A remarkable year has revealed another first for Scotland! Two of these very distinctive wainscot moths came to Iain Leach’s moth trap at Blackcraig near Newton Stewart on the 30th of July this year. With little variation in colour and pattern this 15mm long brown moth usually has a darker brown streak along the middle of its wing with a black, white edged spot at its end. The veins are picked out in brown. A few are plain dark brown.
Like the other wainscot moths the caterpillars of this species tunnel in the stems of plants – in this case the Common Reed. The eggs laid in July and August overwinter on the reeds and the caterpillar hatches to burrow into a smaller stem of the plant about halfway up and begins to feed upwards – changing plants when more food is required. The fully grown caterpillar is 30mm long and pinkish-brown with a darker head. It pupates head down in the lower part of the stem and hatches out two or three weeks later.
Obviously with Common Reed as a food plant this moth is highly restricted by its habitat and it is regarded as local in southern England. Common Reed is scattered throughout lowland D&G but there are few big reedbeds. It is known that this species is thinly scattered and its distribution trend shows a severe decline since 1990. The latest information shows there is a record from the very south of Cumbria but still a long way from Scotland.
This species is not known for flying long distances but obviously any insect can be spread a long way on the wind or air currents. Only time will tell if the Brown-veined Wainscot is or will be breeding in Scotland. It is interesting to note that several other ‘reedbed’ moths have been found recently in Scotland by recorders putting out moth traps in that habitat. They could be spreading from down south or they could have always been there but nobody had looked for them. A habitat well worth looking at in detail next year?
