The mystery and excitement of Clearwings

2023 was my first full year of using the Clearwing lures in my back garden.

Prior to this year, I had only seen two species.

My first encounter was with a Red-tipped Clearwing during a bright and sunny day at Canvey Wick in Essex, back in 2012, too excited by my find, I faffed with the net and sadly missed it.

Roll on to 2016, where a week's trip to France yielded multiple sightings of the rare and protected (in this country) Fiery Clearwing.

My first dabble with pheromone lures was last year, where I used only the HYL and MYO lures. Both attracted their target species of Red-tipped & Raspberry respectively. 

After buying the classic set plus a few extra lures, during 2023 I then recorded 7 species of Clearwing! Rather incredible. 

There are 16 species of Clearwing here in the UK, 6 I thought were quite attainable here, until Dusky came along and rocked that boat, capsizing it at the same time!

The list so far is 

Currant Clearwing

Dusky Clearwing

Orange-tailed Clearwing

Raspberry Clearwing

Red-belted Clearwing

Six-belted Clearwing

Yellow-legged Clearwing

 

Most abundant species has easily been Orange-tailed Clearwing this year, with upto 15 in one sitting, and fairly regular through 8-10 weeks of the year.

The next commonest species and a real shock, was no less than 12 records of Dusky Clearwing 

 

Least abundant was a single Six-belted Clearwing and now three Yellow-legged Clearwings (After one today to the VES lure)

Outside possibles next year include

Lunar Hornet Moth (Despite leaving the lure out all summer, i've not had a sniff. A new lure will be purchased for next year 

Hornet Moth (Need to purchase the HOR lure for 2024)

Large Red-belted Clearwing (Possible, but rare, the lure will need to go out earlier in 2024)

Sallow Clearwing (These hatch on alternative years, 2023 wasn't a year for them apparently, even though I left the lure out on the off-chance)

Thrift Clearwing (With a shock specimen in Suffolk this year by Anthony Wren, again it could turn up, comes to the HYL lure which attracts the Raspberry Clearwing here prolifically)

White-barred Clearwing (Possible, did not come to the TIP lure all summer, stacks of Alder here as well) 

So that's pretty much a rap for this year, I don't think anything else will show up now and I look forward to trying a few new lures next year to see what I can entice.