Garden Catch 11/06/18 - Things really pick up!

A great selection of species awaited me on the morning of the 12th of June with over 60 species noted including 9 new for year species.

Blotched Emerald added a splash of green. Not a common moth here but usually seen as singletons annually here.
Argyresthia cupressella was the pick of the catch on the micro end of things.

Garden species count for 2018 now upto 204.

Here are the new for year species.

Catch Report - 11/06/18 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Blotched Emerald
Heart & Club
Straw Dot
Uncertain

Micro Moths

Archips podana
Argyresthia cupressella
Bryotropha terrella
Lyonetia clerkella
Notocelia uddmanniana

Archips podana

Argyresthia cupressella

Blotched Emerald

Bryotropha terrella

Heart & Club

Lyonetia clerkella

Notocelia uddmanniana

Garden Catch 10/06/18 - A new micro moth for the garden

A bit more to report from Sunday the 10th of June, with a further 8 confirmed year-listers added.

Both forms of Riband Wave present, and a second garden record of the ever-increasing Endothenia nigricostana was nice.
The best moth was a Pseudatemelia species that will need dissecting and could be one of two species - NEW FOR GARDEN.

There are a few to check and dissect including a Colephora, Parornix, Pseudatemelia and Bucculatrix species.

Garden species count for 2018 now upto 195.

Here are the new for year species.

Catch Report - 10/06/18 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Riband Wave 3

Micro Moths

Argyresthia spinosella
Bucculatrix sp (To check)
Coleophora sp (To check)
Cydia nigricana
Endothenia nigricostana
Epinotia abbreviana
Pandemis cerasana
Parornix sp (To check)
Pseudatemelia sp [NFG]

Riband Wave

Epinotia abbreviana

Pandemis cerasana

Endothenia nigricostana

Cydia nigricana

Pseudatemelia sp

Coleophora sp

Argyresthia spinosella

Riband Wave

Garden Catch 08/06/18 - Micro mayhem!

A much better catch on Friday the 8th of June, with a relatively warm night but still predominantly clear, with light winds and no moon it didn't matter.

Highlights were only the 2nd garden record of Dwarf Pug (Last seen 28/05/13), and amazingly only my 4th garden record of Notocelia trimaculana, a common moth on my local field trips, all of the other 3 records being from 2013!
Another species that I commonly encounter is Cochylimorpha straminea, and this example is only my 4th gardern record (others seen in 2013 and 2017).

Even better was a garden first Monopis obviella, the seciond new micro moth for the year so far making it the 288th micro moth recorded since 2013. 


All in all, 8 species new for the year was very pleasing indeed.

Garden species count for 2018 now upto 188.

Here are the new for year species.

Catch Report - 08/06/18 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Dwarf Pug

Micro Moths

Chrysoteuchia culmella
Clepsis consimilana
Cochylimorpha straminea
Homoeosoma sinuella
Monopis obviella
Notocelia trimaculana
Teleiodes vulgella

Chrysoteuchia culmella

Cochylimorpha straminea

Homoeosoma sinuella

Monopis obviella

Teleiodes vulgella

Clepsis consimilana

Notocelia trimaculana

Garden Catch 07/06/18 - It's all adding up!

Every time I trap it's great to add new species to the year list, and on the 07th of June, this was no exception with 4 species added and bringing the running total to bang on 180 species.

Nothing to be excited about but nice to get some photos of some fresh looking moths.

The weather continues to be very settled and as I tyoe this (a month later) we are still experiencing this prolonged heatwave that has been with us for over 3 weeks now.

Garden species count for 2018 now upto 180.

Here are the new for year species.

Catch Report - 07/06/18 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Buff Ermine
Fern
Foxglove Pug

Micro Moths

Udea olivalis

Buff Ermine

Foxglove Pug

Garden Catch 04/06/18 - A white theme...

Still very much in the distance with my updates so I have to be brief!

4 new macro moths were added on the 4th, the best being only my second garden record of the Miller, a species I encounter more frequently in damper habitats.

Garden species count for 2018 now upto 176.

Here are the new for year species.

Catch Report - 04/06/18 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Common White Wave
Freyer's Pug
Miller
Small White Wave

Common White Wave

Small White Wave

Miller

Freyer's Pug

Another 6 year-listers....weather set to stay fine.

Another good catch on the 3rd of June with yet more year listers added to the tally.
As usual, I swapped over to the big 250w clear as it was mild and cloudy and I usually save the lower wattage bulb for less productive nights.

Buff-tip is always a treat to see, I always forget how big they are.

Silver-ground Carpet is a good moth for here unbelievably and although annual, is never common.

Garden species count for 2018 now upto 172.

Here are the new for year species.

Catch Report - 03/06/18 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 250w Clear MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Buff-tip
Green Pug
Mottled Rustic
Silver-ground Carpet

Micro Moths

Eudonia lacustrata
Lyonetia clerkella

Buff-tip

Eudonia lacustrata

Green Pug

Garden catch from the 2nd of June

Another 6 new for year species greeted me on Sunday morning after a slightly cooler evening and reduced numbers.
Nothing to set the pulse racing but Epinotia bilunana isn't annual here so that was the pick of the bunch and a splash of colour from a year first Cinnabar.

