Garden moths - 09/06/21

Still ticking over nicely here in my garden, the moths are trickling in at a steady pace for my garden, as the number of species increase on average, 8 per night.

 

But, my garden has always been low on numbers. Even during peak times, my catches are for example 60 moths of 42 species, the gap between species and numbers is mostly a 3/2 ratio.

 

A year first Brown Rustic was a real groggy specimen, not a common moth but just typical as I got another  last night and it was pristine!

 

Small Elephant Hawk-moth was the highlight of the night, so so pretty and again not common.

Again, i've only listed new for year species below due to time constraints.

Moth species for 2021 in the garden now stands at 123.

09/06/21 - Back Garden - Stevenage - North Herts - 125w MV Robinson Trap

 

Macro Moths

 

Brown Rustic 1 [NFY]

Clouded Silver 1 [NFY]

Common Marbled Carpet 2 [NFY]

Flame Shoulder 1 [NFY]

Setaceous Hebrew Character 1 [NFY]

Small Elephant Hawk-moth 1 [NFY]

Micro Moths

 

Bucculatrix ulmella 2 [NFY]

Ephestia sp 1 [NFY]

Parornix sp 1 [NFY]

Brown Rustic

Bucculatrix ulmella

Clouded Silver

Common Marbled Carpet

Ephestia sp

Flame Shoulder

Parornix sp

Setaceous Hebrew Character

Small Elephant Hawk-moth

Hexton Chalk Pit - Field Trip - 05/06/21

Last Saturday night I took a last minute trip to Hexton Chalk Pit for a spot of dusking, sweeping my net around to see what I could find and then proceeding to set-up one Actinic trap.

I only stayed for a few hours, as the night got a bit chilly on the exposed chalk grassland, the day was warm enough to spur plenty of species to take to the wing though.

Best moth of the evening was a rather worn Pammene trauniana, formerely a rare moth here in Herts (I was lucky to trap the first in my garden, and net the 2nd a few years later from a local patch of Field Maple) More records have appeared last year, and this is now the 2nd? this year so far, albeit a few weeks later than it's normal flight period.

Others species of note were clouds of Anania fuscalis, at least 20 were disturbed, and the pretty little Tortrix Eupoecilia angustana, which would not sit still for a photo!

 

The site needs a lot of work, I was shocked at how much scrub was encroaching onto the chalk grassland, and even onto the bare chalk, crowding rare plants such as Rock-rose.

 

A site management plan will be hopefully drawn up soon to help protect this rather special environ here in Hertfordshire. 

05/06/21 - Hexton Chalk Pit - NW Herts - Actinic Trap

 

Macro Moths

 

Alder Moth
Brimstone Moth
Brown Rustic
Buff Ermine
Chinese Character
Clouded Silver
Common Carpet
Common Marbled Carpet
Common Pug
Coronet
Grass Rivulet
Great Oak Beauty
Green Carpet
Grey Pug
Heart & Dart
Large Nutmeg
Least Black Arches
Light Brocade
Light Emerald
Lime-speck Pug
Marbled Minor agg
Marbled White Spot
Marsh Pug
Mottled Pug
Orange Footman
Pale Oak Beauty
Pale Tussock
Peppered Moth
Purple Bar
Red Twin-spot Carpet
Rustic Shoulder-knot
Satyr Pug
Setaceous Hebrew Character
Shaded Pug
Shears
Shoulder-striped Wainscot
Shuttle-shaped Dart
Silver-ground Carpet
Small Waved Umber
Straw Dot
Treble Bar
Treble Lines
V-pug
White Ermine
White Point

Micro Moths

 

Acompsia cinerella
Anania fuscalis
Aphomia sociella
Aproaerema sp
Aspilapteryx tringipennella
Batia lunaris
Caloptilia alchimiella
Celypha lacunana
Cnephasia sp
Cochylimorpha straminea
Cochylis atricapitana
Crambus lathoniellus
Elachista albifrontella
Elachista apicipunctella
Elachista biatomella
Endrosis sarcitrella
Epiblema trimaculana sp
Eupoecilia angustana
Isotrias rectifasciana
Nematopogon swammerdamella
Notocelia cynosbatella
Pammene trauniana
Pancalia leuwenhoekella
Plutella xylostella
Pseudargyrotoza conwagana
Pseudoswammerdamia combinella
Pyrausta nigrata
Scoparia ambigualis
Syndemis musculana

 

Scrub encroachment on the chalk grassland

Scrub encroachment on the chalk grassland

Actinic Trap next to a large Field Maple

Anania fuscalis

Aproaerema sp

Cnephasia sp

Elachista albifrontella

Eupoecilia angustana

Panmene trauniana

Pyrausta nigrata

Satyr Pug

Shaded Pug

Big garden round-up over the last 5 nights

Lots of catching up to do, and a huge amount of year-listers added to the garden over the past 5 nights of generally warm nights (The coolest dropping to 9.6c and the warmest 13.8c).

