Underhill Wood Nature Reserve

BUTTERFLY HABITAT:

Working with Hugo Brooke and Frank Crosier, both key people in the Wiltshire Butterfly Conservation Group, I have created a series of south facing glades and within each glade there will be a 2 or 3 year rotation so I create habitats with different sward heights. The land at Underhill Wood was over-planted with saplings to create a commercial woodland - I have culled many of the saplings to increase bio-diversity. 

Moth Trapping prior to 2017....

Each summer at Underhill Wood, working with my friend and butterfly & moth expert Hugo Brooke, we moth trap. The results are astounding & the range of morphology is extraordinary, as these 3 example photographs show.

Moth Trapping May 2017

On Tuesday May 23rd, working with my friend, UWNR champion and moth / butterfly expert Hugo Brooke, we moth trapped. We have set the trap a few times at the reserve over the past 2 years but the results we achieved this time exceeded those of previous sessions. We ran the trap light from 21.20 through to dawn. It was set in the most northerly field backed by large veteran oaks and among native trees, around 8 - 10 years old. Behind Hugo can be seen a wide, cut ride which runs east - west.

This is the list of species we trapped. 49 species from a single trapping betters our previous efforts by 10 - 15 species.

First ever proper Butterfly Survey - 18th July 2017

This was the first proper Butterfly Survey ever done at UWNR.

The conditions were just perfect with very light winds blowing from the south-east, bright sun and an air temperature into the mid 20's degrees C. While the designated glades supported decent number of species the banks of blackberry bramble, which were in bloom, supported very significant numbers of species.

The survey was lead by Arthur Bryant from Wiltshire Butterfly Conservation - Arthur, a long standing member of Butterfly Conservation, is highly experienced & knowledgeable. After about 2 hours of meticulous observing we had compiled a pretty impressive list (according to Arthur) - as follows:

1. Speckled Wood 1x

2. Brimstone 2x

3. Green-veined White 4x

4. Comma 2x

5. Meadow Brown 8x

6. Ringlet 1x

7. Marbled White 1x

8. Small Copper 1x

9. Large White 1x

10. Small Skipper 8x

11. Red Admiral 7x

12. Gatekeeper 11x

13. Peacock 2x

14. Silver-Washed Fritillary 2x

15. Orange Tip (Arthur identified this butterfly during a visit to UWNR in May 2017)

Wild Bees 

UWNR took another significant leap forward this week (4th May 2018), when we installed a wild bee hive - the pictures below show Matt Somerville installing the hive in one of the veteran oaks at UWNR. The fact that this took place is entirely down to the ground-breaking work done by Matt. He has looked carefully at how we manage and too often overly exploit honey bees, to their detriment. His mission is to have honey bees living as wild creatures, where they live unmolested and honey is perhaps never extracted. They live as wild colonies, for their own value & benefit, and not for our wants. This mission fits hand and glove with one of the key aims of UWNR, and for me this is one of the most exciting developments of the last four years. 

For more in depth information about Matt's revolutionary work, please click on the Read More link to his website below....

Freedom Hive Inspection: 

On July 23rd Matt Somerville came to inspect the wild-hive we had installed at the beginning of May 2018. I was feeling a bit anxious, but remaining hopeful that the new swarm had thrived over a challenging spring and early summer. What Matt revealed, when he removed the bottom cover of the ecomimicking freedom hive, was just mind-blowing. 8 full-length, pure white vertical combs, attached at the top and sides of the wild-hive and with sufficient space between each comb for two bees to comfortably pass. The combs were covered in black-brown bees, vigorously working coating the comb in propolis. And significantly there were no Varroa mites on the base plate of the hive - this destructive parasite is the bane of commercial bee keeping. My take on this - wild colonies are more vigorous & healthy, and can ward off  things like varroa. 

The remarkable thing is that we erected this 50 litre hive, about 6 weeks ago (early May 2018) - so in just 42 days the worker bees (each individual weighing just 0.00025 pounds) have completely filled this cavity. This is powerful nature, full of wonder! 

Moth Trapping July 2018: 

A very successful morning at UWNR inspecting the traps and Hugo Brooke identifying the following species. The key thing to note that this list is only the macro's (big moths) - we trapped a myriad of micro's (very small moths - some almost microscopic in scale), which is fairly typical when conducting this type of survey.  Time limitations are such that these are not identified.....

At the beginning of 2021 I collated all the moth survey data from 2016 - 2019. So an up-dated species list (for the moment!).

