Last month I mentioned two moths with ‘November’ in their names, and this month it’s the turn of the…December Moth! This rather plain name hides the fact that this wonderful moth is one of the smartest-looking, with charcoal grey wings, chocolatey-brown hair over mosof its body, and a pale cream quiff near its head. All that body hair helps the moth to stay warm and keep flying, even as the temperatures dip.
December Moths don’t feed at all as adults; instead, they burn the fat they stored up when they ate as a caterpillar. This is why providing food for caterpillars in your Wild Space is so important. December Moth caterpillars can feed upon a wide range of broadleaved trees, including Oak, Birch, sallows, Elm and Hawthorn. If you have the space, now is a good time
of year to introduce these species as bareroot trees to your Wild Space, or you can create a bareroot hedge. December Moths lay their eggs on the twigs of these trees which won’t hatch until next year. So, as with many species which are active at this time of year, our advice is to be careful when cutting or pruning existing hedges and trees. You can reduce the frequency of cutting hedges – for example, by cutting one side of a hedge one year, and the following side the next year. Or dividing it up into sections and leaving some sections uncut in any given year. This allows you to maintain the shape of the hedge, and still provide habitat for moths like this.
And with it coming up to the festive season, you may have more time to read up on butterflies and moths or to request some books as gifts. One of the books I have really enjoyed this year is ‘Meetings with Moths’ by Katty Baird who writes about her adventures to find moths. Or if you’re planning the year ahead for your Wild Space, Kate Bradbury’s ‘Wildlife Gardener’ is excellent. For books on identifying moths, it’s hard to go wrong with the Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland by Paul Waring and Martin Townsend. There are a number of good butterfly field guides out there too – too many to list!
On the topic of gifts, I spoke to a volunteer recently, who said that her daughter is buying her enough wildflower seed to allow her to convert her lawn to a native wildflower meadow. Over the next few months, she will be stripping back the lawn turf and sowing the seeds. The wildflowers and fine grasses which grow from these will be used by all sorts of wildlife in future, so her daughter’s gift of the seeds will really be a gift to the natural world. I think it’s a lovely gesture, and something we could do with more of! Consider gifting someone a Wild Space this Christmas and it will be a gift that keeps on giving – to them and to wildlife!
It doesn’t have to be seeds though, pots for a balcony ready to plant herbs in the spring are enough to create a Wild Space, or a native tree or shrub could make a lovely gift for the right person too. Someday the tree may support the hungry caterpillars of the December Moth and many other species. At a time when the days are so short, it can be helpful to do something positive that will bloom in months and years to come and make a difference to local nature.