 

The best moth has to be a garden first and moth species no.761 for the garden, a distinct Bactra furfurana from Monday night.

 

I looked at 3 Oiligia specimens from  Thursday night at the weekend and managed to dissect one as Tawny Marbled Minor.

 

Two Hawks on Sunday night were admired by my 3-year old son come Monday morning.

 

I've only listed new for year species below.

Moth species for 2021 in the garden now stands at 114.

03/06/21 - Back Garden - Stevenage - North Herts - 125w MV Robinson Trap

 

Macro Moths

 

Brown Silver-line 1 [NFY]

Marbled Minor 2 [NFY] - Gen Det

Tawny Marbled Minor 1 [NFY] - Gen Det

Micro Moths

 

Mompha subbistrigella 1 [NFY] 

04/06/21 - Back Garden - Stevenage - North Herts - 125w MV Robinson Trap

 

Macro Moths

 

Dwarf Pug 1 [NFY]

Light Brocade 1 [NFY]

Micro Moths

 

Blastobasis lacticolella 1 [NFY]

Mompha epilobiella 1 [NFY] 

Nematopogon schwarziellus 1 [NFY] 

05/06/21 - Back Garden - Stevenage - North Herts - 125w MV Robinson Trap

 

Macro Moths

 

Yellow-barred Brindle 1 [NFY]

Micro Moths

 

Anania hortulata 1 [NFY]

Celypha striana 1 [NFY]

06/06/21 - Back Garden - Stevenage - North Herts - 125w MV Robinson Trap

 

Macro Moths

 

Grey Pug 1 [NFY]

Light Emerald 1 [NFY]

Lime Hawk-moth 1 [NFY]

Poplar Hawk-moth 1 [NFY]

White-point 1 [NFY]

Micro Moths

 

Argyresthia spinosella 1 [NFY]

Eulia ministrana 1 [NFY]

Udea olivalis 1 [NFY]

07/06/21 - Back Garden - Stevenage - North Herts - 125w MV Robinson Trap

 

Macro Moths

 

Common White Wave 1 [NFY]

Mottled Rustic 1 [NFY]

Willow Beauty 1 [NFY]

Micro Moths

 

Bactra furfurana 1 [NFG]

Coleophora sp (Grey with white costal streak TBC) 1 [NFY]

Crambus lathoniellus 1 [NFY]

Hedya nubiferana 1 [NFY]

Scobipalpa costella 1 [NFY]

Brown Silver-line

Anania hortulata

Prays fraxinella/ruficeps

Tommie checking out the Hawks

Argyresthia spinosella

Poplar Hawk-moth

Udea olivalis

Bactra furfurana

Common White Wave

Mottled Rustic

Scrobipalpa costella

Moths at work 03/06/21

A catch from Thursday night at work, a great variety of species were present on a rather warm night.

Highlights were both Poplar & Lime Hawk-moth (I had not had any Hawks in my garden until last night, again both the same species turned up, odd!) 

A stunning Coronet was also most welcome, and 22 Treble Lines was rather good, they are certainly having a good year here in Herts.

It's great to finally start getting warmer nights now!

03/06/21 - Work - Bishop's Stortford - East Herts - 40w Actinic + 15w Twin Synergetic/Actinic Trap 

 

Macro Moths

 

Angle Shades 1 

Buff-tip 1

Common Swift 1 

Coronet 1

Figure of Eighty 1

Grey Dagger sp 1

Heart & Dart 3

Ingrailed Clay 1

Light Brocade 2

Miller 1

Oak-tree Pug 1

Pale Mottled Willow 4

Peppered Moth 1 

Poplar Grey 1

Shears 4

Shuttle-shaped Dart 5

Treble Lines 22

Turnip Moth 5

White Ermine 1

 

Micro Moths 

 

Celypha striana 1

Cochylimorpha straminea 1

Cydia pomonella 1 

Emmelina monodactyla 1

Ephestia sp 1 

Epiphyas postvittana 1

Plutella xylostella 2

Pseudargyrotoza conwagana 1

Rhyacionia pinivorana 2

Syndemis musculana 1 

Tachystola acroxantha 1

Tinea trinotella 1

Celypha striana

Coronet

Lime Hawk & Poplar Hawk

Poplar Grey

Rhyacionia pinivorana

Shears

Tinea trinotella

Works Actinic Trap

 

Bramfield Woods - Field Trip - 02/06/21

Running a bit behind now already, a commonplace theme in the Summer as the temperatures improve overnight which allows me to garden trap and go out in the field on the same night. The downside to this? Lack of sleep, getting up at 6am for work, and going to bed earlier on the nights before a trip out.