Garden species count for 2018 now upto 166.

Here are the new for year species.

Catch Report - 02/06/18 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Cinnabar
Grey Pug
Small Dusty Wave

Micro Moths

Caloptilia alchimiella/robustella
Epinotia bilunana
Scoparia ambigualis

Caloptilia alchimiella/robustella

Cinnabar

Epinotia bilunana

Grey Pug

Small Dusty Wave

Into June in the garden with a shock!

Things still ticking along nicely here in my back garden here in Stevenage.

Lovely warm weather of late, but nights are still sometimes a little on the breezy and cool side particularly after the recent storms.
8 new for year species were recorded, best of all a pristine Small Elephant Hawk-moth, not a common  species here, this being the 3rd in 6 years.

A little later on I was photographing the moths from the previous night when a wing caught my attention, it was not only any other moth wing, it was distinctive and I instantly recognised it as a Dewick's Plusia forewing, albeit missing the other 3 wings, body, head and antennae...drat.
Mixed emotions ensued, bitter happiness kind of described my feeling at the time.

It of course is a garden first and a good record for the County of this migrant species and certainly the most northerely recorded in the county of Herts. 

The trap continues to be run on most nights.


Garden species count for 2018 now upto 160.

Here are the new for year species.

Catch Report - 01/06/18 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Dewick's Plusia [NFG]
Common Carpet
Middle-barred Minor
Small Elephant Hawk-moth
Snout
Treble Brown Spot
Willow Beauty

Micro Moths

Ephestia sp
Emmetia marginea

Dewick's Plusia

Ephestia sp

Small Elephant Hawk-moth

Treble Brown Spot

Catch report - 31/05/18 - Back Garden - Stevenage

I'm still in May with my reports and the backlog is getting a bit much, but I will soldier on regardless.

On Thursday the 31st I recorded lots of moths for my humble garden here in Stevenage.

Moths were literally everywhere on Thursday the 31st of May and what a night to finish May with.

The night was warm and humid and the threat of thunderstorms was ever increasing but it never materialised and the night stayed dry with a minimum of 15 degrees and perfect for moths.

There were over 150 moths of about 40 species in total.

New for my garden records was Lathronympha strigana, Micro number 312, no photo as I let it go thinking i'd already recorded it here!

Garden species count for 2018 now upto 151.

Here are the new for year species.

Catch Report - 31/05/18 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Brown Rustic
Clouded Border
Common Wainscot
Currant Pug
Elephant Hawk-moth
Marbled Minor sp
Oak Hook-tip

Micro Moths

Lathronympha strigana [NFG]
Acentria ephemerella
Anania hortulata
Cydia pomonella
Eulia ministrana
Tachystola acroxantha
Teleiodes luculella
Tortrix viridana 2

Brown Rustic

Common Wainscot

Currant Pug

Oak Hook-tip

Marbled Minor sp

Teleiodes luculella

Tortrix viridana

 

Some daytime finds from 04/06/18 and 08/06/18

A couple of hours wander around some verge grassland with mixed trees and shrubs and a plethora of wildflowers including Ox-eye Daisies yielded some great moths for me.

On both days it was very warm and humid, and the sunnier day on the 4th yielded better results but I found the sunshine made the moths incredibly hard to pot up from the net, usually going skywards instantly and beyong my control.

The little grass patch of approximately 1 acre was extremely abundant in life of all kinds, and I noted many species which unfortunately i've mislaid the piece of paper that I wrote them down on!

Nevertheless, I potted many specimens of Dichrorampha for dissection. Many will probably be new to me.
So far i've got 5 new species for my UK moth records.

They are

Commophila aeneana
Dichrorampha sequana
Elachista triatomea
Endothenia oblongana
Grapholita tenebrosana

Pretty good going for 3hrs of sweeping and netting moths disturbed from Apple, Cherry, Dog-rose, Oak, Bramble and Blackthorn to name but a few native species of trees and bushes present on the site.

Other species of note and ones I took photographs of include..

6x Dichrorampha sp (for dissection)
Aproaerema anthyllidella
Cauchas fibulella
Cnephasia sp (for dissection)
Cydia nigricana (lots)
2x Dichrorampha alpinana flavidorsana (for dissection)
Dichrorampha petiverella
Dichrorampha plumbagana
Epiblema cirsiana/stictiana/scutulana (for dissection)
Eucosma hohenwartiana
Grapholita compositella

Here are some photos, first of the habitat and then the moths

Elachista triatomea

Habitat

Footpath away from the field

Mother Shipton

Aproaerema anthyllidella

Cauchas fibulella

Cnephasia sp

Commophila aeneana

Cydia nigricana

Dichrorampha alpinana flavidorsana

Dichrorampha petiverella

Dichrorampha sp

Dichrorampha sp

Dichrorampha sp

Dichrorampha sequana

Dichrorampha plumbagana

Dichrorampha sp

Endothenia oblongana

Epiblema cirsiana stictiana scutulana

Eucosma hohenwartiana

Grapholita compositella

Grapholita tenebrosana