The garden keeps on surprising me

Last Friday I ran the trap again after doing very well on Wednesday night. 

The day had been warm and muggy and very little change as we continue to experience settled warm weather touching the low 30's. 

Well upon looking out of the window at 5am on Saturday morning, things looked rather promising indeed.

There were moths absolutely everywhere! And I recorded the most moths that i've recorded so far this year with 91 species in total.

Only my second garden record of Prays fraxinella (last seen in 2013!) despite a small Ash tree in the garden and some mature specimens in the surrounding area....mothing again never fails to surprise me.

Red-necked Footman is now an annual moth for me which is pleasing.

Marbled White Spot was a new moth for my garden, a relatively common moth in Hertfordshire but i've struggled to add it to the garden list taking 5 whole years!

The 2nd new for the garden moth was a micro, Anania perlucidalis...a moth that I use to record regularly in damp habitats typically.

A beautiful Pammene aurana was only my second garden record with my last one being in 2013. 

And finally a Leopard Moth returned again after a 4 year gap.

Catch Report - 16/06/17 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

 

Macro Moths

1x Marbled White Spot [NFG]

1x July Highflyer [NFY] 

1x Lackey [NFY]

1x Leopard Moth [NFY]

1x Light Arches [NFY]

1x Poplar Grey [NFY]

1x Red-necked Footman [NFY]

1x Scorched Carpet [NFY]

3x Barred Yellow

1x Bright-line Brown-eye

1x Brimstone Moth

1x Buff Arches 

2x Buff-tip 

1x Clouded Brindle 

1x Common Footman 

1x Common Marbled Carpet

1x Common Pug

2x Common Wainscot

1x Common White Wave 

2x Dark Arches

1x Dot Moth 

1x Double-striped Pug

2x Double Square-spot 

3x Dwarf Cream Wave

1x Elephant Hawk-moth 

2x Fan-foot

1x Flame Shoulder 

1x Green Pug

1x Grey Dagger

1x Green Silver-lines 

1x Heart & Club

20x Heart & Dart

2x Ingrailed Clay

1x Large Yellow Underwing

4x Marbled Minor

2x Mottled Rustic

1x Privet Hawk-moth 

1x Riband Wave

1x Setaceous Hebrew Character

1x Shuttle-shaped Dart

1x Small Square-spot 

1x Snout

2x Straw Dot

1x Swallow-tailed Moth 

3x Treble Brown Spot

1x Uncertain 

1x V-Pug

6x Willow Beauty

 

Micro Moths

1x Anania perlucidalis [NFG]

1x Archips xylosteana [NFY]

1x Blastodacna hellerella [NFY] 

1x Emmetia marginea [NFY] 

1x Eudonia mercurella [NFY]

1x Gypsonoma dealbana [NFY] 

1x Homoeosoma sinuella [NFY]

1x Pammene aurana [NFY]

1x Paraswammerdamia albicapitella  [NFY]

1x Prays fraxinella [NFY]

1x Pterophorus pentadactyla [NFY]

1x Scythropia crataegella [NFY]

1x Spilonota ocellana [NFY]

1x Teleiodes vulgella [NFY] 

1x Acleris schalleriana

1x Aphomia sociella 

4x Aleimma loeflingiana

1x Amblyptilia acanthdactyla

1x Anania hortulata

1x Argyresthia curvella 

1x Argyresthia spinosella 

2x Blastobasis laticolella

1x Caloptilia alchimiella/robustella 

1x Celypha lacunana

1x Celypha striana

1x Chrysoteuchia culmella 

1x Clepsis consimilana

1x Crassa unitella

2x Ditula angustiorana

1x Enarmonia formosana

3x Ephestia sp

2x Epiphyas postvittana

1x Epinotia bilunana

2x Eudonia lacustrata

1x Hedya nubiferana 

2x Mompha subbistrigella

1x Pammene regiana 

13x Scoparia ambigualis

5x Teleiodes luculella

5x Tortrix viridana

4x Udea olivalis

Anania perlucidalis

Crassa unitella

Homoeosoma sinuella

Lackey

Leopard Moth

Red-necked Footman

Scythropia crataegella

 Spilonota ocellana

Pretty mental

Things just keep getting better and better and the species are really racking up in my garden with this continued heatwave in fact it's been pretty nice for a week now with highs last Wednesday of 25 degrees and a minimum temperature of 15c under clear skies brought the moths out.

19 species were new for the year, a further two were new for the garden and another 2 were (possibly) completely new for me! Breathtaking indeed. 

Two of the species still need genitalia examination for confirmation.

I'll let the list and the photos do the talking.