Last Wednesday I was joined by Trevor Brownsell to Bramfield Woods, after a really warm day, and light winds, we turned up well before dark and as we got out of our cars, we knew it was going to be a good night.

There was an early threat of rain, but this was to pass much further West than our position, so we thought....

O dear, once setup it started spitting at around 9pm, then it was raining and then getting heavier and then it would stop. This continued to happen for the next 4 hours! Not happy, as it made all of the sheets wet, the egg trays moist, and moths don't swim very well (Actually I tell a lie, they do swim very well, it's just a mission to work out what the species was for ridiculous scale-loss).

It just made it rather unpleasant, but and this is a BIG but. The moths were prevelant and kept coming in despite the on and off rain and because it was so mild.

We ended up with a fairly big list of expected moths, some a few weeks behind their normal flight period.

Highlight for me was the 3rd County record of Pammene ignorata, after taking the joint 1st with Andrew Wood back in 2017.

A great trip out despite soggy equipment!

Catch Report - Bramfield Woods - Central Herts - 02/06/21 - 6 traps - 2x 250w Clear Tubular MV Robinson Trap, 2x 125w MV Trap, 1x Twin 15w Actinic Trap & 1x Quad 20w Wemlite Actinic and 15w Synergetic Trap

76 Macro Moth species & 58 Micro Moth species - 134 species in total

Macro Moths

Alder Moth
Angle Shades
Beautiful Golden Y
Beautiful Hook-tip
Bordered White
Brimstone Moth
Broken-barred Carpet
Brown Rustic
Brown Silver Line
Buff-tip
Clay triple-lines
Clouded Border
Clouded Silver
Common Carpet
Common Marbled Carpet
Common Pug
Common Swift
Common White Wave
Coxcomb Prominent
Cream Wave
Dwarf Pug
Elephant Hawk-moth
Flame Shoulder
Foxglove Pug
Gold Swift
Great Oak Beauty
Green Carpet
Green Silver-lines
Grey Pug
Iron Prominent
Large Nutmeg
Least Black Arches
Light Brocade
Light Emerald
Lime Hawk-moth
Lime-speck Pug
Maidens Blush
Maple Prominent
Map-winged Swift
Marbled Brown
Marbled Minor agg
Marbled White Spot
Mottled Pug
Nutmeg
Nut-tree Tussock
Oak Hook-tip
Ochreous Pug
Orange Footman
Pale Oak Beauty
Pale Prominent
Pale Tussock
Peach Blossom
Pebble Hook-tip
Peppered Moth
Pine Hawk-moth
Poplar Hawk-moth
Poplar Lutestring
Sallow Kitten
Scalloped Hazel
Scalloped Hook-tip
Scorched Carpet
Scorched Wing
Setaceous Hebrew Character
Shears
Silver Y
Silver-ground Carpet
Small Phoenix
Small White Wave
Spruce Carpet
Swallow Prominent
Tawny-barred Angle
Treble Lines
Treble-bar
Waved Umber
White Ermine
White-point 

Micro Moths

Adela reamurella
Aethes cnicana
Aethes smeathmanniana
Anania hortulata
Ancylis mitterbacheriana
Aphomia sociella
Argyresthia brockeella
Argyresthia conjugella
Aspilapteryx tringipennella
Caloptila alchimiella/robustella
Capua vulgana
Celypha lacunana
Celypha striana
Cnephasia communana
Cochylis nana
Coleophora albicosta
Coleophora sp White
Cydia fagiglandana
Ectoedemia minimella/occultella
Elachista argentella
Epiblema costipunctana
Epinotia demarniana
Epinotia immundana
Epinotia rubiginosana
Epinotia subocellana
Epinotia tenerana
Epinotia tetraquetrana
Epiphyas postvittana
Esperia sulphurella
Eulia ministrana
Evergestis forficalis
Glyphipterix forsterella
Grapholita compositella
Grapholita funebrana
Incurvaria masculella
Lobesia reliquana
Mompha subbistrigella
Monopis weaverella 
Morophaga choragella
Nematopogon swammerdamella
Notocelia cynosbatella
Pammene argyrana
Pammene ignorata
Parornix sp
Phyllonorycter harrisella 
Phyllonorycter tenerella
Phylloporia bistrigella
Plutella xylostella
Pseudargyrotoza conwagana
Ptycholoma lecheana
Rhyacionia pinivorana
Roeslerstammia erxlebella
Strophedra weirana
Swammerdamia caesiella 
Syndemis musculana
Teleiodes luculella
Tinea trinotella
Tischeria eklebladella 

Setting up

125w MV Robinson Trap

Aethes semeathmanniana
Bordered White

Cnephasia communana
Ectoedemia minimella occultella
Epinotia demarniana
Epinotia subocellana
Ochreous Pug
Pammene ignorata
Sallow Kitten
White-point