#smalleggar

[nunoxaviermoreira]

Small Eggar larva (Eriogaster lanestris). by Bob Eade Fully grown Small Eggar larva. One of the best looking larvae and a very rare find in East Sussex. This species is now thought to be extinct in West Sussex and was only known from one small area in East Sussex until I found a colony on my own patch 4 years ago in the shape of a larval web. Each year since I have found at least 2 webs with 3 in 2019 and this larva well away from any of the webs. As far as I am aware an adult moth of this species has not been seen in Sussex for around 10 years, so I guess I have that target to go for, although with the flight season being February and March I could struggle. https://flic.kr/p/2ikdLBu

[nunoxaviermoreira]

Small Eggar larva (Eriogaster lanestris). by Bob Eade Back in 2017 I found a large larval web on the far end of my local patch. At first I thought the tiny larva present were the common Brown-tail moth or Lackey, however, they did not look quite right for either of these and the nearest possibility was the Small Eggar. The Small Eggar has been extinct in West Sussex since 1968, and with only one sighting in East Sussex since 2010 I thought this was unlikely to be the moth. I sent photos to the Sussex moth recorder and he confirmed this was indeed the Small Eggar. I continued to watch the larvae grow over the next few weeks as they turned into rather spectacular caterpillars. They did however disperse before they developed fully. In 2018 I was hoping to find further evidence of the moth in the area but it was not looking good, this was until I found a large web nearly a mile away from the 2017 site. These larva were already nearly fully grown so at last I managed a few shots of this extremely rare Sussex moth larva in all its glory. Nationwide the moth is classed as an NB rarity with numbers having declined over the past few decades. Most of the small number of colonies appear to be further West in Britain. Sightings of the adult moth are extremely unusual apparently. https://flic.kr/p/2edSHiW