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

Field Trip - Home Wood - 30/05/18

My first field trip of the year and I joined up with Matt from Upper Caldecote to hit up Home Wood with a collection of traps and a sheet.
Unfortunately the evening started a bit confusingly, where I jokingly sent a photo of myself holding my son saying  'That it looks like i'm staying in tonight' (As a joke)... Matt picked the message up and immediately responded saying can I still make it. I didn't see this reply until 30 minutes later and in that time Matt had rang his Dad and had turned around from the site and had gone home.
To say I felt bad for pulling a prank was an understatement.
Lionel wished me goo luck on the phone and said 'I hope you trip over the gate on the way in' ...I guess I deserved that comment :D

Anyhow, drama over and next time I won't make a silly joke :/

We set up just in time for night fall with 4 traps and a sheet. The weather was pretty perfect, no wind and although the day really struggled to get warm and by lungtime it was still only 14 degrees, by 7pm it was pushing 18 with a few breaks in the cloud allowing the sun to warm things up but not losing much cloud at all things were really looking up for us.

Indeed it was pretty damn good considering this was earlier in the year than we normally blitz this woodland.

The list is below with several species still pending. 

There are several new species I believe for the County of Bedfordshire

New species for me were Ancylis diminutana and Cydia illutana (So far).

41 Macro and 55 Micro species so far

Catch Report - 30/05/18 - Home Wood - Nr Upper Caldecote - 1x 250w Frosted MV Robinson Trap, 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x twin 20w Wemite Actinic + 1x 40w Actinic & 15w LED corn light and 1x 80w MV on tripod with sheet

Macro Moths

Angle Shades
Beautiful hook-tip
Bordered white
Brimstone Moth
Brindled White-spot
Brown Rustic
Clouded Silver
Common Carpet
Common Marbled Carpet
Common Pug
Common Swift
Common White Wave
Coronet
Coxcomb Prominent
Cream Wave
Dingy Shell
Dwarf Pug
Figure of Eighty
Flame Carpet
Flame Shoulder
Garden Carpet
Gold Swift
Green Carpet
Green Pug
Green Silver lines
Grey-pine Carpet
Ingrailed Clay
Iron Prominent
Light Emerald
Lime Hawk-moth
Lobster Moth
Maiden's Blush
Marbled Brown
Marbled Minor sp
Marbled White-spot
Middle-barred Minor
Mottled Pug
Ochreous Pug
Orange Footman
Pale Oak Beauty
Pale Prominent
Pale Tussock
Peppered Moth
Poplar Grey
Poplar Lutestring
Puss Moth
Red Twin-spot Carpet
Rustic Shoulder-knot
Scorched Carpet
Scorched Wing
Seraphim
Setaceous Hebrew character
Silver-Y
Silver-ground Carpet
Snout
Spectacle
Spruce Carpet
Straw Dot
Treble Lines
White Ermine

Micro Moths

Acentria ephemerella
Adela reamurella
Ancylis diminutana
Ancylis mitterbacheriana
Aphomia sociella
Argyresthia laevigatella/glabratella
Argyresthia pruniella
Argyresthia spinosella
Caloptilia alchimiella/robustella
Capua vulgana
Celypha lacunana
Cochylis atricapitana
Coleophora caespititiella (Gen Det)
Coleophora laricella (Gen Det)
Crambus lathoniellus
Cryptoblabes bistriga
Cydia illutana
Epinotia tedella
Elachista sp
Hedya pruniana
Incurvaria oehlmanniella
Lathronympha strigana
Monopis laevigella
Nemapogon cloacella
Nematopogon metaxella
Nemophora degeerella
Notocelia cynosbatella
Notocelia trimaculana
Pammene prob ignorata
Parapoynx stratiotata
Parornix sp
Plutella xylostella
Prays fraxinella
Pseudargyrotoza conwagana
Pseudoswammerdamia combinella
Ptycholoma lecheana
Rhyacionia pinivorana
Scoparia ambigualis
Scoparia basistrigalis
Scrobipalpa costella
Syndemis musculana
Teleiodes luculella
Tinea semifulvella
Tortrix viridana
Udea olivalis

Ancylis diminutana - New to Beds

Argyresthia laevigatella/glabratella

Cydia illutana - New to Beds

Cydia sp

Dingy Shell

Elachista sp

Marbled Brown

Pammene prob ignorata

Parornix sp