2005 - Whitby Naturalists

ENTOMOLOGY RECORDER'S REPORT
This ycar I have had to rely more on reports of sightings than on rny
owrl otrservations, as I was out of circulation having a knee
replacement, so thank you to those who sent me information.
'Silhile I was in hospitai and feeling very cut off from my usual interests
I was pieased that the patient in the next bed was starting treatment
wirh rnaggt-.ts. I knked this rreatmcnt up on the Internet and lcarned
that rhe wound cleansing ability of maggot medicine has heen noted
for centr"rries. Now that there :rre antibiotic resistant strains, maggot
therapy lras bccome useful again. There were at least 25,000
trcatments in rhe U.K. in the iast decade. The right maggot for the job
must be chosen, i.e. a happy, brungry, blow f1y maggot. Five to tcn
maggots are placed on each square centimetre of the wound, rvhich is
then covered with a protective dressing which allows the maggots to
breathe" In the next 48 to 72 hours they dissolve the dead tissuc iry
secreting digestive juices, then ingesting the liquifiecl tissue and
bacteria. In doing this, the maggot grows from 2mms to neaily 10mms.
The patient told me that she fclt no discomfort and that the trcatment
was successful.
MOTHS.
There r.veren't many moth reports but trvo of them received a mention
in the \Thitby Gazette.
The first, in early February, was of three Herald moths hibematurg in
a jet minc in Guisborough Woods.
In mid-bfarch I had an exciting report of a Narrow-borciered Bee
Hawk rnoth in a garden. This moth hasn't often becn recorded in
Yorkshire.
On June lB,n a Ruby Tiger and a Cinnabar moth \4/ere seen and rhe last
week inJune brought three sighrings of the Hurnming bird Hawk moth
in \X/hitby and in Ruswarp, rvith a note and photo in thc Gazette
showfurg its long proboscis. Another was reported in niid- October.
The Gazette had another report and photo on July 8th, ti-ris time of a
Poplar Hawk moth.
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