Hawk Moths Galore on the Moulton College estate!

PhD student and staff member Emma Coulthard has been busy collecting data for her research project which seeks to understand how the matrix of the countryside affects biodiversity on farmland.

Her target species are moths and in two weeks of continuous light trapping, Emma has found over 2800 moths made up of 85 different species at the Moulton College Estate and Kelmarsh Estate. She is interested to see how these species are affected by linear boundary features (hedgerows for example) at fine and coarse landscape scales, and how the ecological network can be better managed to promote their conservation.

Some of the species found have been extremely eye catching and include the hawk moth family (scientific name Sphingidae). Below are a range of hawk moths that have been caught, including the privet, eyed and elephant hawkmoth......