The Red-tipped Clearwing_ Synanthedon formicaeformis
A Red-tipped Clearwing, a small beautifully and delicately marked moth with red tips on each wing from which it get it's name and a broad band of red on it's abdomen. Pick up any guide book about this moth and it will tell you that it's Nationally Scarce B but found locally in Britain and Ireland.
Following information from Pete Smith in the Butterfly Conservation Newsletter who found these moths at 14 locations along the Water Railway. He focused on the area west from Washingborough to the east of Southrey, covering a length of over 15 kilometres. Equipped with this information I tried my luck.
Red-tipped Clearwings love damp habitats, where their foodplant grows, willows. So with this information I set off down a small stretch of the Water Railway Cycle Route looking for patches of willows to set up my lure . This is a pheromone to attract the male moths.
I found 3 separate patches of Willows in the small part I did and found 1 moth at each site, which is not bad for a Nationally Scarce moth and it's not even peak season and it's in Lincolnshire.
Here's a few more picture's for you of the afternoon
