268 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 
Orange-tip 
these two flutter everywhere you look on the open 
fens. Both feed on crucifers which grow here in 
plenty, particularly their favourite Cuckooflower 
C. pratensis. These two closely related butterflies do 
not compete with each other despite having the 
same food as, like Jack Sprat and his wife, they 
share the plant between them: the Orange-tip 
caterpillars eat the flower buds, flowers and, above 
all, the seed pods, while the Green-veined White 
feeds on the leaves. Orange-tip butterflies spend 
little time taking nectar, but the Green-veined 
White is an avid feeder and the males can often be 
seen ‘puddling’, that is supplementing their diet 
with sodium and other salts by feeding from muddy 
soil. 
The grass-feeders do well on the fen: Meadow 
Browns Maniola jurtina and Ringlets Aphantopus 
hyperantus are the commonest while Large Skippers 
Ochlodes venata are also frequently seen. The 
abundant Greater Bird’s-foot-trefoil L. pedunculatus 
attracts a good few Common Blues Polyommatus 
icarus in most years, particularly this one when 
parts of the fen seemed alive with them. Docks 
Rumex sp. are the chosen food of the widespread but 
now thinly distributed butterfly, the Small Copper 
Lycaena phlaeas which can usually be found on the 
reserve during August and September. 
With nettles so common on the reserve it is no 
surprise that the Nymphalinae are abundant. Red 
Admirals Vanessa atalanta and Peacocks Inachis io 
feeding on Hemp-agrimony E. cannabinum make 
one of the memorable sights of a visit to the reserve. 
The Purple Hairstreak Quercusia quercus although 
said to be quite common in southern Britain 
(Emmet and Heath, 1990, 128) is rarely seen, as it 
spends most of its time at the tops of oaks and ashes 
feeding on aphid honeydew. I have only once seen it 
at ground level, early one morning drinking dew. 
As its scientific name suggests, its caterpillars feed 
Green-veined Whites puddling 
on oak Quercus sp. Both the butterfly and its eggs 
have been recorded on the reserve. 
From time to time, including this year, the 
nationally scarce Marsh Fritillary Eurodryas aurinia 
has been seen on its sole food plant, the Devil’s-bit 
Scabious S. pratensis. In 1991 some captive-bred 
larvae were introduced. Breeding has occurred but 
a lasting population has never established itself. 
There are known colonies not very far away on the 
Pewsey Downs and on Salisbury Plain. 
Moths 
by Humphrey Kay 
Light trapping for moths has had a limited 
program (ten occasions) between May 1998 and 
September 2000. A total of 120 species of 
macromoths were identified, mostly common but 
with a few of local interest. They include Dingy 
Shears Parastichtes ypsillon, a wetland species and 
Triple-spotted Pug Eupithecia trisignaria whose 
larvae feed on the seed-heads of Wild Angelica. 
Uncommon day-flying moths include the 
Blackneck Lygephila pastinum and the Scarlet Tiger 
Callimorpha dominula, with larvae feeding 
conspicuously on Comfrey and Nettle. In the past 
Jones’s Mill was an isolated enclave for this moth 
but in the last fifteen years it has spread a mile or 
more upstream and downstream — part ofa national 
resurgence. One of the Five-spot Burnet-moths is 
seen regularly in June and July, possibly Zygaena 
trifolu decreta, rather than the Narrow-bordered 
Five-spot Z. lonicerae, but the distinction is . 
notoriously difficult. Tunnels in sawn trunks of 
Sallow have shown the presence of Lunar Hornet 
moth Sesza bembeciformis, while the abundance of 
the Drinker Moth Euthrix potatoria has at times 
been most evident from their hairy caterpillars. 
These feed on Glyceria and are highly attractive in 
