Clearwings

Since the beginning of June, I've been eagerly awaiting an appropriate weather window to string up some Clearwing pheromones in the garden, to see if I can repeat last year's success with them.

The opportunity finally arose yesterday morning, with warm temperatures, intermediate sunshine and a noticable wind to carry the pheromones across the adjacent gardens. I put up the 'VES' lure in a small apple tree, with surrounding cultivated 'decorative' plants, and within 15 minutes, 4 Orange-tailed Clearwings were fighting for top spot on the washing bag containing the pheromones. I caught a single individual last year, and assumed it to be a wanderer from distant chalk downland, but its pretty clear that there is now a healthy colony in the area.

The lure went out again later in the evening, and it was nice to catch up with Yellow-legged Clearwing, the other species that this particular pheromone is designed to attract, and usually quite common here in mid-summer. A few more Orange-tailed Clearwings passed through, but didn't stay long.

The undoubted highlight was a surprise visit from a Red-tipped Clearwing, which I only just noticed out the corner of my eye, as it hovered over some flowers a little way from the lure. A new one for the garden, and the third species caught here.

Red-tipped Clearwing...

Yellow-legged Clearwing (left) and Orange-tailed Clearwing (right)

Certainly makes up for the complete lack of night time activity around the trap.

Clearwing success in the garden!

I had a very successful afternoon yesterday using the clearwing lures for the first time in the garden. I half heartedly hung my newly acquired 'VES' lure on a bamboo cane between two apple trees in the border at about 1pm, pretty much knowing that I wouldn't catch anything, and after 45 minutes of nothing I was ready to pack them away.

After unsuccessful sessions in Richmond Park and Denbies Hillside back in May, you can begin to imagine my surprise then when I went out to check the lure, and found an Orange-tailed Clearwing investigating the lure. This was the last thing I expected to find in the garden, being miles from any chalk, and may well be quite an interesting record. No sooner had I finished photographing it, an absolutely superb Yellow-legged Clearwing decided to join the party, soon followed by two more, rounding off a perfect afternoon.

The stars of the show...

Having a good old scratch behind the ear... err, I mean antennae...

Orange-tailed Clearwing in the hand... am I going too far?

Yellow-legged Clearwing...

A close up of that unique 'clear' wing...

Not quite as smart as the above Yellow-legged, but its still a clearwing, and any clearwing is a smart clearwing in my book!

Not a suitable activity for children below the age of 3...

Now for the hat-trick with Red-belted Clearwing in the next few weeks, or am I pushing my luck?