Insects and other invertebrates - 2012

May 16th Five Grizzled Skippers were seen.
May 12th With almost constant strong winds, frequent rain and generally low temperatures it has been very quiet on the insect front. However, there are signs that things are beginning to pick up now and in recent days there have been good numbers of Small Coppers and the occasional Grizzled Skipper. Dragonflies have also been seen in very poor numbers with just three Hairy Dragonflies, five Common Blue Damselflies and also the first Blue-tailed Damselflies today. 
Mar.29th Good numbers of butterflies included 14 Peacocks and a Comma and a Light Orange Underwing moth was seen at the Long Pits.
Mar.28th A Dotted Border came to one of the Observatory windows.
Mar.24th

The second Yellow-horned of the year was trapped along with four Small Quakers of note.
Mar.17th

Only one moth was attracted to the moth trap overnight but it was worth running as it was a Yellow-horned which was only the second Observatory record.

Yellow-horned    Dungeness  17th  March 2012 

Mar.12th The first really warm day of the year produced the first three Commas of the year, five Peacocks and a Small Tortoiseshell and also a Hummingbird Hawk-moth.
Mar.11th The first Small Tortoiseshell of the year was seen.
Mar.10th A Double-striped Pug came to the kitchen window.
Mar.2nd Another Dotted Border came to the Observatory lights.
Feb.29th Two Peacock butterflies were seen.
Feb.25th A Dotted Border came to the kitchen window.