Garden Catch 19/06/18 - Let it shine when it's warm & fine!

Easily the best catch of the year so far happened on Tuesday 16th of June, after a lovely warm day and with dominant cloud cover towards the evening, it looked just perfect.

I decided to therefore use the higher wattage and uv output 250w cleear bulb.

By the morning the trap was heaving by my garden standards. 17 new species of for the year was impeccable to say the least!

Garden species count for 2018 now upto 241.

Here are the new for year species.

Catch Report - 19/06/18 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 250w Clear MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Beautiful Golden-Y
Common Emerald 2
Dingy Shears
Dwarf Cream Wave
Fan-foot 2
Small Emerald

Micro Moths

Anania coronata 2
Bryotropha affinis
Crassa unitella
Ditula angustiorana 2
Grapholita janthinana
Lozotaenia forsterana
Pammene regiana
Phycita roborella
Scoparia pyralella
Scythropia crataegella
Spilonota ocellana

Anania coronata

Beautiful Golden-Y

Common Emerald

Ditula angostiorana

Lozotaenia forsterana

Pammene fasciana

Phycita roborella

Scoparia pyralella

Scythropia crataegella

Small Emerald

Spilonota ocellana

Garden Catch 16/06/18 - Beauty & the Buff

Another night and another good catch of moths with more than enough to be pleased with.

Night time temperatures were still holding up incredibly well and mid to high teens most nights. 

Best moth of the night was a single Anania perlucidalis, which was only added to my garden list just last year and funnily enough on the exact same date as this year's moth!

Garden species count for 2018 now upto 224.

Here are the new for year species.

Catch Report - 16/06/18 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Beautiful Hook-tip
Buff Arches

Micro Moths

Anania perlucidalis
Archips xylosteana
Cnephasia sp
Endothenia gentianaeana/marginana
Hedya nubiferana

Anania perlucidalis

Archips xylosteana

Buff Arches

Cnephasia sp

Endothenia sp

Hedya nubiferana

A blinder of a night with the bright 250

And yes, it's bright... in fact it makes the standard 125 MV look like a candle light in comparison.

A cracking catch on a really warm night with temps no lower than 17 degrees at 4am.

I decided to run the 250w Clear bulb again, and o my it was worth it with some quality moths found come the morning.

Garden species count for 2018 now upto 217, with two Coleophora pending and to add.

Here are the new for year species.

Catch Report - 15/06/18 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Barred Straw
Barred Yellow
Clouded Brindle
Large Twin-spot Carpet
Shaded Pug
Small Clouded Brindle

Micro Moths

Coleophora sp 2 (To be be gen det)
Nemophora degeerella
Udea prunalis

Barred Straw

Barred Yellow

Clouded Brindle

Coleophora sp

Large Twin-spot Carpet

Shaded Pug

Small Clouded Brindle

Coleophora sp 2

Garden Catch 14/06/18 - Regular common moths

Still so far behind it's silly, but at least i'll still have things to write about come the Autumn!

Another good night's catch on Thursday the 14th of June as the warm spell continued.

Garden species count for 2018 now upto 209.

Here are the new for year species.

Catch Report - 14/06/18 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Common Footma
Flame

Micro Moths

Aleimma loeflingiana 2
Eudonia mercurella
Hypsopygia costalis

Aleimma loeflingiana

Eudonia mercurella

Flame

Field Trip - 13/06/18 - Ashwell Quarry

My second field trip of the year as to the far North-west of the County of Hertfordshire to Ashwell Quarry.
I'm quite fond of this small disused chalk quarry and grassland, and i've had some fantastic species of the last few years that I have been recording here.
This night back in mid-june was no different.

In total over 4 lights (Sorry Mercury Blended trap, but I couldn't find your bulb...which I have now found luckily) I recorded 95 species of which only 36 were Macro Moths, leaving the Micro Moths to bolster the list by 59 species!

The day had been warm at 25 degrees and the temperature was holding up nicely at dusk. Unfortunately the wind increased and with clear skies I was cursing the conditions from the offset (Particularly as it had been cloudy, still and muggy all day), there was now a distinct coolness in the breeze but I was determined to see what would turn up.

It turned out to be worth it with one new moth for my records. There were at least 5 examplrs of Sloe Pug! Hardly surprising given the fact that the reserve is bordered by umpteen Prunus bushes, but the fact that I had never seen them before at this time of the year was a nice surprise in itself.

Also Netted Pug made it's annual appearance, not a particularly fresh example mind.

Both common species of Metzeneria turned up giving a nice comparison between the two species.

Other than that, Tawny Shears was most welcome and another two good micros for the night were the distinctive Luquetia lobella and Telechrysis tripuncta, the latter quite scarce in the County.

Below is the full list.

36 Macro and 59 Micro species recorded

Catch Report - 13/06/18 - Ashwell Quarry  - 1x 250w Frosted MV Robinson Trap, 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x twin 20w Wemite Actinic + 1x 40w Actinic & 15w LED corn light

Macro Moths

Bright-line Brown-eye
Brown Rustic
Cinnabar
Clouded Brindle
Common  Wainscot
Dagger sp
Dark Spectacle
Elephant Hawk-moth
Eyed Hawk-moth
Fern
Freyer's Pug
Garden Carpet
Green Silver-lines
Haworth's Pug
Large Nutmeg
Large Yellow Underwing
Light Arches
Middle-barred Minor
Mottled Beauty
Mottled Rustic
Netted Pug
Pale Prominent
Pale Tussock
Peppered Moth
Poplar Grey
Purple Bar
Riband Wave
Royal Mantle
Sandy Carpet
Scorched Wing
Silver Y
Sloe Pug [NEW!]
Tawny Shears
Treble Lines
Wood Carpet
Yellow Shell

Micro Moths

Agapeta hamana
Agapeta zoegana
Agonopterix arenella
Anania hortulata
Anania perlucidalis
Ancylis achatana
Anthophila fabriciana
Aphomia sociella
Argyresthia pruniella
Blastobasis lacticolella
Borkhausenia fuscescens
Bryotropha terrella
Celypha lacunana
Chrysoteuchia culmella
Clepsis consimiliana
Cnephasia sp
Cochylimorpha straminea
Cochylis atricapitana
Crambus lathoniellus
Crambus pascuella
Crambus perlella
Crassa unitella
Elachista apicipunctella
Elachista atricomella
Endrosis sarcitrella
Ephestia sp
Epinotia signatana
Epiphyas postvittana
Eucosma cana
Eucosma hohenwartiana
Eudonia pallida
Eupoecilia angustana
Hedya nubiferana
Hedya pruniana
Hypsopygia costalis
Luquetia lobella
Metzneria lappella
Metzneria metzneriella
Monopis crocicapitella
Monopis laevigella
Monopis obviella
Nemapogon cloacella
Notocelia cynosbatella
Notocelia trimaculana
Notocelia uddmanniana
Pandemis cerasana
Paraswammerdamia nebulella
Phtheochroa rugosana
Phtheochroa sodaliana
Plutella xylostella
Prays fraxinella
Scoparia ambigualis
Scoparia basistrigalis
Scrobipalpa costella
Stenoptilia pterodactyla
Telechrysis tripuncta
Teleiodes vulgella
Tinea semifulvella
Udea olivalis

Monopis crocicapitella

Dark Spectacle

Netted Pug

Sloe Pug

Tawny Shears

Metzneria lappella

Metzneria metzneriella

Telechrysis tripuncta

Monopis obviella

Luquetia lobella

Aleimma loeflingiana

125w MV Robinson Trap over-looking the chalk grassland

Green & Grey Pugs amongst  others

A small gathering

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