Catch Report - 14/06/17 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

1x Common Footman [NFY]

1x Barred Yellow [NFY]

1x Blotched Emerald [NFY]

1x Buff Arches [NFY]

1x Burnished Brass [NFY]

1x Dot Moth [NFY]

1x Double Square-spot [NFY]

2x Dwarf Cream Wave [NFY]

1x Flame [NFY]

1x Treble Brown Spot [NFY]

1x Fern [NFY]

1x Brimstone Moth

2x Brown Rustic

1x Clouded Border

1x Clouded Silver

1x Common Marbled Carpet

1x Common Pug

2x Common Wainscot

1x Dark Arches

1x Double-striped Pug

1x Fan-foot

1x Garden Carpet

1x Grey Pug

1x Heart & Club

8x Heart & Dart

1x Ingrailed Clay

1x Large Nutmeg

2x Large Yellow Underwing

2x Light Emerald

1x Maiden's Blush

2x Marbled Minor

1x Middle-barred Minor

1x Mottled Pug

1x Mottled Rustic

1x Orange Footman

2x Riband Wave

1x Setaceous Hebrew Character

1x Shuttle-shaped Dart

1x Tawny Marbled Minor

2x Treble Brown Spot

5x Willow Beauty

1x Uncertain

Micro Moths

1x Caloptilia falconipennella? [NEW!]

2x Sorhagenia sp (pending) [NEW!]

1x Argyresthia curvella [NFG]

1x Ptycholoma lecheana [NFG]

1x Archips podana [NFY]

1x Argyresthia cupressella [NFY]

1x Cnephasia sp [NFY]

1x Crambus pascuella [NFY] 

1x Crassa unitella [NFY]

1x Ditula angustiorana [NFY]

1x Hedya nubiferana [NFY] 

1x Notocelia trimaculana [NFY]

2x Aleimma loeflingiana

1x Amblyptilia acanthdactyla

2x Anania hortulata

1x Blastobasis laticolella

1x Celypha lacunana

1x Clepsis consimilana 

2x Ephestia sp 

1x Epiphyas postvittana

2x Eudonia lacustrata 

2x Mompha subbistrigella 

1x Notocelia trimaculana

2x Pandemis cerasana

2x Scoparia ambigualis

1x Teleiodes luculella

2x Tortrix viridana

2x Udea olivalis

Barred Yellow

Blotched Emerald

Argyresthia curvella

Ditula angustiorana

Ptycholoma lecheana

Sorhagenia sp?

 

Sorhagenia sp?

Caloptilia falconipennella?

Field Trip - Roughdown Common - 13/06/17

I had an eventful trip to Roughdown Common whereby we planned to run as many traps as possible, conditions were absolutely perfect, warm and humid with some cloud cover.

We started the evening setting the first trap up in the field where there were three Cattle, Belted Galloways to be precise.

They greeted us and then seemed to leave us alone for a bit after cleaning the cars with their tongues and having a good old itch on Steve's rear bumper.

We left the field to set up a few more traps and then returned back to the car for more equipment, to our agony the trap had been thoroughly inspected by the cattle and there was slobber all over the trap and they did a mighty fine job of smashing the bulb but it could have been A LOT worse as the fragile plastic collar (the second most important part of the trap after the bulb) was still intact! How on earth it escaped being trodden on I do not know.

Luckily Ian said he would nip back home and grab his spare bulb and we moved the trap through the gate and shut the gate....but they had done their 'investigating' and moved off for the rest of the night down the bottom of the field.

After setting all the traps were set up, the battery operated one was low on juice..another minor set-back as we would only get possibly 2 hours life out of the tracer lithium ion battery.

Things come in three's and of course nothing could be worse than a generator stopping, yep that's what happened...trying to get it started again flooded the spark plug and luckily I could use the spare that I had brought with me.

Onto the moths and boy were we in for a night! The species just kept coming and coming and at one stage I couldn't keep typing the list. 

There are a few to check but best species so far were singles of Obscure Wainscot, Anania perlucidalis, Anarsia innoxiella and two good plume species (one to be checked) Merrifieldia leucodactyla/baliodactylus and Gillmeria pallidactyla.

Thanks to Roger, Steve and Ian for helping out until the small hours, another successful trip with at least 160 species seen! 

