Day 311 - Charmingly Mottled Campion Moths

Campion Moth (Sideridis rivularis)

Hey everyone today's Day 311 and you'll all know by know that I volunteered at the Nosterfiled open day about a moth ago (pun slightly intended). I was put on the Moth counting part as one of my jobs and my job specifically was to put one of each species of moth into a plastic container so people could look at them later. One moth that caught my eye when I was looking for something to do was the Campion Moth and I think that the word 'mottled' describes them quite well.

So, here are a few facts that I found:

• They are relatively common and quite widespread, most common down South, they get less frequent the further up the UK you go. They are frequent in Ireland too.

A bugs eye view

• These lovely marked moths have a wingspan of between 27mm - 30mm. Quite small in comparison to others I have done.

• They are mainly seen flying in May or June but in some areas there is a second generation in August and September.

• On a German site that I found it said that there are sometimes even 3 generations in the lowlands (I presume of central Europe). 

• They lay eggs on the flowers and flower buds. The young caterpillars feed on the developing seeds

• The caterpillars feed mainly in the seed capsules of various Campion plants, I wonder where they get their name from?

• Once they get bigger, they will also eat the leaves of Campion plants. I don't actually think I have come across a name and reason like that yet.

Its wonderful markings make good camouflage

• They are found mainly where the larval foodplant is found. Red Campion is quite widely distributed so you might find them in a lot of different places.

• I couldn't find much detail about the population level about this moth apart from that it is 'common' it may be facing reduction in low land areas due to intense agricultures.

Here are a few links to some more information:

NatureSpot - Campion Moth

UK Moths - Campion Moth

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.