratched the surface when I collated (hopefully) all the peppered moths.
Keith introduced me into the world of micro moths, which are as equal to if not more beautiful than the macros, you just have to spot them first. The little guys also do not have common names so it has been a bit of a baptism of fire into the language of Latin, still very much a work in progress. We also had a little field trip up the Cairn Well around Glen Shee to look for a very small very rare moth, which has only been seen 5 times in this country Ethmia pyraustra. Unfortunately, we did not find it.
So it was at the beginning of June I packed my bags and headed for the sunny destination of Insh Marshes RSPB Reserve in the Cairngorms, where I was to spend my summer. To start with I did not have a specific project but used my time trapping moths and learning and identifying as many moths macro as well as micro as I could. I had the run of 840 hectares of varying habitat to put my moth traps on and the help and support of Pete Moore, the site warden and Tom Prescott, a local Species Conservation Officer working for Butterfly Conservation.
This was keeping me busy but I wanted to have a bit more of a project and it was suggested that I looked for Cousin German, a UK BAP species moth in new 10 km squares. This was already found on site at Insh so after some research I created a map showing the 10km squares they had been previously found in. From this I identified possible sites that would have potentially the right habitat. So from the beginning of August I was whizzing around the Highlands, clambering over fences with moth traps and generators, sleeping in my car, looking for a little moth. Thankfully with some success. I found 4 new 10 km sites with a possible 5th that will need to be confirmed.
I also managed to get a Old Lady in my Heath trap, quite an achievement! These are not common this far north in Scotland, but seem to be having a good year, and a Northern Arches (Nationally Scarce A species) which maybe be more common than people think because of under recording in their habitat.
These Garden Tiger moths were quite a stunning and regular feature over the summer. The first time I caught one I was so excited I texted my mum at 5 in the morning, she wasn’t impressed!
Other things that have been occurring include trapping Dark Bordered Beauty, a UK BAP Species with Tom Prescott, returning to the Cairn Well with Keith and sucking up larvae with leaf blowers on suck (Ethmia pyraustra larvae were found but on a different occasion), trapping in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh and attended Bio Blitz on Holyrood Park. And many other things.