Atropos Migration Review 2020

Every year has its individual characteristic when it comes to insect migration. In 2020 there were exceptional numbers of Acrobasis tumidana, Oak Processionary, Beautiful Marbled, Golden Twin-spot, Pale Shoulder and Radford’s Flame Shoulder and a record arrival of Etiella zinckenella into East Anglia and the south-east. Other highlights were the second and third British records of Boathouse Gem and the third British records of Tawny Prominent and Marigold Shark.

Two immigrant macro-moth species were new to Britain in 2020: Rusty-shouldered Pug from the Dorset coast and, perhaps more unexpectedly, Parallel Lines from an inland locality in Cambridgeshire; there was also the first British record of the pyrale Acrobasis fallouella recorded from a site in coastal West Sussex. Vagrant Emperor arrived in good numbers for the second successive autumn. There were also a number of high late summer/autumn counts of Migrant Hawker, some of which may have been the result of continental influxes. Multiple records of Norfolk Hawker in the Radipole area of Dorset represent one of the more notable Odonata events of the year. Migrant butterflies fared less well in general, one of the highlights being a Queen of Spain Fritillary.

Softback, 80pp, colour throughout

Atropos, March 2022