Alder moth, acronicta alni; Angle shades, phlogophora meticulosa; Barred sallow, tiliacea aurago; Beautiful hook-tip, laspeyria flexula; Black arches, lymantria monachal; Blood-vein, timandra comae; Bordered straw, heliothis peltigera;  Bright-line brown-eye, lacanobia oleracea; Brimstone moth, opisthograptis luteolata; Broad-bordered yellow underwing, noctua fimbriata; Broken-barred carpet, electrophaes corylata; Brown silver-line, petrophora chlorosata; Brown-spot pinion, agrochola litura; Brussels lace, Cleorodes lichenaria; Buff ermine, spilarctia luteum; Buff footman, eilema depressa; Buff-tip, phalera bucephala; Canary-shouldered thorn, ennomos alniaria; Centre-barred sallow, atethmia centrago; Chequered fruit-tree tortrix, pandemis corylana; Chestnut, callopistria juventina; Chinese character, Cilix glaucata; Cinnabar, tyria jacobaeae; Clay, mythimna farrago; Clouded border, lomaspilis marginate; Clouded silver, Lomographa temerata; Clouded-bordered brindle, Apamea crenata; Common carpet, epirrhoe alternata; Common footman, manulea lurideola; Common marbled carpet, dysstroma truncate; Common pug, eupithecia vulgate; Common rustic, mesapamea secalis; Common swift, korscheltellus lupulina; Common wainscot, mythimna pallens; Copper underwing, amphipyra berbera;  Coronet, craniophora ligustri; Coxcomb prominent, ptilodon capucina; Cream wave, scopula floslactata; Dark arches, apamea monoglypha; Dark chestnut, conistra ligula; Dark sword-grass, agrotis ipsilon; Dingy footman, eilema griseola; Double kidney, ipimorpha retusa; Double square-spot, xestia triangulum; Dusky sallow, eremobia ochroleuca; Early thorn, selenia dentaria; Fern, horisme tersata; Figure of eighty, tethea ocularis; Flame, callopistria juventina; Flame shoulder, ochropleura plecta; Flounced rustic, luperina testacea; Garden rose tortrix, acleris variegana; Ghost moth, hepialus humuli; Great prominent,  peridea anceps; Green carpet, dysstroma truncate; Green silver-lines, pseudoips prasinana; Heart and dart, agrotis exclamationis; Ingrailed clay, mythimna farrago; Iron prominent, notodonta dromedarius; July highflyer, hydriomena furcate; Large yellow underwing, noctua pronuba; Least black arches, nola confusalis; Lesser broad-bordered yellow, noctua janthe; Lesser common rustic, mesapamea didyma; Lesser swallow prominent, pheosia gnoma;  Lesser yellow underwing, noctua comes; Lobster moth, stauropus fagi; Lunar underwing, omphaloscelis lunosa; Lunar-spotted pinion, cosmia pyralina; Magpie moth, abraxas grossulariata; Maiden's blush, cyclophora punctaria; Marbled brown, drymonia dodonaea; Marbled Minor, oligia strigilis; Marbled white spot, deltote pygarga;  Merveille du jour, griposia aprilina; Mocha, cyclophora annularia; Mother of pearl, pleuroptya ruralis; Mottled rustic, caradrina morpheus; November moth, epirrita dilutata;  Nut-tree tussock, colocasia coryli; Oak hook-tip, watsonalla binaria; Orange footman, eilema sororcula; Orange swift, Triodia sylvina; Pale november moth, erannis defoliaria; Pale prominent, Pterostoma palpina; Pale tussock, calliteara pudibunda; Pale-shouldered brocade, lacanobia thalassina; Peacock moth, macaria notata; Pebble prominent, notodonta ziczac; Peppered moth, biston betularia; Pink-barred sallow, xanthia togata; Poplar hawk-moth, laothoe populi; Powdered quaker, orthosia gracilis; Red win-spot carpet, xanthorhoe spadicearia; Red-line quaker, agrochola lota; Riband wave,  idaea aversata; Rosy footman, miltochrista miniate; Rosy rustic, hydraecia micacea; Ruby tiger, phragmatobia fuliginosa;  Rusty-dot pearl, udea ferrugalis; Sallow, cirrhia icteritia; Scalloped oak, crocallis elinguaria; Scarce footman, eilema complana; Scorched wing, plagodis dolabraria; Setaceous hebrew character, xestia c-nigrum; Shaded broad-bar, scotopteryx chenopodiata;  Sharp-angled peacock, macaria alternata; Shuttle-shaped dart, agrotis puta; Single-dotted wave, idaea dimidiate; Six-striped rustic, xestia sexstrigata; Small china-mark, cataclysta lemnata; Small fan-footed wave, idaea biselata; Small phoenix, ecliptopera silaceata; Small rivulet, perizoma alchemillata; Small square-spot,  xestia xanthographa; Small wainscot, denticucullus pygmina; Small white wave,  asthena albulata; Snout, hypena proboscidalis; Sprawler, asteroscopus sphinx; Square-spot rustic, xestia xanthographa; Straw dot, rivula sericealis; Tawny marbled minor, oligia latruncula; Treble lines, charanyca trigrammica; Turnip moth, agrotis segetum; Uncertain, hoplodrina octogenarian; Vine's rustic, hoplodrina ambigua; V-pug, chloroclystis v-ata; Waved umber, menophra abruptaria; White ermine, spilosoma lubricipeda; Willow beauty, peribatodes rhomboidaria; Yellow-line quaker, agrochola macilenta.  

At the beginning of 2021 I collated all the Butterfly survey data from 2016 - 2019. So an up-dated species list (for the moment!).

Brimstone, gonepteryx rhamni; Comma, polygonia c-album; Essex Skipper, Thymelicus lineola; Gatekeeper, pyronia tithonus;  Green-veined white, pieris napi;  Large white, Pieris brassicae; Marbled white, melanargia galathea; Meadow brown, maniola jurtina; Orange tip, anthocharis cardamines; Peacock, aglais io; Purple hairstreak, neozephyrus quercus; Red admiral, vanessa atalanta; Ringlet, aphantopus hyperantus;  Silver-washed fritillary, argynnis paphia; Small copper, lycaena phlaeas; Small skipper, thymelicus sylvestris; Small tortoiseshell, aglais urticae; Speckled wood, parage aegeria.