The moths of Torry Bay LNR



Crescent Striped

Bird enthusiasts will know that twitchers travel to distant extremities of their home country in order to see unusual birds. The most extreme example that I know is St Lawrence Island, a small island that politically is part of Alaska but geographically is just 32 miles from the coast of Siberia. Thus, American twitchers (they call themselves listers) go to there to put Eurasian birds on their American bird list. Perhaps we have a St Lawrence Island equivalent in vc87 where we can go to see moths not otherwise recorded in the vice county. The boundaries of many vice counties are strangely erratic and the eastern boundary of vc87 appears at first sight to stop at Kincardine Bridge but in fact it extends in a narrow finger along the coast of Fife to include Torry Bay. Here then is a stretch of esturine coast that might be expected to have a moth assemblage similar to coastal Fife and Lothians. So, a list forwarded to me by Duncan Davidson of moths caught by Stephanie Little (then Stephanie Smith) in Torry Burn LNR during 1999 and 2000 was always going to be exciting. Indeed, it proved to include records of White-line Dart, Heart and Club, Lunar Underwing, Large Wainscot and Silky Wainscot; all species seldom or never previously recorded in vc87. Also on the list were two most unexpected species: Crescent-striped a salt-marsh species for which there are no recent records north of Lincolnshire and Annulet which again has no recent records from nearby coasts. Stephanie had sent all key species to Keith Bland for identification. He had examined the genitalia of all that he received and the specimens are stored at the National Museums of Scotland Collections Centre at Granton.  Furthermore, Duncan Davidson has recently visited Granton and has photographed some of the above specimens. His photographs will be placed in the Scottishmoths vc87 validation file. In addition, his photograph of the Crescent-striped is included with this blog. The moth is clearly rather worn and, without Keith Bland’s examination of the genitalia, it would be hard to be sure that it is not a Dusky Brocade. However, the forewings are rather square with very straight costa, the markings are poorly contrasted and show some suspicions of a partial white edging around the kidney spot and elements of a dark bar joining the central cross-lines. These are all characteristic features of Crescent-striped. Unfortunately, the Annulet specimen could not be found for Duncan’s visit but he informs me that E.C. Pelham-Clinton recorded it 1966 at nearby North Queensferry.