Catch Report - 13/06/17 - Roughdown Common - West Herts - 7 traps in total - 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap 1x 40w Actinic + 15w LED Trap 1x 80w Actinic Trap 2x 20w Wemlite Actinic Trap 1x 15w Actinic Portable Heath Trap
 

85 Macros & 75 Micros

160 species

Numbers approximate

Macro Moths

Alder Moth 2

Beautiful Hook-tip 6

Blue bordered Carpet 1

Brimstone 4

Broken-barred Carpet 2

Brown Rustic 5

Brown Scallop 2

Buff Ermine 1

Buff-tip 1

Cinnabar 1

Clay 1

Clouded Border 4

Clouded Brindle 1

Clouded Silver 8

Common Carpet 2

Common Marbled Carpet 4

Common Pug 1

Common Swift 3

Common White Wave 2

Coronet 12

Dark Arches 4

Double Square-spot 2

Double-striped Pug 1

Elephant Hawk-moth 2

Fern 3

Figure of Eighty 2

Flame 3

Flame Shoulder 2

Freyer's Pug 1

Garden Carpet 1

Ghost Moth 1

Green Carpet 5

Green Pug 5

Green Silver-lines 1

Grey Pug 5

Haworth's Pug 1

Heart & Club 1

Heart & Dart 10+

Ingrailed Clay 10

July Highflyer 1

Knot Grass 1

Large Nutmeg 4

Large Yellow Underwing 2

Lesser Yellow Underwing 1

Light Arches 1

Light Emerald 5

Lime-speck Pug 2

Maiden's Blush 1

Maple Prominent 2

Marbled White-spot 3

Middle-barred Minor 3

Miller 1

Mottled Beauty 5

Mottled Pug 1

Mottled Rustic 5

Obscure Wainscot 1

Orange Footman 1

Pale Prominent 1

Peppered Moth 2

Poplar Grey 1

Privet Hawk-moth 1

Purple Bar 2

Riband Wave 2

Rustic Shoulder-knot 2

Scorched Wing 2

Setaceous Hebrew Character 2

Shoulder-striped Wainscot 1

Shuttle-shaped Dart 2

Silver-ground Carpet 2

Small Angle Shades 1

Small Dusty Wave 1

Small Elephant Hawk-moth 1

Small Fan-foot 2

small Square-spot 1

Small Yellow Wave 1

Snout 2

Straw Dot 10

Swallow Prominent 1

Sycamore 2

Tawny Marbled Minor 2

Treble Lines 3

Turnip Moth 1

Uncertain 3

White Pinion-spotted 1

Wormwood Pug 1

Micro Moths

Agapeta hamana 4
Agapeta zoegana 10
Agonopterix arenella 2
Agonopterix purpurea 1
Aleimma loeflingiana 10
Anania hortulata 3
Anania perlucidalis 1
Anarsia innoxiella 1
Anthophila fabriciana 1
Aphomia sociella 1
Archips podana 2
Archips xylosteana 3
Argyresthia conjugella 2
Argyresthia curvella 2
Blastobasis lacticolella 3
Blastodacna hellerella 1
Bryotropha terrella 5
Caloptilia populetorum 1
Caloptilia robustella alchimiella 2
Caloptilia syringella 1
Celypha lacunana 15
Celypha striana 5
Chrysoteuchia culmella 5
Clepsis consimilana 5
Cnephasia sp 10
Cochylimorpha straminea 5
Cochylis dubitana 2
Cochylis molliculana 1
Crambus lathoniellus 5
Cydia fagiglandana 2
Dichrorampha sp 4
Ditula angustiorana 2
Emmetia marginea 1
Endothenia gentianaeana marginea 2
Epinotia bilunana 2
Epiphyas postvittana 1
Eucosma cana 10
Eudonia lacustrata 5
Eudonia pallida 3
Eulamprotes unicolorella 5
Eupoecilia angustana 15
Gillmeria pallidactyla 1
Grapholita funebrana 1
Gypsonoma sociana 1
Hedya nubiferana 5
Hedya pruniana 5
Homoeosoma sinuella 2
Merrifieldia leucodactyla or baliodactylus 1
Metzneria metzneriella 10+
Mompha ochraceella 1
Mompha subbistrigella 3
Nemophora degeerella 1
Nephopterix angustana 2
Notocelia trimaculana 15+
Notocelia uddmanniana 2
Pammene albuginana 1
Pandemis cerasana 10+
Pandemis cinnamomeana 1
Pandemis heparana 5
Paraswammerdamia albicapitella 1
Parornix sp 1
Phycita roborella 1
Prays fraxinella 2
Pseudargyrotoza conwagana 10+
Pseudoswammerdamia combinella 1
Scoparia ambigualis 5
Scoparia pyralella 10+
Scythropia crataegella 1
Stigmella sp 1
Strophedra weirana 1
Teleiodes luculella 5
Thiotricha subocellea 3
Tinea semifulvella 1
Tortrix viridana 10+
Udea olivalis 3

We may have a problem...

Yep...

Anania perlucidalis

Anarsia innoxiella

Cochylis molliculana

Pammene albuginana

Obscure Wainscot

Merrifieldia leucodactyla or baliodactylus

Gillmeria pallidactyla