Newtown National Nature Reserve
The rich native plant mix in Newtown National Nature Reserve’s wildflower meadows make them especially attractive to all sorts of moth species, and you can spot quite a few of these during the day. Like butterflies, many moths are restricted to just one larval food plant, but because Newtown’s meadows have escaped agricultural ‘improvement’ they are home to many plant rarities, many of which have just one specific moth species associated with them. The striking crimson and red six spot burnet feeds on the meadows’ brown knapweed; look out for its papery larval cases attached to grass stems. In the wetter meadow areas you might spot the yellow flowers of dyer’s greenweed which provides a food source for several rare micro-moths including the gold case bearer whose shiny black larval cases can be found actually in the plants, camouflaged to resemble seed pods.
Chalk Downs
Up on the downs, our work to improve the chalk grassland means that both butterflies and moths thrive here. On a walk across Mottistone, Compton, Bembridge and Tennyson Downs you might spot several species of moth during the summer months, despite the daylight hours.
Hummingbird Hawk-moths flit between plants and hover to feed from tubular flowers, just like the little birds they are named after. You might see them rapidly beating their orange wings as they sup from Viper’s bugloss. The Silver Y moth is also aptly named: you can identify it by the silvery y-shaped mark on its forewing. They are migratory and you can often spot them feeding on flowers just before dusk.
